Meanwhile, Ip Man’s wife Wing Sing (Lynn Xiong) is diagnosed with cancer, but suffers in silence as her husband repeatedly puts his duties in the community ahead of his own family. Together they are able to see off Frank’s men, which only forces the American to take more drastic action. He also crosses paths with fellow wing chun practitioner Cheung (Max Zhang), whose son also attends the school.
When a local gang, operating on behalf of shady property developer Frank (Mike Tyson), intimidates the staff of a local school, concerned parent and force-for-good Ip Man (Donnie Yen) takes it upon himself to stand guard. The stunt casting of former heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson may also help the film garner further mainstream attention in the West. Ip Man 3 should therefore see healthy interest across the region on his name alone, as well as from martial arts aficionados worldwide. While only modest box office successes compared to a behemoth like last year’s The Monkey King ($180 million), Ip Man (2008) and its 2010 sequel have gifted Donnie Yen, now 51, a signature role upon which he has finally achieved legitimate A-list success. This time, celebrated action director Yuen Wo-ping, taking over from Sammo Hung, ensures the film’s fight sequences remain the film’s primary focus, although the overall tone is smaller and quieter, reflecting both the personal drama Ip Man encounters and Donnie Yen’s own encroaching retirement from kung-fu cinema. Ip Man, known in real life as Bruce Lee’s mentor and recently the focus of films by Herman Yau ( The Legend Is Born) and Wong Kar Wai ( The Grandmaster), has become a Hong Kong legend of late, the territory’s very own crusading superhero. Yip’s first Ip Man film saw its eponymous hero take on the occupying Japanese forces during World War II, and in Ip Man 2 he fought against the British. Veering away from the series’ breast-beating jingoism, Ip Man 3 trades the crowd-pleasing intensity of its predecessors for a more introspective portrait of its central character.Īs expected, Mike Tyson fails to convince in his role of Frank, a corrupt American property tycoon Donnie Yen and director Wilson Yip reunite for a third round of wing chun-related action, this time detailing the grandmaster Ip Man’s clash with a corrupt American property tycoon played by Mike Tyson, alongside a title challenge from a rival master (Max Zhang Jin).