Movie Review – Ip Man 2: Chung Si Chuen Kei – Die Sei GWAILOH!
During Ip Man’s arrival in Hong Kong in 1949, he notices that the martial arts schools there operate like triads rather than true martial arts institutions. To set things right, he starts his own school that not only just teaches martial arts but also the right values. However, Wing Chun, as taught by Ip Man, is being viewed as kung fu meant only for girls, while Sammo Hung’s Hung Gar is being seen as a macho form of boxing. This resulted in conflict and rivalry between the two.
The first Ip Man is most definitely one of my favourite martial arts movies from the past decade, I’ve watched it over and over and will continue to do so. It helps I’m a long time student of Wing Chun, on top of that Donnie Yen is the best current martial arts star and well it’s just a really entertaining film.
Other than Iron Man 2 the other movie I was most looking forwards to in 2010 was Ip Man 2 which I also got to catch last weekend.
I have to say it was much better than Iron Man, more involving, better characters, generally move believable and all together more entertaining. I’m glad to see Sammo Hung back in movies actively again rather than just staying behind the scenes choreographing fights, yah he’s fat and old but MAN he can still kick ass…but then we knew that since SPL.
I still remember seeing him in Enter the Dragon all those years ago getting his ass whooped by Bruce Lee in the first scene on the training mat. His fight in this movie is AWESOME, on the table top between Ip Man and the fierce master of the Hung Gar clan (a style I also studied many years ago in Liverpool, also the style I took my name ShaolinTiger from).
All around it’s just a good movie, well shot, well choreographed, well scored and well acted. It’s good to see Xiaoming Huang in a solid part too, he really should stay out of shitty films like The Sniper (Sun Cheung Sau).
It’s good to see a Chinese movie with a solid score on IMDB too, Ip Man 2 scoring in with 8.0 – it’s early days though with only a little over 1000 votes.
Some people might complain about the cliched bad white people in the movie, which do tend be over-used in Hong Kong movies..but then I think this is quite representative of that period in Hong Kong and what they were going through way before the hand over in 1997. And well let’s face it, there still are white people that think like that..just thankfully they aren’t ambassadors and politicians any more.
Anyway, if you haven’t watched this movie – make it happen!
I give it a face slapping 8.5/10 – one of the best films of 2010 so far.
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Tags: chung si chuen kei, cinema, donnie-yen, films, hong kong movie, hong-kong-movies, ip man, ip man 2, ip man wing chun, martial-arts, martial-arts-movie, Movie-Review, Movie-Reviews, sammo-hung, samo hung, sei gwailoh, sun cheung sau, the sniper, wing chun, xiao ming huang, xiaoming huang
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18 Comments so far
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Yes, i agree that ip man is damn awesome.
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Haven’t got the chance to watch it yet, maybe will wait for DVD to be out.
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I thought the movie was great as well! Definitely one of the better martial arts movie but in terms of choreography, I think the first one was better.
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Definitely an enjoyable movie and I commend Donnie Yen for trying to stay close to the teaching of Wing Chun in this movie. I do see a Trilogy in the making
for sure.
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I watched IPMan 1 again and again too.. the scene where he punched repeatedly the guy till he drop and still punching is awesomeeee
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twister was lousy la, if they had chuck norris instead…
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“Ladies and gentlemen, and now, for the long awaited chinese western boxing tournament, please give a roaring welcome to the undisputed champion of the world, theeee Twister!!! Yau cheng Loong Kuen Foong!…” <— Best introduction of the year! Kick Iron Man 2's "drop from sky"-intro ass anytime!! Hahaha
P/S: If Twister is Loong Kuen Foong, then Shaolintiger is Siu Lum Foo? No?
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when u showing us ur kung fu from shaolin lahhhh!!
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first i thought the guy fought with ip man was bruce lee. heheh
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omg omg omg… I JUST FUCKING LOVE THIS SHOW!!! including the first one also… both also i love maxxxxx!!!! don’t mind to watch it again and again!!!! SEI GWAI LOUUUU!!!!!
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agreed!! one of the best film ever so far
I love how he punches
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yeah…punch the sei gwailou..
but not you lar.
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Nice review. totally agree! it’s awesome i muz say.
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Awesome movie! I just gotto agree with you on the white people part… I hated the white so much when the movie was playing. Well, it was so true that they were never nice to the chinese that time.
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Robb: Yah one of the best films for quite some time.
JD: Better to watch at the cinema, but either way it’s a must watch.
Mark Leo: Yah I didn’t like the fact they adopted the trendy close-up camera style. I’d prefer a wider view so you can see the techniques better.
hanuman: Agree, the techniques were very realistic and the theory was there too. Yah next chapter, young Bruce Lee!
hemy: I love the scene where he whacks the 10 guys, shiok max!
KY: Who is gonna pay for a movie that lasts 5 minutes LOL
93T: Siu lum lofu la haha.
joshuaongys: Make me angry, I show you personally loh.
apiq: Hehe nah, Bruce Lee still small boy then.
sotong: Yah watch twice, still stim LOL
Vicky: Wing Chun chain punches are the best!
Myhorng: LOL yah please don’t..
jack: Yah very good.
saoirse: Yah, might be cliched but it’s pretty fair for a movie set in this period.
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I will say Ip Man 1 is the classic for me a class of a film, the second is very disapointing.
Donnie Yen is exellent in the film, could of played a teacher more. For example Mayagi Sensi in Karate kid 1. I like the old jackie chan films compared to his new ones, all action but no substance but quite funny though, but you cannot compare him to Bruce Lee’s energy 40 years ago…Bruce was real martial artist like Ip Man, jackie is a gymnast a great mover though.Bruce understood Ving Tsun but his training stopped short with Ip man he later made up for the missed parts in his VT career from his hard work.
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Paraskevas Sifu: I love the first one, but the 2nd wasn’t a disappointment for me.
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[...] is definitely one of the best films of 2010 so far along with Ip Man 2, the rest so far have been somewhat disappointing (hello Iron Man [...]