Nearly four decades after his death, Bruce Lee remains one of the most potent symbols of Hong Kong cinema’s golden age.
So it’s only fitting that the latest stirrings of a revival in the Hong Kong martial arts drama are connected to Lee: the kung fu screen hero of the moment is none other than Lee’s mentor, Ip Man.
Born in the southern Chinese city Foshan, Ip Man (1893-1972) settled in Hong Kong after the Communist takeover of 1949 and devoted his life to the Wing Chun fighting style .
In 2008, Wilson Yip’s biopic “Ip Man” starring Donnie Yen, launched a wave of movies about the master. “Ip Man 2 ” covers its hero in 1950s Hong Kong . The top-grossing local film in Hong Kong last year, when it was also released throughout Asia and in Canada, “Ip Man 2” opened in January in New York and Los Angeles and in the United Kingdom.
“The Legend Is Born - Ip Man,” directed by Herman Yau, is a prequel about a teenage Ip. And Wong Kar-wai, the most revered and singular of Hong Kong auteurs, is shooting the Ip Man project that he has been developing for years, titled “The Grandmasters.”
“People now see Ip Man as a legendary master of his time,” Mr. Yen said.
Mr. Yen and Mr. Yip’s Ip Man continues the long tradition of the kung fu master hero, exemplified by the much mythologized 19th-century physician and martial artist Wong Fei-hung. He also echoes the Bruce Lee persona in being an emblem of racial pride.
Born in San Francisco and raised in Hong Kong, Lee appeared on American television in the late ‘60s (on “The Green Hornet” and “Batman”). But it was his Hong Kong productions of the early ‘70s that ignited his global superstardom.
There was often a chauvinistic edge to Lee’s self-appointed role of kung fu ambassador: his films were designed as showcases of his skill, and by extension, of the superiority of Chinese martial arts. “Fist of Fury” pits Lee against a variety of colonialist adversaries .
In Mr. Yen’s Ip Man movies, the main villains are caricatured foreigners: a Japanese general, a British boxing champion .
The Ip Man films speak to the tricky economics and politics of post-handover Hong Kong cinema. In the past decade Hong Kong cinema has grown more dependent on the financing power and large audiences of mainland China.
“On one hand it is an homage to, or an exploitation of, the Bruce Lee films,” said Li Cheuk-to, a Hong Kong film critic. “On the other hand it is a calculated move to please the audience, especially the Chinese in the mainland market, where anti-Japanese and xenophobic sentiments are stronger than in Hong Kong.”
But politics is ultimately secondary. The Ip Man movies live or die on the strength of their fight scenes .
In Hollywood brawls, digitally abetted staccato edits and shaky, off-center perspectives increasingly create a visceral impression of tumult at the expense of coherence.
But even at their most kinetic the best Hong Kong movies generally ensure that a viewer is able to follow the action. Bruce Lee was often filmed in shots that framed him head to toe, the better to show off his moves.
For the kung fu fan sheer physical ability remains the greatest special effect. “To do an action as simple as standing on a wooden pole takes great skill,” Mr. Yip said. “No amount of technology can recreate that, even today.”
By DENNIS LIM
