Ip Man 4: The Finale

The good, watchable parts of the movie centered on Donnie Yen and the challenges of parenting. The martial arts scenes were entertaining and effective, as was the presence of Bruce Lee and his school. Banda Margraf balanced all the heavy characters like a breath of fresh air, her character was like able, watchable, and gave Ip Man insight. The story was mostly set in San Francisco, so as a yank it was disconcerting to see the many little things that the movie didn't get right. The big things, like the closest Marine base is 300 miles away, are forgiveable (they're telling a story and need a villain). But the little things, like federal officers would be bearded and wearing black leather jackets, like Kung fu movie villains, took away from the movie. And just to get this straight, A Marine can not walk into an ICE building and demand a prisoner be handed over since the ICE agent is more afraid of losing his pension than of getting beaten. This film is tainted by claiming that overt violent hatred of Chinese, to the extent that our military targeted them, existed. This at a time when China is trying to make the US look bad so they can illegally grab the South China Sea.

IP MAN has already won the hearts of everyone since the first movie came out. The phrase "i want to beat 10 people!" has been in the heads of all viewers. The stories were well connected with the 3rd installment, indicating the life after his wife was gone due to cancer. The characters in the movie all played a very significant role in portraying the unfairness of the Americans towards immigrants, with every punch, every hate speech brings out the the worse side of a world full of racism. In the sequel, IP MAN took quite some blows while comfronting Americans that were bullying the Chinese there, which lead to a series of events that eventually lead to the final fight with the American marines. In the 4th sequel, the director also did a very good job in displaying an old IP MAN in the making, gasping for air every time he is knocked down, swinging away the pain from the injuries he has taken. It truly tells us that IP MAN is aging along with all the sequels, and this would be his final stand. Overall, the movie was very touching and thrilling at the same time, so I am giving it a 8/10. Well done!

The fight scenes were good as usual and I love the depiction of Ip Man as being calm, honorable and good. It was nice to see Bruce Lee in a few scenes, very few. You can feel that the end of Ip Man is coming in how the story moves along. I did enjoy this movie to a point because it gave a conclusion to Ip Man's story, but half of the movie seemed to be focused on white people being racist toward every other race which most movies and tv shows in this age of political correctness like to focus on now.

There is a big difference in the story telling from the first Ip Man to this final installment. The first had a great story that did not try to stereotype anyone or any race. This one is focused on race period. If you want to see the conclusion to a once great franchise, I recommend this as a rental, but otherwise, I cannot recommend it.

Most can probably agree that the 'Ip Man' films just got worse as time went on. The action was always great, but the general story lines and acting just went downhill.

As much as I loved Donnie Yen playing Ip Man, I'm glad he's done, at least I certainly hope so. Bruce Lee was basically just a random throw in character and was reduced to a very limited role, when he should have been one of the main characters and plot points. Instead racism is the plot. The acting, especially by anyone who wasn't Chinese was absolutely horrendous, so cringe every time, aside from maybe Scott Adkins.

The first film is phenomenal. Filled with not only great action, but great emotion. The others, especially number 4, just couldn't emulate it, even though they tried.

My only objection is the selection of a 40+ yrs old actor to play a 24yrs old Bruce Lee. The aged face of that actor was more than obvious. Aside from that, i really enjoyed the movie. All four of them are excellent movies.