Ip Man: The Final Fight (Watch Now While It's in Theaters)

A Gentle Biopic About Yip Man's Twilight Years, Not An Action Extravaganza
The interest in Ip Man films seems to still be going strong as yet another adaptation looks at the life of legendary martial arts Grandmaster Yip Man. It's starting to get a little confusing, however, with two different series covering similar ground.

First there are the films directed by Wilson Yip and starring Donnie Yen as Yip Man:
1) Ip Man (2008)
2) Ip Man 2: Legend of the Grandmaster (2010)
3) Ip Man 3 (proposed): Yet to be made, this effort has been announced in pre-production status with Edmond Wong taking the reins as the writer and director.

And then there are the films by director Herman Yau (of which this is the second):
1) The Legend is Born: Ip Man (2010)
2) Ip Man: The Final Fight (2013)

With "Ip Man: The Final Fight," we examine the twilight years of Yip Man's life. Covering some of the same time period as "Ip Man 2: The Legend of the Grandmaster," the film starts in 1949 as the Grandmaster travels to Hong Kong...

Anthony Wong can't save this Ip Man
After hearing that the legendary Anthony Wong would be playing the Wing Chun master in this latest installment of the Ip Man saga certainly got my attention. Sadly this dvd lacks anything to be excited about. The subtitles are very bad, at times completely out of sync and incorrect. The music sounds like it was taken from a low budget Hollywood musical and the overly choreographed fight scenes have the same sound effects as the old Bruce Lee movies where someone is hitting a Naugahyde couch with a bat. The editing is crude and seemingly random, and there is little to no continuity to the story. Anthony Wong is always great and he has Ip Man's characteristics down, but his subtleties are overshadowed by the poor direction of this film. Herman Yau has directed some great films and he turned the world on to Anthony Wong, but here in Ip Man The Final Fight he seems to have rushed this production terribly and forgotten how to make another Wong classic.

Don't bother
Not worth it. The first 2 are much better. There seems to be no story and details from this movie don't match the other 2.

Click to Editorial Reviews