Ip Man

Hey everyone! My name is Nathan and I'm a freshman Film Production student. This past summer I've watched a ton of movies, some of them great and some absolutely pitiful. But for this post I'm gonna focus on one particular movie (two actually) that I found to be exceptional in quality and in the way they were presented.

Ip Man is a film that was made in Hong Kong, and as would be expected, the entire movie is in Chinese. When I first watched it, I had no idea I was watching a movie with subtitles, and for the first 30 minutes or so I wondered if I would really even like it very much. But a little farther into it, I was able to overlook the fact that I had to read all the subtitles, and instead focused on the film's quality. One huge factor that contributed to the film's excellence was the superb acting by the entire cast. It impressed me a lot, and even the fact that they were speaking a different language did not minimize their acting skills.


I was also very impressed by the overall look and feel of the film. Being a foreign film, I guess I wasn't expecting a Hollywood-like look to it, but the color grading and sets were amazing. Additionally, I really commend the filmmakers behind Ip Man for the way they presented it. It is very difficult these days to find a movie that doesn't have either gratuitous violence, heavy sexual content, or profanity and innuendo. And I mean, yeah, I enjoy intense action sequences with blood and gore, but most of the time in movies, that could be cut out without any change at the heart of the film. But the makers of Ip Man, in my opinion, proved that excellent films don't need excessive and gratuitous content to make it awesome. Just a little factor that stuck out to me....

Anyway, I'm not gonna tell you much about the movie so I don't spoil it, but I just can't say enough about the high quality of Ip Man, and of its sequel, Ip Man 2. I was equally impressed with the sequel, which was a pleasant surprise. They didn't slack off on their moviemaking quality simply to roll out another film for profit. So, if you ever get the chance, I highly recommend that you watch both these films.