The unexpectedly fun “Ip Man 4: The Finale”, the final instalment of director Wilson Yip and producer-star Donny Yen’s dazzling myth meet the famous Vince Choon master about tetralogy.

The insistent subtitle is for a reason: everyone, including Yen, thought that “Ip Man 3” would be the donkey of Ip Man’s priest’s tunic in his last time. Then, after “Ip Man 2”, still the best in the franchise, Yen was also reportedly reluctant to return. A bit like the great, intelligent, aristocratic Saifu (“master-father”) he incarnates very clearly, Yen apparently only re-enters when circumstances (read: box office) give him another choice. Does not leave

Then, the problem is how to maintain a story from the climax of the previous film? The solution for the regular team of screenwriters – Edmund Wong, Chan Tai-lee, Jill Leung, plus, this time, Dana Fukwawa – is to move into a new setting. If the last time the American mountain IP man came to Hong Kong because Mike Tyson successfully did a stunt, maybe this time, IP man could go to the mountain?

 

First, we tell of Ips Man’s diagnosis of late-stage, terminal throat cancer – a weighty mystery that gives Yen’s centre of gravity the gravestone, when in previous films, the spectre of some bad medieval blasts does not hold the viewer.

Was seen Feel a bit like a powered-down robot. Ip then accepts the invitation of his hero Bruce Lee (Lee-Ellic Danny Kwok Kwan Chan), who now runs his own studio in San Francisco, to come to an exhibition match.

‘Ip Man 4: The Finale’: Film Review

Reviewed online, Dublin, December 20, 2019. Runtime: 105 minutes. (Original title: “Yip Man: UN Gitpin”)

Production: (Hong Kong-China) A Tin Go Film Production Production’s Mandarin Motion Pictures presentation of (in the US) a Well Go USA release. (International sales: Mandarin Motion Pictures, Hong Kong.) Producers: Donnie Yen, Raymond Beck-Ming Wong, Wilson Yip. Executive Producers: Edmund Wong, Raymond Beck-Ming Wong.

Producer: Director: Wilson Yip. Screenplay: Edmund Wong, Dana Fukazawa, Chan Tai Li, Jill Leung Lai Yin. Camera (colour, widescreen): Cheng Siu-Kyung. Editor: Cheung Ka-Fa. Music: Kenji Kawai.

With: Donnie Yen, Wu Yu, Van Ness, Scott Adkins, Kent Cheng, Chan Kwok Kwan Danny, Kanin Ngo, Chris Collins, Wanda Margraf. (Mandarin, Cantonese, English dialogue)