Nice to see Woo-ping come back to some street fighting as opposed to wirework (not that I'd ever complain about the wirework). Adkins is a really terrific racist gweilo bad guy even if I think it's weird that there's apparently no military discipline whatsoever in this movie's Marines (his righteous Wing Chun-practicing victim/subordinate never even bothers to call his antagonizing DI "Sir"). The whole thing is revisionist Chinese propaganda of course, which makes it doubly funny to me that it's being offered up in some corners as a corrective to Tarantino's portrayal of Bruce Lee, but that's a whole other conversation. Anyway I could watch Donnie Yen do the ass-kicking sage thing all day long, and this is that.

If I back down, I'm no longer chinese

I love that Bruce Lee is clearly better at Kung Fu than Ip Man in the finale of Ip Man's own quadrilogy. It's a testament to Ip Man and the culture that it's all about the Kung Fu and his legacy is carried on by his student. I also love that this installment more clearly showed the language barrier as a problem. I don't know why they insist on having so many unnecessary and shameless cancer subplots and just a million extra forgettable subplots in every movie. The English dialogue is a bigger problem than ever because Chinese culture doesn't fit the western lifestyle AT ALL and it's quite jarring, but overall this is a Kung Fu movie and the duels are an excellent return to form. But the English dialogue is atrocious.

Inszeniert mit der Zurückhaltung und dem erzählerischen Feingefühl einer Wrestling-Promo, erzählt „Ip Man 4“ eine Geschichte, die sogar mancher Karate-Trashgranate aus den 80ern zu käsig gewesen wäre und zoomt dann immer dann wenn‘s aufs Maul gibt zu krachendem TamTam heraus, irgendwer ruft „Das klären wir...IM RING“ und zack - 10 Minuten Getrete und Geboxe, bis die Choreografen nicht mehr wollen. 

Ein Bisschen hat das was von „Mortal Kombat“-StoryModus, ist aber auch ganz viel Seifenoper mit gelegentlichen Druckimpulsen auf die Tränendrüse. Die Action ist sauber, aber für Serienverhältnisse wenig besonders. Scott Adkins zuzusehen wird aber trotzdem nicht langweilig.

Leider entgleist „Ip Man 4“ ab der Hälfte recht unschön, weil aus der hirnrissigen, aber charmanten Lachnummer plötzlich ätzende Propaganda wird. Gegen Ende war das selbst mir zu anti-amerikanisch, weil aus dem Kampf gegen Rassisten plötzlich der Feldzug gegen „die Weißen“ wurde. So endet das Finale auf einer unangenehm bitteren Note.

This marks the first film I saw in a theater in 2020.

Set in the 1960s, Ip Man (Donnie Yen) travels to San Francisco to try to find a school for his son. On the way, he encounters Bruce Lee (Kwok-Kwan Chan) who is portrayed here better than in Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood and Wan Zong Hua (Yue Wu), the man who is able to give his son a recommendation to get into a top school but is too hesitant.

There is some stunning choreography and a heart-felt story. The story explores different forms of fighting including karate, kung fu, and Wing Chun (an offshoot of kung fu). There were great characters, including Yonah (Vanda Margraf), a Chinese-American who is bullied at school.

Vegan alert:
-Fried chicken joint
-Sign that says "Hot dogs 15 cents"

Kampfchoreo hui, Story pfui.

(J)

And here I thought "Ip Man 3" felt digressive and soap opera-like! "The Finale" has its predecessor beat in that regard—for one thing, there's a subplot about a bullied cheerleader—but damn if I didn't get a little emotional when Ip Man steps into the ring to defend the honor of kung fu. There's something about this character as personified by Donnie Yen that's become iconic as a protector of the oppressed; it still works even after four films. And then we have Scott Adkins clearly having a blast playing a drill sergeant so over the top, even R. Lee Ermey would tell him to calm down.

For some reason in this series the quality of each movie in the series seems directly tied to how much of propaganda it is. This was the third best in the series and also the third most propaganda-ey. The action in this film was a really good in-between of the first and second, and the story was far more coherent than the third.

Racist white people be like “this is my black panther 😍” but for real the racism is off the charts here. Felt like I was back in a Modern Warfare 2 Xbox chat lobby. Pretty sure this film is going to set race relations between America and China back 50 years. The fights manage to get better with each Ip Man movie and this is no exception. They keep crawling closer into magical realism and every punch sounds like they added a movie trailer swish hit but it's the hypest shit ever. Scott Adkins gets two great fights and a ton of hammy acting. I’m glad I got to end 2019 on a high note because this year has been terrible for action.

A lot of fighting, a lot of kicking and a lot of racism. 
White people thought they could fight Ip Man. Lol

Fuck I almost cried. I know, I still haven’t seen Ip Man 1 & 2. Don’t judge me lol

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

Lmao

Really bad at parts and surprisingly touching at parts. Probably not intentional but this is the funniest in the series. The action in particular is probably the second best in the series.

A.K.A. The one with Scott Adkins in it. Again much like the previous two sequels it does suffer from diminishing returns.  The martial arts sequences are a little lacklustre too as there’s not a lot extra they can add at this point.  Also, the first real fight doesn’t occur until the 45 minute mark which is somewhat of a struggle to get to.  Bruce Lee pops up a couple more times in this one but doesn’t really add anything to proceedings.  The final showdown with Adkins racist staff Sargent is decent but by that point it’s too little too late.  Overall a decent martial arts series, but the first Ip Man was really hard to surpass.

A visual treat

Even Adkins couldn’t save this.

Adkins vs Donnie 🔥🔥🔥

The fourth and final Ip Man film, like the other sequels, is maybe a bit too goofy for its own good, but that's not too big of a deal. The impressively choreographed martial arts sequences are of course the main attraction, and they're so fun to watch that the movie gets somewhat of a pass for being a little lacking in the story and characters. All of the villains are so cartoonishly evil and racist that it's not even all that interesting to see how the plot plays out; you're mostly just looking forward to watching Donnie Yen beat the crap out of them.

SO FUCKING ICONIIIIC
YAAAS MASTER MAKE HIM CHOKE IN HIS OWN BLOOD AND RECOVER YOUR HONOR 🥵🥵🥵🥵🥵🥵🥵🥵🥵🥵🥵🥵🥵🥵🥵