Movie Review: ‘IP Man 4: The Finale’

Review by Bradley Smith

The final chapter of Wing Chun grandmaster Ip Man’s life story brings him to America as he fights lung cancer, American racism, and his son’s anger. There is plenty of action to keep martial arts fans thrilled and enough drama and social commentary to (re)ignite debates about racism and keep casual fans on the edge of their seats, provided they can keep up with the subtitles.

Donnie Yen returns to the role of Ip Man for the fourth and final time. For those, like me, who were not aware, Ip Man was a Chinese martial arts grandmaster who taught, among others, Bruce Lee, throughout much of the 1900s. Ip Man 4 picks up after he has lost his wife and discovered he has cancer from smoking and takes us (spoiler) through the end of his life. He envisions a better life for his son, so he flies to America to try to get his son into a fancy American school believing it to be the land of opportunity, but quickly finding it is not as accepting of other cultures as he had thought.

What’s sad about this movie is I could see the racist plot turns coming an hour early. When the group of white kids get hurt after they started a fight with one Chinese girl, you just know how their racist parents are going to react. Unfortunately, not enough has changed and I can imagine racist Americans getting upset that virtually all “bad” guys in this movie are white. Just don’t watch if it’s going to offend you. The story seems realistic to me.

Aside from the racial tensions, there is also a clash of martial arts styles. The Americans prefer karate while Ip Man and the other Chinese masters practice kung fu. Honestly, I cannot tell the difference, but the characters have strong opinions setting up the climactic East vs West showdown; Ip Man’s final battle.

The fight choreography is great. There is some repetition, probably more so if you’ve seen more martial arts films, but it is fun to watch. I cannot speak on continuity with the previous three movies as I have not seen them. As a standalone film, it strikes a nice tone and is largely self-contained. The last few moments are an emotional and fitting tribute to Ip Man with what I assume are clips from the previous films.