# How good is IP Man Movie



## lma (Sep 18, 2011)

Hi there ,

I have been doing Shotokan Karate for years and years. One of the things I love about my Senei's are they always had respect for other styles and how they worked. The would not mind incorporating it into our free fighting and training it while keeping our basic and Kata traditional to Shotokan. 

Now I have always been fascinated by Kung Fu (thanks to Bruce lee, Jet li and Especially Jackie Chan I Ended starting martial arts at age 9) This year I seen all the Ip man movies and have become my all time favriout fight movies. I found the move particularly interesting because of it is kung fu vs karate for the most part.  Now thanks to my instructors growing up I have a good grip on reality and before you start rolling your eyes thinking heres another karate chump on here to have a go how this wouldn't be the case, its not.

While watching the movie I noticed how there was alot grappling in it for what I was aware kung fu taught. So much so I seen alot of similarity of moves. Now I know it is a movie and things are exaggerated, stretched and bent I was wandering how you guys feel about how the movie represented your ART. It was so good I am actually thinking of looking for a small class to learn on the side.


----------



## Cyriacus (Sep 18, 2011)

Some People Shower it with Praise.
Others think its Ok.

I think it was Interesting to Watch.
But had some *Terrible* Choreography at Times. 
But hey, you can Ignore that, and just Enjoy the Spectacle.

It Represents the Art in terms of Technique in some ways, and in the way the Art "Moves".

*Ok, im mainly posting here so i can easily flick back to it to see others Replies. Whilst Contributing.


----------



## WC_lun (Sep 18, 2011)

MOst kung fu systems have a ton of grappling.  Even Wing Chun has a lot, depending upon the lineage.  Of course the Wing Chun in the movies are movie-fied, but good Wing Chun doesn't film well. It isn't as fun to watch as the what you see.  The Ip Man movies are fun to watch, but don't read too much into them.

Good Wing Chun has a lot of different aspects to training.  It works because of the total approach to the training.  Be careful about adding this or that from Wing Chun to your current regimen.  You might then have techniques that are WIng Chun-esque, but the total training the techniques will be empty of what makes Wing Chun so powerful.


----------



## mook jong man (Sep 18, 2011)

The wooden dummy work in the movie was quite accurate , no stupid smashing the crap out of the arms at a million miles per hour as is typically portrayed in most movies.

As for the rest of it , most of it was quite fanciful , real Wing Chun is a lot more direct and brutal.

In regards to the grappling , everytime you engage in chi sau you are training in a type of grappling , when random trapping and counter trapping is applied this can lead a lot of times to a very close "tie up" situation where there is a stale mate until someone uses skill to "leverage" out of the situation , or more often than not low kicking or tripping (sweeping) is used.

Adding to what WC_ Lun so eloquently stated before , trying to add Wing Chun techniques to other arts is doomed to failure.
You can copy the hand techniques , but they won't work optimally , because you don't have the correct Wing Chun "engine" to generate power for the techniques.

The "engine" is the correct Wing Chun stance , without the characteristic Wing Chun stance you will not be able to generate force in the correct way , or indeed correctly  overcome  any incoming force from the opponent.


----------



## ilhe4e12345 (Sep 19, 2011)

Great movies, i loved the first one and because of those movies i actually looked into and began studying WC. The thing is real WC is not as fancy.....it is very very direct, simple so remember that when you begin to look into adding it to your knowledge. I spoke to my Sifu about it and he explained to my while the movie was good, in real life it is different. Shortly after we had a sparring match and he used WC while i used my 7 Star Mantis skills and i was beaten (obviously....althought i did land a atleast 2 good hits lol). Wc is so simple....the attack/blocking theory alone is well done in the movie (although "moviefied") and after a few weeks of lessons in WC I can tell you from persoanl experience that it is nothing like the movie.

I wouldnt "add" any techniques or forms to the free sparring in your current class. While that may look cool and be sort of affective, if i were you i would concentrate on one style and not try to mix and match. I learned that the hard way.....after a few months of WC class, i tried to mix it with my 7 Star Mantis training and it taught me a very important lesson. Its great to know more then 1 style and be able to teach or know the difference but its better to know one style affectively and fully rather then 5618561861 different styles and only know "parts" 

hopefully this helps...im not a master by any means so maybe the other WC guys on here could be more informative, thought i would throw my two cents and experience in there  

 happy training


----------



## lma (Sep 19, 2011)

Probably going to get mauled here ......
From what little I have studied it does seem so similar to karate (well the way I was taught) even some of the stances(advanced karate stances not the simple long and narrow front stance you maybe used to) . I dont think I would mix it into my Karate training though I would keep them separate. You guys are the experts in it though . Have any of you come across a reliable interpretation on youtube? 

I have never studied it but from what I have got its something to do with attack and defence like we do in advanced karate. Isnt especially shotokan karate developed from kung fu. Im sure I read thats why we do kata - misconception because it was banned to stop uprising, it banned because it was considered foreign. If im honest what I seen in the movie (I know its moviefied) I recognised more of what IP man was doing than the guy portraying a karateka. 

If I do decided to take it up what is the importance of lineage ? I understand I wouldn't like to learn to from some one who themselves was taught by a low grade but it seams to have more meaning with kung fu. Am I missing summit ?

There was something else that intrigued me about Wing Chung but its slipped my mind hopefully it will comeback to me  

Thanks for your help so far....


----------



## Xue Sheng (Sep 19, 2011)

Good movie, got me start training Siu Nim Tao again ...historically however it was incredibly inaccurate


----------



## Chat Noir (Sep 19, 2011)

I have to differ with some of the posting.  I think it was a damn good representation of my art.  Ip Man's sons were involved, Sammo Hung did the choreography, and Donnie dedicated himself to the Wing Chun style despite the tremendous pain he had in his joints from years of injuries and abuse. It was a wonderful film and I actually loved Part II better because it had Sammo. The story was for the movie though but the action was a joy to watch. I own both and love to watch them over and over.....

Laura


----------



## wtxs (Sep 19, 2011)

Since we are on the subject of IP movies, don't forget "The Legend Is Born", and the coming soon of the "The Grand Master" in 2012.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJTQj12cTKw&feature=related


----------



## Domino (Sep 20, 2011)

Woah, close shave lol, glad MJM jumped in !!

I really liked the film for what it was, showing both styles. Anone more information about 'The Grandmaster' and what it is?


----------



## wtxs (Sep 20, 2011)

Domino said:


> Any more information about 'The Grandmaster' and what it is?



Another movie about Ip Man, has been filming in China since 2009, hope they get it done soon.


----------



## Domino (Sep 21, 2011)

Ah ok, thank you for information WTXS, always curious.


----------



## procmail (Sep 21, 2011)

Domino said:


> Woah, close shave lol, glad MJM jumped in !!
> 
> I really liked the film for what it was, showing both styles. Anone more information about 'The Grandmaster' and what it is?


 
Tony Leung trained in Wing Chun for years now, for this film. 

I read a story where he was learning from a WC master and during a lull, decided to try an attack he was recently taught. The master was caught by surprise and reacted instinctively, breaking Tony's arm. 

This accounted for quite a long pause in filming.


----------



## Shannow (Sep 22, 2011)

I heard it was a skiing accident?


----------



## ilhe4e12345 (Sep 22, 2011)

so i have heard of this "Grandmaster" movie about IP Man and i cant finda ny real info on it. Does anybody know what its going to be about? (besides IP Man of course...lol) Like the story line? im assuming it has nothing to do with the other IP Man movies but like the story line? I looked up the guy playing IP Man in this one and hopefully he is as good as Donnie Yen. We can hope  all i know is that the guy from Grandmaster has been training WC a lot long then Donnie Yen did and has really been taking the training very very serious. Lets hope it turns into another IP Man


----------



## procmail (Sep 23, 2011)

Shannow said:


> I heard it was a skiing accident?



I can only mention what I read:

http://www.kungfucinema.com/tony-leung-injured-while-training-for-grand-master-9125
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2009/jul/14/tony-leung-injured-grand-master


----------



## procmail (Sep 23, 2011)

ilhe4e12345 said:


> so i have heard of this "Grandmaster" movie about IP Man and i cant finda ny real info on it. Does anybody know what its going to be about? (besides IP Man of course...lol) Like the story line? im assuming it has nothing to do with the other IP Man movies but like the story line? I looked up the guy playing IP Man in this one and hopefully he is as good as Donnie Yen. We can hope  all i know is that the guy from Grandmaster has been training WC a lot long then Donnie Yen did and has really been taking the training very very serious. Lets hope it turns into another IP Man



I don't know much about his martial arts skills, but Tony Leung is a *very* established actor. Very famous in parts of Asia in fact.


----------



## Domino (Sep 23, 2011)

procmail said:


> Tony Leung trained in Wing Chun for years now, for this film.
> 
> I read a story where he was learning from a WC master and during a lull, decided to try an attack he was recently taught. The master was caught by surprise and reacted instinctively, breaking Tony's arm.
> 
> This accounted for quite a long pause in filming.



Ah I see, thanks for information.
Masters have no self control these days ! 
I'm looking forward to it.


----------



## lma (Sep 30, 2011)

Yea Tony did make the movie if you ask me he is a good actor played the role well. 

Im gonna have a look for good school in scotland and see if I can go for a little while. 

Thanks for your post


----------



## Asmo (Sep 30, 2011)

The Yip Man film with Tony Leung isn't out yet. Unless I missed something.

It's a Wong Kar Wai film and Yuen Woo Ping is doing the action. I hope there won't be an overuse of wires. Wing Chun is simple enough to be shown without wires IMO. The choreography might need to be 'moviefied' a bit, yes. Wires, no. 

A good example is Sammo's 'Warriors Two'. From memory the hand techniques are relatively accurate while the kicking techniques are more Northern Shaolin styled (so they're higher, and look good on film). I believe the action in that film was full contact too.


----------

