Synopsis: A brand-new entry in the landmark film franchise based on Bruce Lee’s legendary teacher, Ip Man: The Awakening is a fresh story in the martial arts saga and a tightly choreographed, fight-filled spectacle not to be missed! While visiting Hong Kong, a young Master Ip intervenes in a kidnapping attempt, unintentionally igniting a turf war with a ruthless human trafficking ring. In retaliation, the gang kidnaps one of Ip Man's close friends, leaving him with no choice but to challenge the group's notoriously brutal boxing champion head-on. Headlined by Miu Tse, the young star of Jet Li classics, Legend of the Red Dragon and The Enforcer, Ip Man: The Awakening also stars Chen Guan Ying, Zhao Yu Xuan and Hao Yan Fei. (77 Mins)

 

Views: The popularity of Donnie Yen's incredible Ip Man movies elevated the name and persona of the real-life kung-fu master, to a whole new level. While martial-arts fans had always connected him to superstar Bruce Lee, these new fantasised stories got the film fans excited and soon studios all over Hong Kong and China were keen to start production on their own Ip Man story. While most of them tried to work (in some ways) to the timeline of the Wilson Yip directed movies, others set out on a path of their own – much like this one. Ip Man: The Awakening tells the tale of its titular hero in his earlier days, set before he became the revered grandmaster and started a family; similar, in ways, to the time period of Herman Yau's The Legend Is Born: Ip Man, with Dennis To (which is a fantastic movie). Not long after he arrives in Hong Kong, the young hero finds himself in a city of crime, and jumps straight into action to stop a mugging on a tram which, incidently, reunites him with an old friend Bu Feng. To help his heroic friend, Feng gets Ip Man a job with him as a rickshaw driver and introduces him to new friends, as well as his sister, Chan. Not long into the job, Ip comes across a gang of human traffickers who are attempting to kidnap young women from the town. Springing into action once again, Ip Man saves the damsels in distress, but soon finds himself in trouble with Mr. Stark; an angry British crime-boss who is behind the smuggling. In a bid to lure Ip Man to his home, Stark kidnaps Bu and Chan then sets two of his prized fighters on the young hero who prove to be a handful. But after Ip Man comes out on top, Stark challenges him to a public battle where he aims to see Ip Man defeated and destroy the hopes of the Chinese so that he can continue his reign of terror...

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While many have criticized this film for its short running time, low production values, and basic story telling, I still felt that it proved to be an enjoyable kung-fu romp offering up plenty of neatly choreographed martial-arts action – which was its saving grace. But the major highlight for me was its main star, Tse Miu; the highly talented and cute child star from Jet Li's forgotten classics, New Legend Of Shaolin and My Father Is A Hero. Starting life in the Hong Kong film industry at the age of 9 with a role in Frankie Chan's swordplay epic, A Warrior's Tragedy, Miu found himself called for the first of the Jet Li movies by director Wong Jing in 1994. That same year, Wong would cast the young star alongside Chow Yun Fat in the fantastic God Of Gamblers Returns, before pairing him up once more with Jet Li in the aforementioned, My Father Is A Hero – this time with Wong Jing producing and Corey Yuen Kwai directing. While it seemed that a bright future lay ahead for the young star and martial-arts film fans around the world couldn't get enough of him, Tse Miu would only appear in one more film as a kid before shifting over to the smalls screen for a period. That film was the Wong Jing produced Teenage Master, a fun family-comedy also known as My Father Is A Hero 2, putting Tse in his first main leading role alongside Hong Kong stars such as Ken Lo, Ng Man Tat, and Collin Chou/Ngai Sing, among many others. In 2003, and now an adult, Tse Miu would return to film in Daniel Lai's Iron Lion, and has since continued to star in martial arts features such as Tsui Siu Ming's underrated Champions, Empire Of Assassins, The Kung Fu Master, and more including Tsui Hark's epic Taking Of Tiger Mountain and The Thousand Faces Of Dunjia – as well as a host of television shows and web-movies. Although in his late 30s at the time of shooting, Tse highly impresses as the young Ip Man – and still carries that natural look of anger on his face that he always had as a kid – giving kung-fu fans something to smile about as he delivers some fantastic moves, and proves that his time as a kick-ass child star was only the tip of the iceberg!

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Tse is joined by a cast of Chinese actors of which I'm not too familiar with, except for Hou Tong Jiang; an older actor who has also starred in films such as Kevin Chu's Just Call Me Nobody, along with Empire Of Silver and Monk Comes Down The Mountain – both of which were with Aaron Kwok. I must also point out the wide use of Western actors – most of whom did a pretty good job, and especially those in the action department. The film is directed by Li Xi Jie and Zhang Zhu Lin, with the former also directing Tse Miu in the brilliant Eighteen Arhats Of Shaolin Temple – an epic TV/Web movie on a much grander scale. Before this, Zhang had directed the fun action-fantasy film, The Mystical Treasure (you can find my review of that movie here on the site) which, while being another low-budget web-movie, proved to be enjoyable and was big on creativity. The fantastic martial-arts action was handled by choreographers Shi Zhan Biao and Xu Wei; a couple of fresh action-directors who have been in front of the camera just as much as they have behind. Regardless, they manage to deliver a number of well spaced and highly exciting fight scenes from brutal gang showdowns to well designed one-on-ones, any true fan of kung-fu cinema can't deny that what's on-screen when Tse Miu busts a move, is highly impressive. The story of Ip Man: The Awakening isn't as dramatic or engrossing as Donnie Yen's bigger productions – but you can definitely see the inspiration from them in certain scenes throughout. To be honest, it's the kind of story I'd have expected in a Wong Fei Hung movie (if I haven't seen it already), and especially those of the past decade or so. That said, for a movie that runs under 80 minutes in length, I wasn't expecting a finely tuned piece or a screenplay that was going to win many awards. What I expected was solid kung-fu action, and that's exactly what I got. I only hope that we start to see more of Tse Miu's films made available very soon.​​

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Overall: While hardly original in its story and execution, Ip Man: The Awakening is still a fun watch and has plenty of great fight action to enjoy!