Semi-biographical movie about Ip Man. The movie mostly covers the period of the Japanese invasion of China. The plot is conveniently contrived to pit the Ip Man against a Japanese General gifted in the Japanese martial arts. And the Japanese general is --- as the bad guy of the movie --- brutal, but honorable, though utterly convinced of the Japanese superiority over the Chinese. Hence, the showdown at the end of the movie is cast as a duel between the Chinese and the Japanese culture, which Ip Man wins.

As a point of history, the Japanese invaders really were quite sadistic and cruel, and they really did have the idea that they were much superior to the peoples they conquered. This film is at pains to show that the opposite is true --- that the Chinese culture that was conquered by Japan was nonetheless nobler. As such, the film is trying to promote Chinese patriotism. But, as all other material created to manufacture patriotism in every culture, the film unambiguously links patriotism to the current government. This is seen most clearly at the end of the film, where out of nowhere the Ip Man is editorialized as a great Chinese citizen who somehow fought for "unity". The theme of unity appears nowhere in the film, except in the editorial at the end. Of course, it shouldn't escape the viewer that the current Chinese government is very much interested in fomenting the unity of all Chinese under the current Communist government. I suppose that such shameless editorializing in favor of the current government must be included in Chinese films if they are ever to see the light of day. But, I wonder how they will handle this in Ip Man 2? After all, the Ip Man flees Foshan to Hong Kong precisely because he is escaping the Communist Party's takeover of government and violent suppression of Chinese culture. How will the 2nd film show Ip Man to be a patriotic communist given his actually historically-lived life? And what does this film --- Ip Man --- say when its point is supposed to be that the same Chinese culture that the Communist Party suppressed is very noble and deserving of admiration? The editorializing at the end of the film truly does not fit the movie at all.

But the cinematography was amazing, truly a work of art. And the actress that played the wife of the Ip Man is breath-takingly beautiful --- especially in her traditional dress. When this kind of elegant Chinese dress was lost to modernity the world became that much uglier.