Bullet Points: Ip Man 4: The Finale
Donnie Yen had already established himself as one of China’s biggest celebrities prior to 2008’s Ip Man, but after Ip Man Yen’s star would shine even brighter thanks to the indirect Bruce Lee rub.
For those of you who do not know who Ip Man is… Ip Man was an actual Chinese martial artist who was a Wing Chun grandmaster and several of his students would go on to become masters themselves, most notably Bruce Lee. For those of you who do not know who Bruce Lee is… you are probably on the wrong web site.
In this installment of Bullet Points, I’ll be taking a look back at the fourth and final chapter of Donnie Yen’s Ip Man saga, 2019’s Ip Man 4: The Finale…
- Bad News All Around: After the passing of his wife, Ip Man (Donnie Yen) and his son Ching find themselves butting heads more often than not. But trouble at home is soon to be the least of Ip Man’s problems when he is diagnosed with cancer. This dramatic turn of events encourages Ip Man to take up Bruce Lee’s invitation to come and visit him in the United States…
- Coming to America: Ip Man arrives in the United States and gets to watch Bruce (Danny Kwok-Kwan Chan) in action, but Ip Man is not just there to catch up with his prized pupil, he wants to send his son to a private school in the San Francisco area… but the school doesn’t just let anyone in (unless they have $10,000). The only way Ching is going to get in, is if Ip Man can obtain a letter of recommendation from the big man around Chinatown, Master Wan (Yue Wu)… but Master Wan is not as accommodating as Ip Man would have liked. Wan and his fellow masters living in Chinatown have an issue with Ip Man’s #1 student, Bruce Lee.
- Ultimatum: Master Wan will provide Ip Man with the letter of recommendation for his son, but only if Ip Man can convince Bruce to stop teaching non-Chinese students at his school… Ip Man sees no problem with what Bruce is doing and even gave Bruce’s book the thumbs up. This leads to one of the more memorable non-fight scenes in the movie as the tension between the two strong willed masters builds and builds and ends up with a shattered lazy susan.
- Anti-Bullying: Ip Man visits the private school without his letter of recommendation and is politely turned away, but on his way out of the building he sees a young girl named Yonah getting bullied by a girl and her friends. Ip Man steps in and helps Yonah. Afterwards, Ip Man escorts her home to make sure she gets there safely and it is on the way home he finds out that she is Master Wan’s daughter, that adds a new wrinkle to the Ip/Wan dynamic. But Ip Man will soon have his own bully to deal with…
- Karate vs. Kung Fu: Scott Adkins plays Drill Sergeant Barton Geddes… Geddes has a reputation around the base of being racist and he lives up to that reputation on more than one occasion. Having Adkins in the movie was a double edged sword… on the positive side, a Scott Adkins vs. Donnie Yen fight is all but guaranteed. But the character Adkins plays has such a hard on for Kung Fu it is almost too unbelievable. Geddes is all about Karate and is absolutely offended with the idea of ALSO teaching Kung Fu. So again, we are not replacing Karate, but instead adding another tool to the soldier’s belt so to speak. Maybe I am overthinking it, but the Geddes character took me out of the movie a bit, but at least we did get that Adkins/Yen fight!
Ip Man 4 brought closure to an epic saga and ended a major chapter in the acting career of Donnie Yen. It kept with the Ip Man tradition of each movie having a greater theme (in this case racism and discrimination) and getting Donne Yen some “dream opponents” to fight. It was a quality conclusion to a fantastic film franchise.
Now to bring some closure to this review with some Bonus Bullet Points….
- If You Ever: …wanted to see an epic martial arts battle interrupted by a California earthquake, then Ip Man 4 is the movie for you.
- Most Hated: Over the course of the Ip Man movies there have been a lot of nasty individuals, but I would like to nominate Becky as the most diabolical of them all. Becky is the girl who was pissed at Yonah for showing her up at cheerleading practice, then proceeded to get her boyfriend and his friends to chase Yonah down so she could cut all her hair off. During the skirmish, Becky gets a cut on the cheek from the very scissors she was using to hack off Yonah’s hair. Then Becky goes home and tells her mom that Yonah attacked her, her mom freaks out and calls her husband and tells him to come home right now. This would probably be a good time to let you know that Becky’s dad works for the INS.
- Things Not To Do: Bring nunchaku to an alley fight against Bruce Lee.
