Ip Man 2 2010 Wilson Yip

This is a sequel to one of the best kung fu movies of the last five years, the obviously titled Ip Man.  Ip Man was a real guy, the one who taught Bruce Lee, and spread the Wing Chun school of kung fu throughout the world.  If you don't know who he is, or if you've never seen the first movie, stop reading now and go watch it.  Don't watch it on Netflix Instant, though, because all they stream is the English dub version and it's godawful.  Keep Blockbuster in business for a few more weeks by renting Ip Man ASAP.

There, now that that's done we can continue with the new movie.  Everybody came back for this movie because the first one was so awesome.  In this one, Ip Man moves with his family to Hong Kong and tries to set up a new kung fu school there.  That's where he runs into Sammo Hung, who has a kung fu grip on the exsisting schools, and pretty much runs that area of town like some sort of Mafia Godfather.

Ip Man is very principled, so he won't submit to Sammo's rules.  This leads to fights between Wing Chun School and Sammo's Hung Gar School.  It's been pretty interesting in the last few years to see Sammo Hung change his image from jolly, fat guy who knows kickass kung fu to mean, badass fat guy who knows kickass kung fu.  He's also managed to look pretty suave in his old age, but I will always miss the jeri curl from Wheels on Meals.  I miss it so much we should all just look at it now....



The greatest Jeri Curl this side of Soul Glo

There it is.  Isn't it pretty?  Anyway, now it's gone and he's mad.  Will he allow Ip Man to have his own school?  Will he have a change of heart?  Are the English colonialists in this movie almost as bad as the Japanese army in the first one? 

Since it's Hong Kong in 1950, the English colonials are everywhere, treating the Chinese like second class citizens, and being just all around bad people.  A boxing match is organized to promote peace between the two peoples, which means we get to see a sort of kung fu Rocky.  I've never been a fan of kung fu vs boxing.  Even when I used to play Street Fighter, I always knew that Balrog would get his ass handed to him in real life.  The unstoppable boxer in this movie is named Twister, which is supposedly menacing, but he's British, so it's instantly not.  I mean, really, the first movie had Ip Man testing his Wing Chun against Japanese Karate, and this one has Wing Chun vs middleweight Boxing.  Depressing.

Even with all that, this is a really entertaining movie.  It was nice to see everyone from the first movie, especially Jin Shan Zhao, the bandit tough guy who had such a memorable fight with Donnie Yen in the first movie.  It was even more amazing to find out that the actor playing him, Siu-wong Fan, played Ricky in Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky!  If you haven't seen that one, strap on your barfbag and get ready for a splatterific kung fu good time!

The DVD comes with a few trailers and a making of, but not much else.  If you're a fan of the other movie like I am, you won't mind.  Why won't they make a part 3?