葉問Ip Man

向下捲動，電影就開始Scroll, and the film runs.

紀錄 · Document Sources: Wikipedia, Ip Man; Chan Wah-shun

一八九三年十月一日，佛山。The first of October, 1893. Foshan.

葉繼問。Ip Kai-man.

陳華順的第十六個，也是最後一個徒弟。Chan Wah-shun's sixteenth student, and his last.

1. 梁贊Leung Janherbalist, Foshan
2. 陳華順Chan Wah-shunc.1836–1913 · taught until his stroke, 1909
3. 葉問Ip Manthe sixteenth

紀錄 · Document Sources: Wikipedia, Ip Man; Leung Bik

他輸了。再打一次，又輸了。He lost. Once more, and lost again.

那位老人，是師公的兒子。The old man was his teacher's teacher's son.

劇情 · The picture Ip Man, 2008

Foshan, 1938

Foshan is occupied. His house is taken. In an arena a general pays a bag of rice per win, and Ip Man asks to fight ten men at once.

紀錄 · The record

Foshan, 1938–45

A Royal Navy patrol in Canton just before the Japanese occupation, October 1938. US Naval History and Heritage Command, public domain.

Japanese forces did occupy Foshan in 1938, and the family's Sang Yuen estate was seized. What he did in the war remains unclear. A story that he trained as an intelligence officer is denied by his son.

我要打十個。"I want to fight ten." (the film)

戰時的事，至今未明。What he did in the war is still unclear. (the record)

一九四九年底，他離開了佛山。At the end of 1949 he left Foshan.

佛山Foshan

澳門Macau

香港Hong Kong · 1950

1951 · the border closes

56years old: no work, no school, a Kuomintang man who had been a police captain.

紀錄 · Document Source: Wikipedia, Ip Man

經澳門到香港。Through Macau to Hong Kong, with his wife and elder daughter.

她們回佛山取身份證。They went back to Foshan for their identity cards.

邊界關了。他再也沒有見到妻子。The border closed. He never saw his wife again; she died in Foshan in 1960.

大南街TA NAM STREET

Sham Shui Po. The Restaurant Workers' Association lets him sleep in its hall. His first Hong Kong students are waiters and cooks, taught after their shifts.

Ip Man and students, c. 1950. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

海壇街HOI TAN STREET

The association changes hands; he moves the class a few streets away.

利達街LEE TAT STREET

Yau Ma Tei. His students rent a fixed hall so they can train in the daytime. A boy from a film family joins: Bruce Lee.

李鄭屋邨LEI CHENG UK ESTATE

A resettlement flat too small to hold a wooden dummy. In Hong Kong he hung the dummy on two slats against a wall: the dummy that fits a flat is his design.

大埔道TAI PO ROAD

His sons arrive from Foshan, twelve years after him. The 1960s bring richer, better-read students; in 1963 they fill a banquet hall for his seventieth.

Seventieth birthday, 1963. Wing Chun Athletic Association, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

通菜街TUNG CHOI STREET

No. 149, Mong Kok. His son's flat. He stops taking classes. In 1967 his students found the Ving Tsun Athletic Association.

紀錄 · Document Sources: zh.wikipedia 葉問; Wikipedia, Ip Man; Mu ren zhuang

守住自己的中線，攻對方的中線。Keep your own centreline. Take the other man's.

一手防守，一手進攻，同時。One hand covers while the other strikes, at the same time.

不多走一寸。Not an inch more than it takes.

Moves from the form's opening, as taught in Ip Man's line: a drill, not the whole form (108 movements; counted 116 in eight sections).

Tap the glowing mark on the dummy · or press Space

在香港，他把木人掛在牆上。In Hong Kong he hung the dummy on the wall.

Tap fast in rhythm, near the centre line · or F and J

我要打十個。"I want to fight ten."

來留去送，甩手直衝: receive what comes, escort what leaves, and when a hand comes free, go straight in.

Hold the pointer on his forearm and follow it · a finger on a phone · arrow keys

放鬆，像竹一樣。Relaxed, like bamboo. (Ip Man, on chi sau)

1. 抌Tai uproot
2. 攔Lan expand
3. 點Dim shock
4. 挑Kit deflect
5. 割Got cut down
6. 圈Wan circle
7. 流Lau flow, counted as half

七個字，最後一個只算半個。Seven principles. The last counts as half.

八個方向的斬。Cuts in eight directions. Drag across the frame to cut, or press 1 to 8.

1. mid-1950sA teenager joins the class. Some students object to his mixed ancestry; he trains on privately with Ip Man, William Cheung and Wong Shun-leung.
2. 1958A fight on a rooftop with a Choy Li Fut student. A tooth is knocked out; the parents go to the police.
3. 1959He sails for San Francisco.

Even though I am (technically) a student of Ip Man, in reality I learned my Kung-fu from you.

Bruce Lee, in a letter to Wong Shun-leung, who is said to have carried it in his wallet.

紀錄 · Document Sources: Wikipedia, Bruce Lee; Wong Shun-leung

他比師父晚走七個月。He died in July 1973, seven months after his teacher.

1. 01IP MANDIR. WILSON YIP · ACTION SAMMO HUNG2008
2. 02IP MAN 2DIR. WILSON YIP · ACTION SAMMO HUNG2010
3. 03IP MAN 3DIR. WILSON YIP · ACTION YUEN WOO-PING2015
4. 04IP MAN 4: THE FINALEDIR. WILSON YIP · ACTION YUEN WOO-PING2019

Posters © their studios (Mandarin Films; Pegasus Motion Pictures), shown at the size published on Wikipedia.

1. The first Ip Man biopic was planned in 1998. Donnie Yen had signed and been paid part of his fee; Stephen Chow was to play Bruce Lee. Then the studio closed.

2. Nine months of Wing Chun under Ip Man's eldest son, Ip Chun, who said Yen grasped it faster than anyone he had taught. One meal a day. Off set, Yen stayed in costume, in Ip's voice and walk.

3. Foshan's old streets were gone, so 1930s Foshan was built in Shanghai. An abandoned storeroom was turned, over weeks, into the cotton mill where Ip first teaches in public.

4. Sammo Hung got the job because he had already made Wing Chun films: Warriors Two (1978) and The Prodigal Son (1981). Asked how he would direct Yen's fights, he said: "With my mouth."

5. An axe swung in rehearsal cut the side of Yen's left eye. He couldn't raise his right shoulder through the shoot; a masseur stayed on set.

6. Hiroyuki Ikeuchi, who plays General Miura, holds a black belt in judo and still took a mild concussion from four blows in a row by fight coordinator Sweco Chan.

7. The score is by Kenji Kawai, the composer of Ghost in the Shell and Ring. He scored all four films.

8. It was going to be called Grandmaster Ip Man. Wong Kar-wai, years into his own Ip Man film, objected; his became The Grandmaster (2013), with Tony Leung. This one became, simply, Ip Man.

9. The sequel was meant to be about Ip and Bruce Lee. The rights couldn't be agreed with Lee's family, so he appears only as a boy, sent away to come back when he's grown.

10. Darren Shahlavi, "the Twister", took up martial arts after seeing Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan films: judo at seven, Shotokan karate at fourteen. He died in 2015, aged 42; Ip Man 4 brings him back in a flashback.

11. In 2010 Yen said he would "never ever touch" another Ip Man film. Five years later he made Ip Man 3. A computer-generated Bruce Lee was planned; Lee's estate objected, and Danny Chan played him.

12. Mike Tyson said he had watched Ip Man and Ip Man 2 more than three times each. For their fight Yen improvised, aiming Wing Chun low, at Tyson's legs, with ideas from MMA.

13. In The Legend Is Born: Ip Man (2010), the part of Leung Bik, the old man who beat young Ip twice, is played by Ip Chun: Ip Man's own son, playing his father's teacher.

14. Made for about US$52 million, it took more than US$239 million. Its last scene: Ip at the wooden dummy, his son filming. In 1972, weeks before he died, he really was filmed at home.

Sources: Wikipedia, Ip Man (film), Ip Man 2, Ip Man 3, Ip Man 4, Donnie Yen, Kenji Kawai, Darren Shahlavi, Ip Man

導演葉偉信，主演甄子丹。Directed by Wilson Yip. Starring Donnie Yen.

幕後。Behind the camera.

Ip Man at his dummy. Photograph: Ribeirovn, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

紀錄 · Document Sources: Wikipedia, Wing Chun; zh.wikipedia 葉問

小念頭、尋橋、木人樁。Siu Nim Tau. Chum Kiu. The dummy. By his students' account, they stopped him before the rest.

紀錄 · Document Source: Wikipedia, Ip Man, notable students