Director: Wilson Yip
Notable Cast: Donnie Yen, Wu Yue, Vanness Wu, Scott
Adkins, Kent Cheng, Danny Chan, Chris Collins, Ngo Ka-nin, Vanda Margraf, Jim
Liu, Lo Mang
Of the last decade and change, there have been a few action
franchises that have stood out as defining of the time period. One of them was
the surprise international success of the Ip Man franchise. It exploded the
careers of director Wilson Yip and actor Donnie Yen while at the same time
injecting a fresh dose of energy into the traditional martial arts film all
around the world. It’s a series near and dear to my heart, so when it was
announced that Ip Man 4 would be the last, it comes with a sense of
sadness on its finality. While the film certainly cements itself as the last of
the “official” series (good luck stopping the ongoing Ipsploitation subgenre
though) there is a lot of fascinating approaches to the film that make it feels
like this series still has a lot to say, even if the end result of this entry is
more muddled than the rest. Ip Man 4: The Finale will deliver on the
basics that fans have come to expect, through action and heart, but it’s some
of the wild new elements that make this one such a fascinating end to the
series.
