IP MAN 4: THE FINALE (2020)
Label: Well Go USA
Region Code: A
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 106 Minutes
Audio: Cantonese Dolby Atmos, English DTS-HD MA 5.1 with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080P HD Widescreen (2.39:1)
Director: Wilson Yip
Cast: Donnie Yen, Wu Yue, Vanness Wu, Scott Adkins, Kent Cheng, Danny Chan, Ngo Ka-nin
Synopsis: Donnie Yen reprises his role as the legendary Wing Chun master in the grand finale of the revolutionary martial arts series. Following the death of his wife, Ip Man travels to San Francisco to ease tensions between the local kung fu masters and his star student, Bruce Lee, while searching for a better future for his son. From the action visionary behind Kill Bill and The Matrix, witness the heroic sendoff to the saga that inspired a new wave of martial arts movie fans.
Coming into the fourth entry of this series I thought not having seen the earlier trilogy I would be at a bit of a deficit, if you like myself find yourself in a similiar situation I will just say that while I probably missed out on some enriching details that might have been established in the earlier entries I had no issue getting straight into it without that benefit, it seemed very self-contained.
Getting into it, we have Master Ip (Donnie Yen, Blade II) who was a former master of the legendary Bruce Lee. We find out that he's lost his wife and he has been recently diagnosed with an inoperable cancer. At home he clashes with his rebellious teen son Ip Chang (Jim Liu) who has recently been expelled from school following a skirmish
over a comic book. They also argue over the son wanting to follow in his father's foot steps as a a kung fu master, but the father wants his son to pursue studies. To that end he accepts an invitation from his former pupil Brice Lee (Danny Chen, Kung Fu Hustle) to travel to America to the city of San Francisco to see him perform at a kung fu exhibition, taking advantage of the invite to try an to enroll his son into a prestigious
school in San Francisco.
It turns out that acceptance to the academy is contingent upon getting a letter from Wan Zong-hua (Wu Yue, Little Big Soldier), the influential chairman of the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association. The letter turns out to be harder to get than anticipated, as Wan vehemently disagrees with Ip Man's former pupil Bruce Lee teaching Kung Fu to white Easterners in America, creating a division of principle.
As the story plays out Yip Man contends with seeking the approval of Wan Zong-hua while also facing off against a racist elements, including Marine Corp.Gunnery Sargent Barton Geddes (Scott Adkins, The Bourne Ultimatum), who opposes the idea of teaching kung fu to U.S. soldiers, favoring what he deems to be the superior fighting style, Japanese karate. The film also examines themes of family, loyalty and tradition. That said, the action in this film is absolutely fantastic, the scenes of baddie Geddes using brutal karate to defeat various kung fu competitors leading up to the first of several encounters with Ip man are fantastic and pleasingly violent. The action is fluid and graceful, well-shot and quite wonderful to behold. While I am not a connoisseur of kung fu films I had a lot of fun with this one. It's attractively lensed and I love that it's not all quick edits, you can really watch the fights and get a feel for it, you see what's happening. There's a bit of wire-fu here but not a lot, what we get is a real kinetic presentation that celebrates the art form with pleasing visuals and tight choreography.
Sitting comfortably alongside the action sequences the story is full of good dramatic storytelling that examines Ip man's troubled relationship with his son, and a friendship he develops with Wan Zong-hua's daughter Yonah (Vanda Margraf) after rescuing her from a group of vicious highschool bullies, a friendship that gives him insight into his relationship with his own son. It all adds-up to a well-rounded story with equal parts stunning kung fu and emotionally charged drama, plus it's extremely well-acted and it looks great.
Audio/Video: Ip Man 4 arrives on Blu-ray & DVD combo from Well Go USA framed in the original 2.39:1 in 1080p HD. The look of the film is stylized with a softer pastel color-grading that I thought looked great. The eggshell coloring gives it a bit of an artificial vintage-patina, not sure how authentic that is to the period but as a visual style I loved it. Depth and clarity are strong, black levels are mostly solid and the skin tones look fairly natural throughout.
Audio comes by way of the original Cantonese in Dolby Atmos or an awkwardly dubbed English DTS-HD MA 5.1 mix with optional English
subtitles. The Cantonese features some occasional English dialogue and offers the most natural sounding presentation but I sorta dig the English-dub version. While I did enjoy the hokey English dub I give the Atmos a strong advantage over the English dub, the Atmos surround action is impactful and immersive, it's not even a contest.
The accompanying extras are not that great to be honest, we get three 2-min each featurettes, as someone who only has seen this entry I would have loved a deep-dive retrospective into the whole series with reflections from the main participants. The 2-disc Blu-ray/DVD combo arrives in a standard 2-disc keepcase with a single-sided sleeve of artwork featuring the original movie poster.
Special Features:
- Making Of (2 min) HD
- The 10-Year Legend (2 min)HD
- The Story (2 min) HD
- Trailers HD
I had a blast watching Ip Man 4: The Finale, so much so that I will definitely be seeking out the previous three films, with the popular consensus being that the first movies are the best in the bunch, so I am looking forward to checking them out. The Blu-ray from Well Go USA looks and sounds great, I appreciate them giving the Blu-ray a Atmos soundtrack, it is also available on 4K Ultra HD, which I can only imagine looks stunning.
More Screenshots from the Blu-ray:
