Ip Man 2

The direct sequel to the 2008 hit

Two years after Ip Man, Wilson Yip and Donnie Yen pick up the Wing Chun master, Bruce Lee's teacher, on his arrival in Hong Kong. The film follows the classic kung fu story arc: a hard start, rival schools, an insult from a foreigner, a fight for honour. It was one of the biggest hits of the year in Hong Kong and mainland China, where it opened on 29 April 2010; in the United States and the United Kingdom it had a limited release in January 2011.

Sammo Hung in front of and behind the camera

The fight choreography is by Sammo Hung, who also plays Hung Chun-nam, the Hung Gar master who rules the Hong Kong schools. Their duel on a round tabletop, where the first to fall loses, is the film's most quoted scene: Yen's compact, frontal Wing Chun against the wide stances and heavy strikes of Hung Gar. Hung shot the scene shortly after heart surgery. The early fights, against Wong Leung's students in a fish market, show Wing Chun footwork and chi sao, the sticky-hands drill specific to the style.

The boxer Twister

The final act pits Ip Man against Taylor "The Twister" Milos, a British boxer played by Darren Shahlavi, a kickboxing and boxing practitioner. The bout takes place in a ring, gloves for the Briton and bare hands for the Chinese master. It mirrors almost shot for shot the endings of Fist of Fury and Rocky IV: the arrogant champion, the wounded hero, the closing speech about respect. A boxer will notice that Shahlavi keeps a real guard and throws real hooks, and that Ip Man's strategy of attacking the arms to kill the power reflects a genuine Wing Chun principle.

Reception and place in the series

Asian critics and martial arts fans received it well, though many objected to its heavy-handed nationalism and to wirework more visible than in the first film. It confirmed Donnie Yen as Hong Kong's leading action star of the 2010s and launched a wave of Ip Man films, including Wong Kar-wai's The Grandmaster. Two sequels followed, Ip Man 3 in 2015 and Ip Man 4 in 2019. For a Wing Chun student, this is the instalment that best shows school life: the students, the wooden dummy and the master's corrections.