Ip Man.

Rachel Pitzer

For my first movie, I decided to watch Ip Man. This movie is about Chinese martial arts, and it is based off of a true story. The movie starts out with many students at a martial arts school. The one teacher—master—goes to challenge this very humble man, Master Ip; he is supposedly the best martial artist in the town. Although he is very good, he continually turns down offers to open up his own school and take in disciplines. Then, the Japanese army took over China, and killed much of the Chinese population. Martial arts was not practiced anymore, and people had to take up hard labor jobs, including the once wealthy Master Ip. However, the Japanese general that was in charge of their town would have fighting competitions. Master Ip decided to go one day after his friend had went and never returned. When he went to the competitions, he discovered how corrupt they were, and wanted to seek justice. He arranged to fight the general, and won. He did not fight to show who was better or stronger, but he wanted to fight to gain some respect back for his people.

The first thing I noticed when watching this movie is that Ip Man’s wife and the Japanese general were the tallest people in the film. I think the director made them the tallest people to show that they were the most influential people in his life. During one of Ip Man’s battles in the beginning of the movie, his wife was mad that he was fighting and did not want him to. When his opponent saw that Ip Man was hesitating on fighting because his wife was upset, he made the comment that Ip Man was scared of his wife. Ip Man came back with the comment “Men are not scared of their wives; they only show much respect for them.” This was very apparent throughout the whole movie. Ip Man tried to respect his wife’s wishes the best he could. He tried to make the best life for his wife and son, and when she presented him with a problem, he tired to accommodate to it as best as he could. So, I think the director made his wife tall to show that his decisions were made with his wife’s best interest in mind, and that she had a huge impact on his life. The general also had a huge impact on his life, but in a different way. When the Japanese invaded their town, he finally decided to start teaching so people could defend themselves.  Also, when he saw what the general was doing to his people, it made him realize what was really important, and that is why he started fighting again. Once he defeated the general, the people in his town took over the Japanese and got their lives back.

During the first half of the movie, the lighting and scenery coloring was very bright; you could tell life was good. However, when the Japanese invaded their town, the coloring became very dull and the lighting was darker. In the film, it showed the transition of when the Japanese took over. The director made this part of the film in black and white, and only the Japanese flags were in color. Also, this part of the film was in a slower motion. For the fighting scenes, there were song long shots of the camera to show the fighting, but there were a lot of close up shots of the fighters’ fists and kicking. In the very opening scene of the movie, Ip Man was practicing his fighting on this wooden post that kind of resembled a human with arms and legs sticking out. When he was fighting the general, it flashed back to when he was practicing, and the general looked like the wooden post. Ip Man fought the general the same way he practiced on the wooden post. When he would strike the general, it would flashback to the wooden post, and each time he would strike the general, he showed the exact same thing on the post.