Over the past decade one of the more enduring and satisfying film series in Hong Kong, the Ip Man saga comes to a close with Ip Man 4: The Finale. (Well Go USA opens the film theatrically on December 25.) Once again starring Donnie Yen, the movie finds the Wing Chun master in San Francisco, where he is looking for a school for his son.
What he finds is the kind of bigotry and injustice that has fueled the three previous entries, as well as lessons for Ip Man to learn about himself and his own family.
Having lost a wife to cancer, Ip Man receives his own terminal prognosis in the opening scenes. Throw in problems with his alienated teen son Jin (Ye He), and Ip Man 4 threatens to drown in soap opera histrionics. Fortunately the script (by Edmond Wong, Dana Fukazawa, Chan Tai Lee and Jil Leung Lai Yin) tends to downplay emotional confrontations, leaving time for director Wilson Yip to focus on Yen’s quiet, restrained acting.
Ip Man facing death is not the most promising martial arts narrative, so the film is stuffed instead with several subplots, not all of which play through to the end. Ip Man must get a letter of recommendation from the Chinese Benevolent Association before his son can be accepted into private school. But PBA leaders are angry that Bruce Lee (played here by Chan Kwok Kwan Danny) has been teaching martial arts to non-Asians. Chairman Wan Zong Hua (Wu Ye) blames Ip Man in particular because Lee was his student. (Ip Man 4 offers an interesting corrective to the Bruce Lee that actor Mike Moh portrayed in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood. Here he’s not so much arrogant as cocky, and his fight scenes feel much more authentic than the Tarantino version.)
Another subplot parallel’s Ip Man’s problems with his son. Wan’s daughter Yonah (Vanda Margraf) wants to be accepted at her high school; her father forbids her to speak English and prefers her to study kung fu instead of cheerleading. When a jealous classmate leads an attack on Yonah at school, it’s up to Ip Man to help her defeat them.
Bruce Lee faces similar challenges, and in yet another story line Hartman Wu (Van Ness), a Marine trying to introduce Chinese martial arts into his base’s training program is repeatedly humiliated by his bigoted gunnery sergeant Barton Geddes (Scott Adkins). Sample quote: “An inferior race can and should be defeated.” Also on tap: INS agents who conduct illegal raids for personal motives. Or as a suburban housewife puts it, “What is the INS going to do about these Chinese savages?” Then there’s the Mid-Autumn festival that’s disrupted by thugs from a karate club.
Yes, Ip Man 4 drifts pretty far away from the earlier films, but it still offers many of the pleasures of the earlier entries. Yen is a bit stiffer than he was in his Iron Monkey phase, but he remains one of the world’s premiere martial arts talents. His work here is a joy to watch, especially in a throwaway scene is which he has to fight off some bullies without actually hurting them. And with only one hand.
Credit action choreographer Yuen Woo-ping for the endlessly inventive fight scenes, and Scott Adkins and Wu Ye for being worthy adversaries. But there’s no escaping Ip Man 4‘s melancholy tone. (Or the fact that this entry doesn’t quite measure up to other episodes, or even to the Max Zhang vehicle Master Z: Ip Man Legacy.) This isn’t just the end of the grandmaster’s story, but possibly the end of Yen’s career as an action star. A montage of moments from the entire series reminds viewers just how good the franchise could be.
