Ip Man 4: The Finale (Movie Review)

Ip Man 4 ends the quadrilogy nicely.

The story took place after the passing of his wife (in part 3), when Ip Man traveled to America to get his youngest son enrolled into an American private school while attending an invitation by his student, Bruce Lee. Or was it the other way round?

While the fight scenes might not be the same as previous movies, partly because of an older, sick and injured Ip Man, or simply because Ip Man's not in them, they still pack a lot punches, pun intended. Danny Chan plays Bruce Lee again in this movie. You might know him as the gangster head from Stephen Chow's Kung Fu Hustle. There's a fight scene that showcases the Bruce Lee we all know and love.

It's hard not to imagine that this movie can straight away jump to any Bruce Lee movies (like Rogue One to A New Hope). Nevertheless, it will also be interesting to know more about what happened to Ip Man's children and his legacy.

A number of the fights also involved Scott Adkins (from the Undisputed movies - I thought he was the guy who played Netflix's Punisher at first) who plays the main villain, a marine drill sergeant who goes around beating up Chinese martial artists to prove American superiority. This started when a marine Staff Sergeant, Hartman tried to teach Chinese martial arts to American marines. I spent the whole movie trying hard to remember where I've seen the Staff Sergeant before. Turns out he's Vanness Wu, one of the judges from Asia's Got Talent Season 1.

Although the movie is about Chinese fighting Americans, I think the larger theme of the story is about never giving up in what you believe in, whether it's martial arts or cheer-leading.