Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

...And not only in the life of our protagonist, Grandmaster Ip Man (Donnie Yen), but Ip Man 2 fails to become as good and soulful as the first movie.It's like you'd watch Rocky 2-3-4 in a Hong Kong setting. The plot is pretty much the same. Ip Man and his family moved to HK. They are poor, are expecting their second child and Master Ip struggles to set his feet here as a renowned martial arts master. When he finally finds some students, he quickly finds himself in a hostile environment, as rival masters want him to pay fee and join their club to become an 'official' master. But after dealing with this situation, there comes the third act, and it's bad foreigners disrespecting and abusing Chinese all over again.---SOME SPOILERS FROM NOW ON---I had to ask myself while watching this the first time ever: am I watching Rocky 2-3-4 or is this Ip Man 2? The similarity is exceptional here: the financial struggles, the pregnant wife, the adversary (Sammo Hung) who proves to be an equal of Ip, but later they became friends and they respect each-other, the unbeatable foreign fighter who hates this culture and beats said friend, the revenge match under heavy circumstances, the final speech given by Ip Man with the used to be hostile British accepting and praising him after-wards. The list might be longer, but these are the cornerstones of this movie's story.---SPOILERS END---And don't get me wrong, I like Rocky 2-4, I liked this one as well. Even when it was increasingly difficult to take this seriously. My problem with the movie is different though. You see, while Ip Man had amazing fight scenes, it also had a heart, a great atmosphere and a message. It was nice to see how Ip stands against the Japanese, defends his culture while being so humble and elegant. Actually, the story is the same here but without the elegance. Much of the fight scenes are over the top (I know, it's what you expect when watching a kung-fu movie, but it's at least one level over the first movie), and they follow each other without much logic. The only reason here is to have a good fight. "You claim to be a master? Prove it. Beat me" - says the student. "You claim to be a master? Prove it. Avoid falling" - says the guild of masters. "You claim that Chinese kung-fu is superior to boxing? Beat me." - says the British champ. Everyone wants to fight here. And this sadly shadows the soul of the movie and also Donnie Yen's great performance (example: Ip vs 10 Japs was believable under those circumstances. It was a serious and sad scene, powerful. Ip vs 20 students trying to kill him at the fish market is not.) Ip Man 2 is not a bad movie, and is highly recommended to anyone who loves martial arts movies! But if you only enjoyed the first film because of it's atmosphere and soul (while tolerating the action), you may want to avoid this one.

Life is never easy when you're a martial arts master: there's always someone on your case, insisting that you prove your skills. Take Ip Man for example…Having been wounded by the Japanese, Wing Chun expert Ip Man (Donnie Yen) escapes to Hong Kong where he sets up a school to teach his style of kung fu. The first potential pupil to show up is Wong Leung, who says he will only pay for lessons if Ip Man can defeat him, which he does; ashamed, Leung runs away. Leung returns later with several of his friends who team up to try and beat Ip Man, but to no avail. They realise that Ip man is a true master and beg for him to become their sifu.Word soon spreads and Ip Man's class grows steadily larger, but when Leung is kidnapped and held to ransom by the students of a rival school, the Wing Chun master must once again prove his worth, by freeing Leung and beating the rival students. This brings him to the attention of master Hung Chun-Nam (Sammo Hung), who runs the local guild of martial arts schools. Ip Man is told he can only continue to teach Wing Chun if he takes a test against the other masters. Yet again, Ip Man has no choice but to show what he's made of, beating several masters and matching Hung in a one-on-one.Ip Man is accepted by the guild but is told that he must pay a monthly fee of $100; he refuses to accept their terms, but continues to teach, which causes more friction that results in a massive street brawl.Ip Man goes to smooth out matters with Hung, and earns the guild master's respect. Hung makes a peace offering in the form of tickets to a western boxing match being organised by Superintendent Wallace, a corrupt British officer in the Hong Kong police force. At the match, star boxer 'Twister' Miller (Darren Shahlavi) insults the Chinese fighters who are demonstrating their skills, saying that kung fu is no match for boxing. Hung enters the ring to defend his culture and accepts a challenge from Twister. Sadly, Hung is killed during the match. During a press conference to try and placate the Chinese, Twister once again boasts that he can beat any of their fighters. Guess who accepts the challenge…This sequel to the hugely popular Ip Man (2008) once again blends fact with fiction to tell the exploits of the Chinese national hero who would later go on to train superstar Bruce Lee. Taken with a pinch of salt, it proves to be hugely entertaining stuff, with Yen exercising both his acting and his fighting muscles to the fullest. The fish market fight against the rival students is a little far fetched, and the martial arts scenes rely a little too much on wire-work for me to find them fully satisfying, but with Sammo Hung as action director, and super fast moves and incredible athleticism from star Yen, there's still plenty to make the jaw drop.Sammo Hung also shows that he's still got what it takes in front of the camera, with his fights against Ip Man and Twister being a lot of fun, but it is the Wing Chun master's fight against the Ivan Drago-style bad guy in the final act that inevitably proves to be the highlight—a brutal smack-down guaranteed to please all but the most fussy of martial arts fans.7.5 out of 10, rounded up to 8 for IMDb.

Ip Man 2 is a huge step backwards from the original Ip Man. It lacks the compelling drama and the excellent characterizations that made the first film so successful. Instead, the filmmakers decided to focus a little more on the action and it shows as the fight scenes here are a lot more over-the-top and fantastical this time around. But is it a still a good movie? Let's take a look, shall we?First, let's take a look at the story. The story here... just isn't too great. I'm not going to do a plot synopsis since this is IMDb so you can easily find it on this site. Besides, you've probably already seen this film. But the story here is just too far-fetched and exaggerated. Sammo Hung's disciples in this movie feel like comic-book villains because they are so ridiculously violent and meat-headed, it's ridiculous! I know that you need villains in a kung-fu movie but these guys are just ridiculous! But surprisingly, they aren't the most over-the-top thing about this movie. There's an English boxer named Twister in this movie who is our main antagonist and he is so over-the-top, so cartoonish, it's downright racist! This is another one of those martial arts movies where it paints Chinese people as good and English people as scum. It's really sad how this movie goes back to all these kung-fu movie clichés that the first film avoided. There's also a billion sub-plots here that don't have any real purpose. Ip Man's wife is pregnant, Ip Man's business friend got shot in the head so he now has amnesia, Ip Man's teenager friend becomes a hit in writing newspaper, Ip Man's former enemy has now settled down and became a new man etc. These sub-plots are just random and they don't add much to the film so I have no fricking idea why they are even here.There are a few things I like about this story, though. I like how proactive Ip Man is now since he learned his lesson about using his martial arts for good in the first film. I like how Sammo Hung's character isn't one-dimensional. He's a bit of a jerk but we also see him slowly learn to accept Ip Man so there is something that's refreshing about his character. There's also a really cool Bruce Lee cameo at the end of the film.The acting is pretty good here with the exception of Darren Shahlavi as Twister who's just hamming up his performance to absurd degrees. Lastly, the fight choreography is probably the best of all the Ip Man films. Here, Ip Man is in a lot more danger than he was in the first film. He gets attacked by 20 people with knives, he fights Sammo Hung who is probably the most equal of all his opponents, and he fights Twister who is probably his most dangerous foe yet. Yes, even more dangerous than the Japanese general in the first film.Overall, it's not a very good story but it has some good performances, amazing fight choreography, and it's pretty entertaining. It's not a must-watch but if it's on television or Netflix, I'd say check it out. I'm gonna give it a 5/10.

¨Master, you really can fight ten men at once! ¨I don't think there is anyone as exciting as Donnie Yen when it comes to martial arts, and once again he delivers with some very impressive moves and some great choreographed fighting scenes. What Ip Man 2 lacks in storytelling, it makes up for in cool action sequences. This sequel may not live up to the original, but it still is an entertaining movie, and you can never get enough of Donnie Yen. He is just such a natural on screen and his moves are superb; this role was made for him. Yen teams up once again with brilliant director, Wilson Yip, with whom he has worked five times already, and with screenwriter Edmond Wong. The spectacular choreographed fighting scenes were directed by Sammo Hung Kam-Bo who also had a supporting role in this film. The story is like an oriental version of Rocky with Sammo Hung Kam-Bo playing a similar character to that of Apollo Creed and Donnie Yen, Rocky. He begins as sort of a villain, but ends up befriending Ip Man and facing the British version of Drago, Twister. The enemy in this film is the oppressive British regime. This martial art movie was a huge blockbuster in Hong Kong. Despite it having terrific action scenes, it does fail story wise with poor developed characters and some highly stereotyped Brits as the enemy. On the other hand, it is very fast paced and has a lot of action that is worth your time because the martial art scenes are extremely well choreographed and among the best I've seen. The movie picks up right where the first left off as Yip Man (Donnie Yen) migrates from Foshan (after the war with the Japanese) to Hong Kong which happens to be under British colonial rule. Yip Man has a hard time adapting to Hong Kong as his martial art discipline of Wing Chun is unknown in this place. He finally finds one student who seems to be interested in learning this new technique but he encounters some resistance from other martial arts masters who claim he has to pass a test in order to be allowed to teach martial arts in their land. Master Hung Chun-Nam (Sammo Hung Kam-Bo) resists Yip Man at first, but slowly begins to befriend him when they find a common enemy. A western boxer named Twister (Darren Shahlavi) has come to defy their sport by claiming that he can defeat any martial art master. The question then becomes whether or not Yip Man and Master Hung can defend the pride of their nation over this boxing killing machine who has defied them. Lynn Hung reprises her role as Cheung Wing-Sing, Yip Man's wife who has migrated with him to Hong Kong. The discipline of Wing Chun involves a lot of close combat so that makes the action scenes much more interesting because everything becomes up close and personal. There are some issues with the storytelling but everything is just an excuse for the next stylized action scene. These fights never disappoint and you don't get tired of them. The film is nationalistic and that explains the Brit stereotypes. Yip Man 2 claims to be a real life story, but it is more of a fiction work than a bio film. The only true fact about this film is that Yip Man was Bruce Lee's Master, but all the events in this film happen prior to that and are mostly made up. Seeing Yen in action is what really makes this film worthwhile, but if you are expecting it to live up to its predecessor then you might leave a bit disappointed. http://estebueno10.blogspot.com/