Ip Man 3

Ip Man 3 (2015) is set in Hong Kong in 1959. A property gang has designs on his son's school and Ip Man has to defend it. At the same time another Wing Chun master appears and an argument starts about who the real master is. None of that is the film's actual subject. At its centre is Ip Man's wife, Cheung Wing-sing. She develops cancer, and for the first time he chooses to stop fighting and stay with her. The best scene in the film is not a fight; it is the two of them dancing. Mike Tyson is in it, playing a Western property boss, and has a three minute fight with Donnie Yen. Wilson Yip directed, as he did all four films in the series. There is also a technical argument around it. Bruce Lee was digitally recreated in some scenes, which fed into the wider debate about computer generated performances of real actors, and the result drew criticism. It runs 105 minutes. Good for: martial arts, Donnie Yen, and the most emotionally loaded film in the series. Less good for: two plots run side by side and the property gang story is dull next to the illness. The gap between the historical Ip Man and the character here is wide. The Mike Tyson section feels stuck onto the film.