Searching For Ip Man

No, I didn't manage to get an interview with Ip Man. It would take more than snappy interview technique to achieve that! I did a little survey this morning of all the phrases that people searched for in Google to find my site. There were masses of phrases relating to the great Bruce Lee that people searched for but twice as many people found my site after searching for the even greater (in my opinion) Ip Man. With that little revelation in mind, I thought I would write some words about Ip Man. But, I need to do some research before I can really do the man justice, as my knowledge is limited to the following lonely facts.

I know that in the early days, the Chinese were very reluctant to teach Wing Chun to westerners. Although there were other rebels who opened their doors to western students, Ip Man was the one who became famous for doing so. Maybe his fame was due to him having taught Bruce Lee.

I get the impression that Ip Man was very hot on his students learning the basics very thoroughly before letting them loose on the more advanced stuff. Hence the long hours of siu lim tau.

From listening to interviews with Donnie Yen, it appears that Ip Chun tried to impress upon him the fcat that Ip Man was a true gentleman. I take that to mean that he was very well mannered and had a good appreciation of social etiquette. He was quite well off too, by all accounts.

Ip Man's Sons

Ip Man had two sons: Ip Chun and Ip Ching. Perhaps the most well known is Ip chun. My sifu says that "Chun" and "Ching" mean "correct" and "accurate" - if I remember correctly - so with those names, how could they not become skilled Wing Chun practitioners? But hold on. Rumour (of the forum variety) says that Ip Chun only started learning Wing Chun in earnest at the age of 38. I think he had a dabble when he was younger but nothing serious. The power of his surname obviously didn't have that much influence on him in respect of Wing Chun if he left it until 38 to train properly. Given that Ip Man must have been knocking on a bit, just how much of Ip Man's teaching did Ip Chun receive I wonder... I'm just thinking aloud now, because I don't know the facts.

I know that Ip Ching is also a (perhaps lesser known) skilled practitioner of Wing Chun, having taught Samuel Kwok (as Ip Chun has done also). Wow, I didn't realise how scrappy my knowledge was!

Ip Man Fight Scenes

I just couldn't help myself. I've gone and compiled a series of fight scenes from the Ip Man movie on Youtube.

With the recent release of Ip Man the movie, interest in Ip Man has rocketed. Stay tuned for more (better informed!) stuff about Ip Man. I have some old and dusty martial arts magazines that I know have articles about Ip Man in them, so I'll shake the dust off them over the weekend. Ip Man also gets quite a mention in the Bruce Lee biography I'm reading so I'll revisit that one too.

The sequel to Wilson Yip's Ip Man biopic, tentatively titled Ip Man 2 (originality: null points) focuses on Ip Man's move to Hong Kong in 1949 and subsequent attempts to spread the word about Wing Chun.

As expected, Donnie Yen takes on the title role as Ip Man again. I think he did a tremendous job in the first film and hope he does us proud again in the next one.

Ip Man And Bruce Lee

Although the sequel starts in 1949, rumour has it that a young Bruce Lee will not appear in Ip Man 2. To put the story in context, in 1953 Bruce Lee started Wing Chun lessons with Ip Man at the age of 13. Originally, the film was set to show the relationship between Bruce Lee and Ip Man, but as negotiations with Bruce's family are still underway, it is anticipated that the kung fu legend (Bruce Lee, that is) will appear only in Ip Man 3. I have not a clue who could play the role of the great Bruce Lee. But for a bit of fun, I'll now have a guess at... Tony Jaa for his extreme athleticism or Jet Li simply for his kung fu prowess. Tony Jaa seems more of a gymnast than a martial artist though...

Tony Jaa In Ip Man 2?

Jet Li In Ip Man 2?

For my money, I'd prefer to see Jet Li. I just couldn't resist this excuse to show some excellent Jet Li high octane bludgeoning  from Unleashed!

Owing to the negotiations with the Lee family, the original plan to shoot movies 2 and 3 concurrently has been shelved. Work on Ip Man 2, however, will start in August 2009. That's only 4 months away.

Unlike the first Ip Man movie, the second will feature appearances by Sammo Hung, who plays a Hung Gar master pitted against Yen.  In 1949 Hong Kong there was a tradition of rivalry between "girly" Wing Chun and "manly" Hung Gar.  With Sammo Hung being the Hung Gar exponent in Ip Man 2, you can predict where this one is going. This film sees Ip Man trying to establish Wing Chun as the deadly art it is. The last time Sammo and Donnie fought one another was in Wilson Yip's Kill Zone (SPL) in 2005.

The official line is that the HK$100 million sequel will be released some time towards the end of 2010. Unbelievably, imdb already have an entry for Ip Man 2!