Ip Man 4: The Finale


Ip Man 4: The Finale is a 2019 Hong Kong martial arts film directed by Wilson Yip and produced by Raymond Wong. It is the fourth and final film in the Ip Man film series based on the life of the Wing Chun grandmaster of the same name and features Donnie Yen reprising the role. The film began production in April 2018 and ended in July of the same year. It was released on 20 December 2019.

Plot

In 1964, following the death of his wife, Ip Man discovers he has throat cancer due to smoking. After his rebellious son Ip Ching fights back against a bully and is expelled from school, Ip decides to travel to San Francisco in order to look for study opportunities, asking his friend Bob to keep an eye on his son. His student, Bruce Lee, has upset the local martial arts community in San Francisco by opening a Wing Chun school, teaching non-Chinese people martial arts and writing an English-language book on martial arts. He discovers from an associate and his friend Liang Gen that, because he is a foreigner, a referral letter from the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association is needed to enroll into a school. Grandmaster Wan Zhong-hua, the Association's president, refuses to write the letter as Ip is unbothered by Lee's actions, whereas the other grandmasters are against him. After a brief confrontation with Wan, he leaves.
While leaving the school after a meeting with the principal, he chances upon Wan's daughter, Yonah, being bullied by a rival cheerleader, Becky, and her friends. Yonah fights back somewhat but she is ultimately outnumbered, and Ip steps in to rescue her. He escorts Yonah home, where Wan accuses Ip of using his daughter merely to get the letter and challenges him to a fight for it. The duel is interrupted by an earthquake, and Wan tells Ip they will finish their fight at the upcoming Mid-Autumn Festival. Ip refuses, explaining that he merely accompanied Yonah home for her own safety, and leaves.
Becky lies to her parents that she had been bullied. Her father Walters, an officer of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, is pressured into holding the Association responsible and deporting all Chinese associated with them. Meanwhile, Hartman, a Staff Sergeant in the United States Marines and student of Lee, attempts to convince Barton Geddes, the Gunnery Sergeant on his base, to incorporate Chinese martial arts into their hand-to-hand combat training. Geddes, an arrogant and openly racist man, proves the Marines' current Karate training superior by having Hartman fight the Marines' Karate instructor, Colin Frater, who defeats him. Hartman later manages to convince the unit's Commanding Officer of Chinese kung fu's potential, and is instructed to film the Mid-Autumn Festival happening at the Association for research purposes, infuriating Geddes.
Geddes instructs Frater to challenge the grandmasters at the Festival. Frater proves his strength by defeating three grandmasters in a row until Ip intervenes and beats him badly, hospitalising him. Meanwhile, Wan, who was supposed to be present at the festival, is arrested by the immigration officers. Upon seeing Frater in the hospital, Geddes barges into the Association to find out where Wan is. Revealing his own martial arts prowess, he brutally defeats all the grandmasters present. He then threatens Walters to release Wan into the Marines' custody before bringing Wan into the camp to fight him. Due to a tip-off by Billy, a subordinate of Walters and another student of Lee, the Association is left empty by the time the immigration officers conduct their raid. Lee provides refuge for the Association, earning their respect.
At first, Wan is able to match Geddes' blows, but is eventually overwhelmed and seriously injured. An emotional Ip reveals to Bob that he has cancer, which finally compels Ip Ching to talk to his father over the phone, after many failed attempts by Ip. Ip is brought into the Marines' camp by Hartman, and ultimately defeats Geddes in a long and savage fight.
Wan prepares the referral letter for Ip, but the latter states that he does not need it as he does not intend to move to San Francisco, having realized that America is not what he imagined. Ip reconciles with his son after returning. A strong but weary Ip instructs his son to film him as he demonstrates Wing Chun on the wooden dummy.
In 1972, Ip succumbs to his cancer at age 79, and Lee pays respect to his master at the funeral. An epilogue reveals that the Marines officially incorporated Chinese martial arts into their training in 2001.

Cast

In addition, several actors appear in cameos as characters from the previous films in a flashback sequence via archive footage, including Lynn Hung as Cheung Wing-sing, Ip Man's deceased wife; Gordon Lam as Li Chiu, a police officer from Foshan; Huang Xiaoming as Wong Leung, Ip Man's first student; Sammo Hung as Hung Chun-nam, a Hung Ga master; Mike Tyson as Frank, an American property developer; Sarut Khanwilai as Suchart, a Thai Boxer; Zhang Jin as Cheung Tin-chi, a Wing Chun master who was defeated by Ip Man in a duel; Darren Shahlavi as Taylor "The Twister" Miller, an arrogant and racist English boxing champion who was defeated by Ip Man; and Simon Yam as Chow Ching-chuen, Ip Man's old friend.

Production

On 30 September 2016, Donnie Yen announced that he and series director Wilson Yip would return for the fourth film in the series. Writer Edmond Wong also returned. Producer Raymond Wong said he paid Yen "a hefty amount of money" to return for the fourth film. Principal photography began in April 2018, and ended that July. Filming locations included China, and Preston, Lancashire. In September 2019, Donnie Yen said Ip Man 4 would be the last film in the series.

Release

Ip Man 4: The Finale was released on December 20, 2019. The film had a limited release on December 25, 2019, in the United States distributed by Well Go USA.

Reception

The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 90% of critics have given the film a positive review based on around 30 reviews. The site's critics consensus reads, "Packed with action and featuring some of Donnie Yen's finest fighting, Ip Man 4: The Finale serves as a satisfying rebound – and fitting finale – for the franchise." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 62 out of 100 based on 11 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews."
According to the Malaysian newspaper The Star, the movie was the highest grossing Chinese film of all time in the country while according to a Mainland Chinese state run movie review site Shine.cn, the movie was the third highest grossing Chinese film in North America in five years.
As of February 2020, the film has grossed over $193 million worldwide, making over $172 million in Mainland China.

Controversy

During the 2019 Hong Kong protests, protesters urged a boycott of the film, citing the pro-Beijing stances of Yen, Chan, and Wong. Protesters actively spoiled the film on social media in both English and Chinese.