Ip Man 叶问
Ip Man taught Wing Chun in Hong Kong for more than twenty years. His students opened schools of their own, and the name of one of them, Bruce Lee Siu-Lung, was known far beyond Hong Kong while the master was still alive. Cinema turned to Ip Man's own biography much later. Wilson Yip Wai-Shun made a series of action films with Donnie Yen Ji-Dan, while Herman Yau Lai-To and Wong Kar-Wai told of other episodes in his life and cast other actors in the lead role.
Ip Man (葉問) was born in Foshan in 1893. According to the biography presented at his Foshan memorial, he studied under Chan Wah-Shun as a child. After his master's death, he was helped by the senior student Ng Chung-So. As a teenager, Ip Man studied in Hong Kong, where, according to the same biography, he took lessons from Leung Bik, the son of master Leung Jan. Later he lived in Foshan, served in the police, and in 1949 moved to Hong Kong.
At first he taught Wing Chun at the restaurant workers' union. His student Chu Shong-Tin recalled that the classes began in 1950. According to Ip Ching, the master's son, his father first made sure a student could hold his stance firmly and understood the basic movements, and only then moved on to more complex material. Ip Ching himself assisted his father from 1962. In the mid-1950s, Bruce Lee began training with Ip Man. Many of the master's students later became teachers themselves. Ip Man died in Hong Kong in 1972.
Wilson Yip's Ip Man (2008) turned the master into the hero of a major Hong Kong action film. Donnie Yen plays Ip Man. The film is set during the Japanese occupation, and the hero has to fight soldiers. In the sequels he moves to Hong Kong, in Ip Man 3 he meets a character played by Mike Tyson, and in Ip Man 4 (2019) he travels to the United States. The duels with soldiers, the encounter with Tyson's character and the trip to America were invented for the screen.
The Legend Is Born - Ip Man (2010), starring Dennis To, shows the master's youth. The Grandmaster (2013) by Wong Kar-Wai, with Tony Leung Chiu-Wai, also tells of other masters whom war and relocation scattered across different cities. Herman Yau's Ip Man: The Final Fight (2013), with Anthony Wong, turns to Ip Man's Hong Kong years, when he was already known as a teacher and students themselves brought their acquaintances to him.
