The Legend Is Born: Ip Man
叶问前传
China, 2010, colour, 2.35:1, 99 mins.
Director: Qiu Litao 邱礼涛 [Herman Yau].
Rating: 8/10.
Separately produced prequel to the Ip Man films has a quality look and lively tone, with plenty of good action.
STORY
Foshan, Guangdong province, southern China, 1905. Yong Chun [Wing Chun] master Chen Huashun (Hong Jinbao) is asked by the owner of his school’s premises to take on his two young sons, Ye Wen [Ip Man] and the adopted Ye Tianci, as pupils. When Chen Huashun dies the following year, his old friend Wu Zhongsu (Yuan Biao) takes over as head of the school. In 1915, Ye Wen (Du Yuhang) captures the heart of Zhang Yongcheng (Huang Yi), elder daughter of the deputy mayor (Lin Xue), after defending her in a street brawl, but engenders the jealousy of Li Meihui (Chen Jiahuan), a fellow student who’s fancied him since she was young (Xu Jiao). Later that year, Ye Wen goes to Hong Kong to further his education at St. Stephen’s College and by chance meets old Yong Chun master Liang Bi (Ye Zhun), who teaches him new variations on the Yong Chun style. Meanwhile, in Foshan, Li Meihui is courted by Ye Tianci (Fan Shaohuang), who has opened a Jing Wu martial arts school. Meanwhile, tensions between Chinese and Japanese are rising in the city as the latter, led by shady businessman Kitano Yukio (Sawada Kenya), throw their weight around. Soon after Ye Wen returns in 1919, these tensions boil over.
REVIEW
The Ye Wen [Ip Man] bar stays pretty high with this unofficial prequel by Hong Kong’s Qiu Litao 邱礼涛 [Herman Yau] to the two films starring Zhen Zidan 甄子丹 [Donnie Yen]. Also shot in China, using a mixture of Hong Kong and Mainland talent, The Legend Is Born: Ip Man 叶问前传 is at the classy end of the super-prolific Qiu’s spectrum, with richly-hued widescreen photography, good-looking costumes and a younger Zhen look-alike in the main role who’s utterly believable. The film doesn’t have the studied retro look and feel that director Ye Weixin 叶伟信 [Wilson Yip] gave to Ip Man 叶问 (2008) and Ip Man 2 叶问2 (2010), the pacing is more restless, and the action less classically staged and shot. However, in its own way the movie is just as involving on an entertainment level, and the copious displays of martial arts are just as hypnotic, with fighting used to advance the story and express character rather than simply to provide spectacle.
In fact, there’s probably more fighting in Legend than in the other two movies combined, as characters set to it at the drop of a hat rather than waste time shaking hands or talking. If Legend doesn’t have the look of a 1960s/1970s Hong Kong martial arts movie, it certainly has the social manners of one, and the choreography, supervised by producer/story writer/Yong Chun [Wing Chun] pupil Xian Guolin 冼国林, is agile and inventive without resorting to modern-style visual effects or excessive wire-work.
The okay script by Li Min 李敏 [Erica Li] – who wrote Qiu’s episodic comedy Split Second Murders 死神傻了 (2009) – and the laundered but good-looking production/costume design spend some time, especially in the first half, sketching the gradual encroachment of westernisation, often in a fun way. A visit to a cinema to watch Nosferatu is one of the non-action highlights, and the use of English folk song Greensleeves as a love motif surprisingly works. Frequent date/place captions give the heavily fictionalised film a spurious biopic feel but, once the anti-Japanese plot warms up in the second half, the film’s genre side takes over, leading to a superbly staged, two-part action finale. Interestingly, the Japanese aren’t demonised, or overplayed, to such an extent as in Ip Man.
Without detracting from the quietly assured lead performance by Du Yuhang 杜宇航 (Ip Man 2) as the young Ye Wen, veterans Hong Jinbao 洪金宝 [Sammo Hung] (briefly appearing at the start) and Yuan Biao 元彪 (subsequently shouldering the “master” role) give the film some star ballast, and there’s a wonderfully cheeky performance by Ye Zhun 叶准 [Ip Chun], eldest son of the real Ye Wen, as an old master who teaches our hero some new tricks. Fan Shaohuang 樊少皇 [Louis Fan], who didn’t get much of a role in Ip Man 2, has a much meatier co-starring part here as the hero’s adopted brother, while Mainland actress Huang Yi 黄奕 (Brothers 兄弟, 2007) brings a lot of class, as well as a stunning wardrobe, to the main love interest and Canadian-born Liao Bi’er 廖碧儿 [Bernice Liu] some statuesque villainy to a Japanese baddie.
CREDITS
Presented by National Arts Films Production (CN), Zhejiang Hengdian World Studios (CN). Produced by National Arts Films Production (CN).
Script: Li Min [Erica Li], Li Sheng. Original story: Xian Guolin. Photography: Chen Guanghong [Joe Chan]. Editing: Zhong Weizhao [Azrael Chung]. Music: Mai Zhenhong [Brother Hung]. Art direction: Liang Lemin [Longman Leung]. Costume design: Wu Baoling [Bobo Ng]. Sound: Wang Qingsheng. Action: Liang Xiaoxiong [Tony Leung Siu-hung]. Martial arts advice: Xian Guolin. Martial arts consultation: Du Yuhang, Zhou Dingyu, Ouyang Zicong, Mai Guangquan, You Weiqiang, Ouyang Jianwen.
Cast: Du Yuhang (Ye Wen), Fan Shaohuang [Louis Fan] (Ye Tianci), Huang Yi (Zhang Yongcheng), Yuan Biao (Wu Zhongsu), Chen Jiahuan (Li Meihui), Liao Bi’er [Bernice Liu] (Kitano Yumi, Japanese fighter), Xu Jiao (young Li Meihui), Lin Xue [Lam Suet] (Zhang, Zhang Yongcheng’s father), Hong Jinbao [Sammo Hung] (Chen Huashun, master), Ye Zhun [Ip Chun] (Liang Bi, old master), Hong Tianzhao (pupil of Ye Wen), Zhang Jingxuan (Cao, pupil of Ye Wen), Ma Sai (Zhang Yonghua, Zhang Yongcheng’s younger sister), Zhang Jicong (customs officer), Li Lichi (interpreter), Liang Xuhui (Li Wanhao), Wen Junhui (adult Ye Wen), Shen Aijie (adult Ye Tianci), Li Guolin (police captain), Sawada Kenya (Kitano Yukio), Chen Zhihui (Ye Wen’s father), Zhang Chi (Ruan Qishan), Zhu Xueliang (Yao Cai), Ding Xiaolong (ruffian), Dang Shanpeng, Gus Lim (Japanese assassins), Andy Taylor (gramophone salesman).
Premiere: Shanghai Film Festival (View China), 13 Jun 2010.
Release: China, 25 Jun 2010.
(Review originally published on Film Business Asia, 14 Jun 2010.)