Ip Man 2

Wilson Yip’s sequel comes in two distinct halves. The first is a licensing drama about the Hong Kong martial arts association, in which Ip Man is tested by rival masters on a round table, and the second moves the same argument into a colonial boxing ring. Sammo Hung both plays the rival Hung Chun-nam and choreographed every fight, work that won him Best Action Choreography at the 30th Hong Kong Film Awards; the same night the film took Best Film Editing for Cheung Ka-fai and collected eight further nominations, Best Film and Best Director among them. Hung had undergone major heart surgery before the shoot, so his dramatic scenes were filmed first and his fights last, and once the work was finished he said he was unhappy with his own fight sequences. The 1949 Hong Kong of the film was built on sound stages at Songjiang Studios in Shanghai. The closing bout with an English boxer is invention, since there is no record of the real Ip fighting a British champion. A good fit if you want the Yen and Hung duel settled by the midpoint and the rest handed over to ring melodrama. Not for anyone put off by flatly written Western characters and a finale that resolves into a speech about national pride.