Dynamixor The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Lollivan It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Derry Herrera Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

Kinley This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

george walter Many actors from the Ip Man sequels starring Donnie Yen are cast in this Yip Man film. That is everything they have in common. Acting : the main actor is no Donnie Yen. His fighting was OK, but he was inexpressive. His face and body language were that of an inexperienced actor. The other actors did a better job and were more believable.Storyline : two useless love stories are included, but they bring nothing to the table. They don't help build up Yip Man's character at all. The child actors were probably the worst I've seen. Literally reciting line after line. Action scenes : the fighting was very unequal. Some scenes packed a punch, while others felt very unreal. For a movie on Yip Man's Wing Chun, seeing roundhouse kicks and acrobatics was very out of place. Even on the characters voiced his concerns about high kicks not being appropriate!3/10, Donnie Yen's movies were MUCH better

Harry T. Yung This prequel is better than the sequel. Martial arts world champion YO Yu-Hang in no way suffers in comparison with Donny Yan in skill, and is more authentic. Yan's Wing Chun is serviceable at a distant shot but falls apart in close-ups. A close-up in the first Ip Man showing his wife treating his bruised fist reveals all too clearly how completely ignorant (or inattentive) the movie makers are to the glaring fact that Wing Chun and karate use entirely different parts of the fist to strike opponents.The screenplay is penned by Erica Lee, prolific romance author, best utilizing her forte in handling that department of the script. The story is very much fictionalized which actually works to its advantage, making the script more self-contained than the previous two movies.Participation of 86-year-old IP Chun, the Masters own son further brightens up the movie, in both the role he plays and the way he delivers it. Despite the turn-of-20th-century setting, female lead HUANG Yi is pretty in a very contemporary way and great to watch. The familiar support cast is good, particularly FAN Siu-wong, veteran martial art actor playing Ip Man's adopted brother.Ip Man fan are no doubt eagerly awaiting WONG Kar-wai's rendering of the Master's legend starring LEUNG Chiu-wai, scheduled for release in December 2010.

Belishia While I am not that familiar with Hong-Kong actors, upon recognizing the face of the chap who played a thuggish-bully(which I dislike from the start till the end) in IP-Man2, in this movie, I knew that his character would be a flop and I was right!!! This chap who plays Samo Hung's student/protégé/worker in harassing other masters onto paying protection fees who teaches Kung-Fu in IP Man2, has a belligerent, thuggish, haughty character.The weird thing is, now that that this chap plays IP Man, the same character he played in IP Man2 almost resembled the character he played as Ip Man in this movie.Compare with Donnie Yen who was charismatic, this fella who plays Ip Man has the most mundane persona.Not only was this movie ain't interesting enough compare with Ip Man 2, you get the wrong man for the right movie!!! And this person could hardly be an actor.When my friends asked me "would you consider to watch a sequel", I told them "I want a refund!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Prince AJB "The Legend Is Born: Ip Man" is a film which chronicles Ip Man in his teenage years which focuses much on his learning of Wing Chun. The film is a prequel to the previous two Ip Man films which starred Donnie Yen as the titular character of Ip Man. Now, the star has been changed and the film has gotten a different style.First, let me tell you about the cast. The cast choosing here in this movie can be called really bizarre. Dennis To who became a temporary minor antagonist on "Ip Man 2" became the teenage titular character in this prequel. That totally got me shocked. It's so rare to see such happening. Then, we have some of the same cast used in the previous Ip Man films on a different role such as Sammo Hung (plays the teacher of the teenage Ip Man) and Louis Fan (plays the brother of Ip Man). That was really confusing. But, something surprised me. A character named Leung Bik was played by the son of Ip Man no other than Ip Chun. Secondly, there are quite a lot of perspectives. There are around six perspectives here which really got me confused. There's one from Ip Man, then one for his brother, his love, his other jealous love and the enemy. It really got my mind turning around. Next, the special effects were kind of cheesy. There were two scenes that showed a train leaving somewhere to somewhere. You know that those trains produce smoke. The smoke was pretty fake as it didn't suit the background. It was not good.The acting of the characters. Not bad. Dennis To on Ip Man was not bad at all. The others were also normal. Just like a normal movie. The emotions were well acted by the actors.Then we have the action scenes. They were also well directed. But, I still say the previous two films related to Ip Man still had better action scenes than this prequel. The moves were less cooler than the previous two pictures. But, it's not really cheesy. Not a problem.This movie has a different style. It has a different theme. "Ip Man" and "Ip Man 2" had the theme where the people were seeking freedom (although "Ip Man 2" was not totally about seeking freedom). Whereas, this movie has a different theme of love. For me, the freedom theme from the previous two films is only a small percent of the film. The directing and division of the emotional moments are also differently set. There's also another confusing thing. If you've watched "Ip Man" and "Ip Man 2", you might notice that the titular character of Ip Man doesn't know English at all. He didn't even speak any word in English language. But, in this PREQUEL, he is able to speak English quite fluently. He also spoke to an English or American person in this movie. That was strange and that totally made my mind confused too.Well, the movie provided some sad moments too. But, they were not so sad, they were only like 40% sad moments for me. But, if you're easy to cry, you might want to just provide a piece of tissue in case you have tears flowing down your face.The movie is different from the previous two Ip Man related films. I say this is worse than the previous ones. I'm not really satisfied with the result of the film. The previous films were much better than this. But, this movie might just entertain you with its action scenes. I half- heartedly recommend you this movie. It's still entertaining to be watched and not really a waste of time. 6 stars for this movie.