Nessieldwi Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

Kailansorac Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

TaryBiggBall It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

Billy Ollie Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

altersaege The only reason why I give it no less than 5 stars is because the guy who makes Yip Man is a pleasant actor, and because the movie gives some info about the early years of Yip Man. But the way the story is told, the script and direction, leave much to be desired. Besides a vastly useless and boring first 15 min, the movie keeps boring with huge parts (the 75% of it) of presumed "historical" details. It seems like if the real aim of the director was not making an entertaining movie but a sort of narrative documentary. And I could have lived with that if at least the historical details would be true. Unfortunately most of them are totally made-up. So, what's the purpose of making a boring fictive biography? But what I really could not stand was a horrible ridiculous pathetic shameful ninja scene. Yes, I know, now there is Ip Man 3 coming out and there will be Mike Tyson vs Ip Man. At least ninjas are still an oriental thing, you may think. Maybe. But the scene is really really bad. I also find Tyson vs Yip a bit too much, but at least it is Tyson, and Donnie. And that trilogy does not pretend to be 100% historical.But if you have time and want to prepare yourself to Ip Man 3 with a pseudo historical prequel, this is not a total loss of time.

billcr12 This is actually a prequel to Ip Man and Ip Man 2. A different actor is used but the story is still interesting. Ip is taught Wing Chun by a couple of masters and travels to Hong Kong to further his skills. He is walking one day and is taunted by a Westener with racist slurs and they fight, but afterwords then become friends. He learns to improve by utilizing different styles of kung fu. He marries the mayor's daughter and is arrested and jailed in a politically motivated murder case.More secrets are revealed as the story unfolds and Ip continues to fight after his wife's provides an alibi to free him from prison. The Legend is Born isn't as good as the previous two films and a different actor is used in the lead role, but it is still not bad for a Saturday night viewing.

Robert N. Adams I had first heard about the Ip Man movie from a friend. He showed me the famous "fighting ten Japanese karate-ka at once" scene. I eventually remembered the movie and watched it three times in one day. Then, I watched Ip Man 2 twice.I had been reading about Ip Man and Ip Chun and came across the pharmacy fight scene on YouTube. At that point I had decided that I wanted to watch the movie.The one major thing that nags me about The Legend is Born: Ip Man is that it is "semi-autobiographical". Actually, that bugs me about all three movies, really - is it wrong to want to see an honest-to-goodness biographic film? I'm not sure if this is a trend in Chinese cinema, but the Japanese are very heavily villainized in Ip Man and The Legend is Born (and the British take their place in Ip Man 2). This natonalist/racist sentiment is very off-putting for a foreigner, but then again how often do we Americans (and Europeans) dip into the Nazi well, as it were? I imagine the Japanese are the "default bad guys" in Chinese cinema...One of the most important analogies related to me about movies is that they are always embellished a little here or there. Some take it really far, and when they do (as in the case of The Legend Is Born), you should approach the film as less of an authoritative biography and more like a legend that has been expanded and changed over the years. There may very well have been a great warrior name Hercules, and if he existed I'm sure a lot of the stuff of legends never really went down that way.As a standalone story (and thinking of Ip Man as the template of a character rather than an honest representation of the man himself), I think the movie is really good. It's far slower-paced than 1 and 2, but I think the story seems much more fleshed-out. Ip Man and Ip Man 2 seemed to have a more "slice of life" feel to them, whereas The Legend Is Born did a better job of telling a greater overall arching narrative in my opinion.The fight scenes are interesting. I always enjoy a "from nothing to something" underdog story, and it's amusing seeing young Ip Man get his ass handed to him. The brashness that he seems to lack as an adult (save for a few key scenes) in 1 and 2 is all the more showing here, and anyone who has been with young martial arts students can recognize the fire in young Ip Man's eyes.I can judge the movie as having a profound effect on me in the sense that I see Young Ip Man occasionally in 1 and 2. I see the older Ip Man (as played by Donnie) as a more mature, reserved adult - but when he gets in a bad way the teenager inside of him (and all of the lack of control that implies) is awakened. I see young Man in older Man. These films aren't even all that related save for sharing the same real person as a basis and some characters, but I thought it was really, really interesting.Ip Man may be our generations "Zatoichi". I wouldn't be surprised if we saw a dozen really good films in the next ten years, and I would watch every one of them.I give Ip Man the standard 7 out of 10. Great fight scenes, great story, but I came into it wanting to see an honest biopic and left with a nationalistically-slanted, compelling, and ultimately fictional story.

Harry T. Yung This prequel is better than the sequel. Martial arts world champion YO Yu-Hang in no way suffers in comparison with Donny Yan in skill, and is more authentic. Yan's Wing Chun is serviceable at a distant shot but falls apart in close-ups. A close-up in the first Ip Man showing his wife treating his bruised fist reveals all too clearly how completely ignorant (or inattentive) the movie makers are to the glaring fact that Wing Chun and karate use entirely different parts of the fist to strike opponents.The screenplay is penned by Erica Lee, prolific romance author, best utilizing her forte in handling that department of the script. The story is very much fictionalized which actually works to its advantage, making the script more self-contained than the previous two movies.Participation of 86-year-old IP Chun, the Masters own son further brightens up the movie, in both the role he plays and the way he delivers it. Despite the turn-of-20th-century setting, female lead HUANG Yi is pretty in a very contemporary way and great to watch. The familiar support cast is good, particularly FAN Siu-wong, veteran martial art actor playing Ip Man's adopted brother.Ip Man fan are no doubt eagerly awaiting WONG Kar-wai's rendering of the Master's legend starring LEUNG Chiu-wai, scheduled for release in December 2010.