Reviewed by: Beat TG Date: 03/11/2025 Summary: Great Ending to a Great Franchise Opposed to all the bad criticism it has gotten over the years, I think it's a worthy addition to the franchise, and like every installment before it has at least two outstanding fight scenes for comparison. In addition, Donnie Yen continuing to improve his acting and Wilson Yip showing off his filmmaking skills is always a plus, and all of that is displayed here. -- Spoiler Alert -- I think the phone conversation scene between Donnie and Kent Cheng -- who later tells a spiteful Ip Ching about his father's illness -- is one of the most touching scenes in the entire movie series. It's well directed and executed, as well as a great contrast to all the conflicts that happens in the story. Apart from Donnie and Kent Cheng -- who has a total screen-time of approximately 15 min -- there's also the inclusion of Vanness Wu, Wu Yue, Danny Chan, and Scott Adkins as well as Chris Collins in the main cast. I haven't seen Vanness in a lot of movies so I'm not that familiar with him but here he carries his role, playing a Chinese-American militant for the US army, the way you would expect for such caliber, except that he also shows compassion to his fellow Chinese which gets the character in trouble as the story progresses. So it's a good performance from Vanness. Danny Chan as Bruce Lee didn't do bad, in fact he pulls off the character in a good way a bit similarly to how he did in SHAOLIN SOCCER playing the goalkeeper. It's not too showy, and when Danny gets to do dialogue scenes, he acts naturally and convincingly without going the exaggerating Bruce Lee impersonation route. Wu Yue however is one of the standouts here, portraying a tai chi master with such flair and charisma that almost equals Donnie's subduedly emotional Ip Man, which in contrast shows two different personalities that are as gratifying to behold when they are onscreen. Scott Adkins and Chris Collins as the movie's antagonists are your usual western actors in Hong kong movies where they are portrayed as pure evil with no regards to people of the East. The reason for that is simple: The xenophobia present here. It's is no different from that in IP MAN and IP MAN 2, and I have to say that I'm a bit surprised people are making a big thing out of it. I think this installment actually pales in comparison to IP MAN 2 which is the worst when it comes to the subject. And yes, the acting from the foreigners aren't great but what's there to expect? It's a Hong Kong/Chinese production. Foreigners have always acted more or less the same way in these movies which I believe will keep going for years to come. Scott Adkins reminded me a lot of R. Lee Ermey in FULL METAL JACKET and maybe overdoes things here and there. But even so, at least his role is not dumbed down and ridiculed like Darren Shahlavi's in IP MAN 2. As for the action scenes: I totally love them. This time around, full-length fight scenes aren't in great numbers and the spotlight are given to the co-players. I think this decision was made because the filmmakers wanted to treat Donnie's role for what it is; A person in his late 60s. That's why he isn't in every single action set-piece. This is the final part of a big semi-biopic franchise so I think it's easy to forget the time gap between each entry. But Yip Man does age, and the filmmakers wanted to show this, so credits to Wilson Yip and the movie team. When Donnie eventually lets loose, that's when it gets great. Out of all scenes he's in the Wing Chun vs Tai Chi -- showcasing variety, and difficulty in fighting one-handed -- and the final fight scene -- sheer brutality vs speed -- are the most enjoyable. Great action performances from Donnie, Yue Wu and Scott Adkins. The original is still the best one in the franchise but overall, I think the movie series concludes greatly with IP MAN 4. And I think it's a movie franchise that is also consistent with delivering the goods both with the stories/characters and the action scenes, something that is hard to say about many other movie franchises out there. Rating: 8.5/10 Reviewer Score: 8

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