I turned on the TV a few nights ago to see if any good films were on as it was late and I was bored. I turn to Ip Man 2 which after first thinking it was a film based on a video game character, I learn is supposed to be a biopic.
The first half of this film was a standard martial arts film with lots of Chinese men fighting each other. I think the main character Pac-Man - sorry, Ip Man was apparently not respected because of his style but gains respect from masters of other styles after he beats them. The fight scenes are pretty ridiculous and over-choreographed; wires were obviously used. The first half was therefore acceptable standard fare for Hong Kong films.
Unfortunately, the second half is where it gets worse. All the way through it, I was asking myself "what on Earth is happening?" and "how is this even possible?" There is no way any of this could be real, it's just too stupid.
Firstly, all the white people are complete caricatures of colonial stereotypes. Every white person hates Chinese people and mercilessly beats them, subdues them and oppresses them. There were three main white characters: firstly, a police chief who said his lines so woodenly and with so little emotion that he couldn't possibly be an actor: he just can't be; secondly a police inspector who has so little respect for the local population that I fail to see how his superiors thought employing him was a good idea: he was bound to cause an incident sooner or later; and thirdly, a British boxer who for some reason hates everything Chinese with a passion: he also couldn't act.
Somehow, and I kept asking myself how the plot turned this way, the police inspector organises a boxing competition by importing a British boxer named "Twister" (we never actually hear his real name; perhaps he's like Cher and has only one name). The boxer is so one-dimensional he makes Dr. Evil look deep. Anyway, the boxing tournament with only one boxer (!) was supposed to follow a demonstration of Chinese martial arts. The boxer can't contain his contempt and anger and no one seems to stop him when he starts beating up every single martial artist in the ring single handedly. Following this, a middle-aged martial arts master called Well-Hung or something feels disrespected and demands an apology and surprise surprise the boxer will only give it to him if he loses in a match to Well-Hung.
By this time, I thought I was watching a comical, ironic parody. The boxer wears his gloves and easily defeats the martial arts master, Well-Hung, and kills him in the ring. Why on Earth would this happen? The boxer is wearing gloves, and only uses his fists while the martial artist uses bear knuckles and kicks! It's ludicrous! After Well-Hung dies I realised this film is quickly turning into a blatant rip off of Rocky IV except not as good. Pac-Man looks on while the master is dying, he refuses to throw in the towel because Well-Hung wants to defend his honour even at the cost of his own life and then Pac-Man decides to fight the boxer in the ring to get revenge. There's even a small training montage with Pac-Man's wife and son looking on! How can people take this Rocky IV parody seriously?! The pre-fight talk where Pac-Man challenges the boxer has some sort of speech by the boxer who says that he will fight someone for as long as a joss stick burns. He then laughs about how stupid joss sticks are and Pac-Man gets offended. Needless to say, we never hear about joss sticks again.
So we get to the fight and we KNOW what's going to happen and who'll win don't we? Firstly, problems with the fight: Pac-Man seems to be able to defeat numerous skilled martial artists and masters sometimes simultaneously as seen in the first film and in this yet he has difficulty with ONE boxer who only punches AND is wearing gloves; believable? As if. After Pac-Man kicks the boxer and performs low blows, the judges change the rules so that he can't kick. Except, he still kicks afterwards, oh and he does rabbit punches, elbowing, choking, eye gouging, arm twisting and other moves about which no one complains all with no gloves on. Why did the judges only think of the rules after the fight starts? They would KNOW Pac-Man would want to do all these moves!
The boxer knocked down Pac-Man twice and was beating him mercilessly and the referee didn't stop the fight and one time he was knocked down, the count went to nine and he wasn't up on ten yet was allowed to continue! What sort of boxing match is this? It's completely unbelievable! After getting knocked down again and remembering his fallen hero, Well-Hung, Pac-Man decides to get up again and uses various moves the boxer isn't allowed to do and gets him down and starts punching his face repeatedly all while the referee does nothing. Why does the referee allow Pac-Man time to get up when the boxer knocks him down but allows Pac-Man to punch the boxer repeatedly in the face after he's been knocked down? Oh, but the boxer's unfair too because he got ONE (count it, ONE) punch in after the bell went. All while this was going on, I was asking "what the hell is happening here?" The Rocky IV rip off continues afterwards too. Pac-Man gives a speech about how we should all get along with the boxer listening from the corner and the evil white men clapping along in the audience having changed their minds and gained respect for the foreign underdog.
Awful, awful rubbish. The acting, the concept, the plot, the fight scenes and the clichés make this film one of the worst I've seen.
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