The Film
We knew nothing about the 2008 martial arts film, Ip Man, going in. It was shocking to find out that Ip Man was a real man, and the mentor of Bruce Lee.
However, the Lee years aren't part of this short look at the man's history. Instead, the film focuses on Ip Man (Donnie Yen) in the 1930s, even though the movie does have a bit of a modern flavor to it.
Ip seems to spend a lot of time talking about martial arts and even doing the deed. He's known as a bit of a master in the city of Foshan. Of course, that prestige doesn't do him a whole lot of good when the Japanese invade in 1937 -- at least for a while. Ip soon goes to work in a coal mine, while his neighbors are forced to fight the military in exchange for bags of rice. After a friend goes missing, Ip defeats 10 soldiers in one swoop. That achievement helps him to regain attention, although not necessarily in a good way.
Ip Man is a well-produced movie, with a nice mix of history and martial arts. It's a surprisingly interesting look at an interesting figure.
The Picture
This 2.35:1 transfer appears to be clean and certainly acceptable for Blu-ray, but it could have been so much better. All of the colors are extremely muted and toned down, which was most likely the filmmaker's intention. The picture overall is very bright, but sort of boring. Considering the backdrop and the movie's subject matter, it would have been nice to see color and/or detail pop a bit better.
The movie defaults to the English language DTS-HD Master Audio track, with options for DTS-HD in Cantonese and Mandarin. We opted to flip through the various languages, adding in the English subtitles where needed. All three tracks presented the sound pretty impressively. We found the native Cantonese to be the most enjoyable. The Mandarin had a good sound, but appeared to be a little out of sync with its on-screen counterpart. Most noteworthy is that the English dub is actually pretty good. While so many dubbed movies come off as incredibly cheesy, they actually seemed to find voice actors (that can act!) for this one.
The actual audio mix is a bit of a mixed bag. The opening dialogue is insanely low, but quickly gets better. From there, the volume levels are inconsistent throughout the film. Although the dialogue perks up a bit, the action will have you scrambling to turn down the volume. That action consists of a lot of jabs, kicks and even a bit of ambient sound. Not the best, but sure to give your home theater system (and your ears) a work-out.
The Extras
For many Blu-ray Discs, we're hard-pressed to find a reason that something would get dubbed the "Collector's Edition" considering the general lack of special features on many of these. This set is one of those nice exceptions. On the actual feature disc, the selection of extras is fairly slim. There are trailers, deleted scenes, and an 18-minute making-of featurette, which is a must-see for fans of the movie. However, the set has a whole other bonus disc, which includes three additional features. All are available with or without English subtitles, but there are no dubs for any of the extras. Each one is worthy of a quick peek -- with the exception of the "Interviews" segment, which provides a lengthy peek at each of the movie's main (and not-so-main) characters.
Just a general note about the main feature disc: It does kick off with four previews, which apparently cannot be skipped over. These previews must be seen! We did watch -- on fast-forward.
Final Thoughts
Although the image is slightly lacking, Ip Man has good acting and a good story. The audio and extras also help to make up for some of the release's shortcomings, making this a must-buy for martial-arts fans.
Product Details
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