China Film Journal

We all know how these biopics go. You have the kick-ass kungfu master: he’s not morally perfect, but he’s a good guy.
He has integrity when it counts. Family and nation above all. He doesn’t want to become famous, he doesn’t want to be an icon. But those dirty Japs just keep going around shooting, raping, and pillaging. So he has to show them we Chinese may be down, but not out. We will no collaborate to save our own skins. And those who do, well, their comeuppance will come in due time.

Like Wong Fei-hung, Fok Yuen-Gep (both played by Jet Li), Ip Man’s general storyline is fairly standard. What makes the film slightly better is that it lacks the wire-fu and melodrama. The whole movie is fairly down-to-earth and generally un-annoying, a virtue in itself. The real star of the film is Wing-Chun style of kung-fu—which is visually quite distinctive, the movements are compact and yet powerful. Instead of heavy left-hooks, you have all four limbs moving together; it’s both fluid and poetic. In fact, it seems that part of the reason why Wing-Chun always beats other types of kung-fu (including karate, and Thai boxing, in some videos seen on the net), is because it lets the opponent make these huge, flailing moves: the roundhouse kicks, etc.— and then takes advantage of the temporary chinks in the armor that these moves expose.

Anyhow, Donnie Yen is a bit more fun to watch than Jet Li, if only because we are too Jet Li-saturated. Yen plays Ip just right. No melodrama, no over-acting. Just the normal amount of emotion you’d expect from someone in his sometimes unenviable position.

Last note: his wife, played by Lynn Hung (Xiong Dailin)—her acting is nothing to write home about. But she is ineffably lovely as the typically virtuous Chinese wife.

The China Daily reports that Zhang Ziyi (章子怡) is planning on establishing a film production company with the likes of Wendi Murdoch. Another partner the article mentions is Florence Sloan.One interesting tidbit that the article mentions is that one of the projects this company is working is a film about the Empress Wu (武则天), a film in which Zhang will not only act (as the lead we presume?) but also produce.

Chen Kaige (陈凯歌）just finished production on the long-awaited biopic of Peking opera singer Mei Lanfang (梅兰芳).They are now moving into post-production. The article says that it’s still unclear when the film will be released and what festivals it’s going to play.In slightly related news, one of the actresses in that movie is Gillian Chung, most recently of Edison Chen photo scandal fame. She had a role in Chen’s movie, but what with all the new censorship rules and the moral brouhaha caused by the whole thing, word is that her scenes might get cut, though the film’s producer denies that.There are some books, like this one called “Peking Opera and Mei Lanfang” (Zuguang), which might help get you up to speed on the life and times of the famed singer. 

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