This Ip Man: Kung Fu Legend movie review has some minor spoilers

The action sequences in martial arts films often work as a great emotional release for the characters and the audience, bringing some much needed ecstasy after a period of intense drama. There are few greater pleasures in cinema than the visual of multiple characters taking on each other with their bare hands, and when there is great craft and strong character drama to complement it, we get cinematic gems, such as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Hero, to name two. Even the early Ip Man films starring Donnie Yen are solid entertainers, offering a delightful blend of spectacle and emotionally resonant drama. Ip Man: Kung Fu Legend tries to recreate the same formula with familiar themes, but the film fails to marry its pulsating punches with poignant drama.

Director: Li Liming

Cast: Dennis To, Wang Wanzhong, Zhang Tingfei

Streamer: Lionsgate Play

Director Li Liming’s film has a story that is as straightforward as it can get. When Pike (Steven Dasz), the head of a Western boxing gym, threatens to take over a piece of property in Hong Kong that belongs to a local martial arts community, Ip Man (Dennis To) must step in to protect his people and preserve their culture and heritage. At the same time, Ip Man wants to start his own martial arts school, with an eye on preserving the cornerstone of his culture: martial arts. The task is not easy for Ip Man as some members of his own community work with the foreigners to take everything down. Can he succeed in his mission? Watch the film to find out whether he can do so.

Ip Man: Kung Fu Legend is set in Hong Kong the 1950s, the period of British rule and of great poverty and distress for the Chinese. This makes it ripe for tackling themes of poverty, oppression, justice, corruption, social inequality, and so forth. The film keeps revealing that the martial arts building that the community tries desperately to keep from the powers that be, is not really providing for its own members, including the dock workers. These are interesting ideas for sure, but the film’s crisp runtime and the slick storytelling do not do enough to bring any emotional resonance. It never tries to subvert the familiar tropes and falls for the conventions, as evident with the element of a local man going against his own kin and kith, only to have a change of heart in the latter half. This redemption angle can be seen coming from a mile away, especially for seasoned film viewers.

When the film sets itself up as a clash of cultures so early on, we realise that Ip Man will eventually have his big duel with Pike at the end and will come up trumps. Maybe there is no other upshot to expect from the story, but the film could have used some more drama to elevate the altercation and make it more legendary. Here, it looks like some training exercise.

Moreover, the screenplay suggests early on that the antagonist is a powerful man who has some clout with the governor. However, all it takes to bring him down is incriminating evidence stemming from a simple investigation, where everything falls right into the lap of law enforcement. A murder scene makes it crystal clear to the investigating officer that it is a trap for the protagonist. The ensuing investigation happens quietly in the background, even as Ip Man and his band of brothers have a big fight with their nation’s enemies.

The easy resolutions to every conflict in the film explain why it does not quite have an emotional wallop of an impact, while making the supposedly rousing punch dialogues come across as bland monologues. Even the performances fail to infuse some excitement into the proceedings, although the actors portray their roles with a sense of earnestness that makes it hard to dismiss. To give credit where it is due, Dennis To brings much grace and gravitas to his role as a martial arts doyen who becomes the chosen one for his community.

Speaking of martial arts, some of the action in Ip Man: Kung Fu Legend is well-executed indeed. Unfortunately, though, it only serves as mere eye-candy and does not add up to the type of catharsis that audiences have come to expect from such cinema.