- Actors: Michelle Yeoh, Tony Jaa, Dave Bautista, Max Zhang
- Disc Format: Dolby, HiFi Sound, Subtitled, Surround Sound, Widescreen
- Dubbed: English
- Number of discs: 1
- Rated: Not RatedNR
- Studio: Well Go Usa
- Release Date: July 23, 2019
- Run Time: 107 minutes
There were so
many diverging plots in Ip Man 3, one
would be forgiven for forgetting the place Cheung Tin Chi (Max Zhang) has in
the series, despite his being given the first spin-off film in the franchise.
With that being said, Master Z: Ip Man
Legacy lives up to its name, and earns the honor of carrying ‘Ip Man’ in
the title, despite his complete absence in physical presence from the film. For
those eager for the upcoming Ip Man 4,
Master Z is a welcome deviation in
the meantime.
Many (if not
most) martial arts films carry similar themes and narratives as the Ip Man franchise, but it goes beyond
that to a certain level of style, choreography, and natural ability that has
made these films so popular with audiences and critics alike. You don’t need to
re-invent the wheel with a good martial arts film, and it is this simple
precision which makes Master Z
another enjoyable addition to the franchise and genre alike. Add to that a
level of production value and dream cast that could only be possible for a film
with a guaranteed audience, the main desirable asset of sequels, remakes, and
apparently even spin-off films. Taking a cue from the last Ip Man film, Master Z has
a diverse and international cast of characters, including more than a few
martial arts legends.
The story itself
follows Cheung after his defeat at the hands of Ip Man in a private
competition. Resigned to a life without martial arts, Cheung moves with his son
to Hong Kong , abandoning his school and teaching
to be a shopkeeper. When he has an encounter with a group of drug-dealing
gangsters leads to his shop being burned down and his son injured, Cheung
realizes that he will have to use his skills to protect those innocent around
him, and to take down those who are injuring them with violence, corruption and
drugs.
There are a lot
of characters in Master Z, and it
isn’t always clear which side they are on for the first half of the movie. On
the other hand, when you have talent like this, it almost doesn’t matter if
they are playing a good guy or a bad guy, because either way we will get to see
them fight. Most notable among these is the legendary Michelle Yeoh as a local
gangster trying to go legit, with no help from her drug-dealing brother, and Thailand
Along with
precise casting, the choice of director also goes a long way in bridging that
gap, as Yuen Wo Ping is also known to American audiences as the man who
choreographed the action in The Matrix
(as well as Kill Bill). As fantastic
as casting and production values are and have always been for the Ip Man films, they are
first-and-foremost martial arts movies. This means nothing is more important
than the fight choreography (with the possible exception of an actor who is
able to achieve it), and few still working in the genre do it as well as Yuen.
The Blu-ray
release for Master Z comes with a DVD
copy of the film, though the special features on the disc itself include only a
handful of extremely brief promotional featurettes. There are five in total
(‘Director and Casts,’ ‘Battle of Strength,’ ‘The Cheung Lok’s Fight,’
Signboard Street Fight,’ and ‘Hitman Confrontation’), though only one is over
two minutes long (at 3:03). Most are simply named after key fight sequences,
and just highlight the elements with a glimpse of behind-the-scenes footage,
though none are long enough (or in-depth enough) to be satisfactory.
Entertainment Value:
9/10
Quality of
Filmmaking: 8/10
Historical
Significance: 7/10
Special Features: 3/10
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