Ip Man 4: The Finale 4K Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.5

Ip Man 4: The Finale 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman April 21, 2020

December 2020 Note: This review was originally published when this was offered as a standalone release. It has since also become available as part of Ip Man: The Complete Collection 4K .

Do they (whomever “they” may be) really expect anyone to believe that The Finale subtitle appended to Ip Man 4? As I’ve now recounted in several previous reviews, there is certainly no dearth of Ip Man related content out there, including (but not necessarily limited to) Ip Man (also available in a Collector’s Edition as Ip Man), Ip Man 2 (also available in a Collector’s Edition as Ip Man 2), Ip Man 3 (this one kind of strangely without a Collector’s Edition), The Legend Is Born: Ip Man, Ip Man: The Final Fight, The Grandmaster, Master Z: The Ip Man Legacy and Ip Man: Season One. Not all of these are part of the Donnie Yen films about Ip Man, but the Yen films, along with several others mentioned above, have not always felt themselves restrained by the actual facts of Ip Man's life, and so having yet another Ip Man property starring Yen trotted out may strike some (no martial arts pun intended) as being unnecessary. That said, while certainly indulging in what is probably a fair amount of fictionalizing, this supposed "final chapter" in the Ip Man saga has some great fight scenes and an engaging enough through line which unites Ip Man (Donnie Yen) with arguably his most famous student, Bruce Lee (Danny Chan), while also doling out some interesting (if perhaps at times questionable) information about Ip Man's efforts to get Wing Chun added as a training regimen for the United States armed forces.

What may strike some as a bit funny about Ip Man 4: The Finale is how several other Ip Man films have dealt with the latter years of the hero’s life, at least in passing, and yet not one of them to my recall (and I may have frankly shut something out at this point) gets into Ip’s supposed trip to San Francisco in the mid- sixties, which leads to a host of subplots involving (at least tangentially) Bruce Lee and (more centrally) the Marines. I did some cursory Googling in preparation for writing this review, and I certainly didn’t come across any authoritative information stating any piece of this setup might have actually occurred, but I did come across a salient bit of “information” in one article, which had a kind of funny quote that many of the Ip Man films deal with things that “might have happened”.

Perhaps even a bit more oddly, at least for American audiences, is that one of this film’s putative “villains” is a martinet Gunnery Sergeant in the United States Marine Corps named Barton Geddes (Scott Adkins), who is averse to adding Chinese martial arts to the training mix, though kind of hilariously he doesn’t mind other Asian efforts like karate. This character might have been a cool hero in another enterprise with a little toning down, since he’s attempting to whip his troops into shape and get them ready in case they need to fight the enemy in hand to hand combat. As it is, this seems designed to set up a kind of analog between various fighting styles (since you just know Geddes and Ip are going to end up skirmishing) that may be at least somewhat reminiscent of the showdown between Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris in The Way of the Dragon.

That element may be passingly interesting if perhaps fanciful, but Ip Man 4: The Finale arguably tries to stuff just a few too many subplots into the mix. Ip is not in the best of health (to say the least), his son is a problem (part of the plot dynamics revolves around Ip looking for a San Francisco school for his boy), there are nefarious anti-Chinese efforts by immigration officials, and a whole minor sidebar featuring Bruce Lee. Unless some expert comes along to disabuse me of any notions I have about the film’s basis in fact, I’ll simply say Ip Man 4: The Finale often strains credulity, but also offers some fun set pieces and does end (minor spoiler alert) with Ip’s death (which is not the first time this particular event has been depicted in an Ip Man film, for those not keeping track). That might suggest that any sequel is going to be one of those Asian fantasy films featuring a spirit fighting demons.

Ip Man 4: The Finale 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Note: Screenshots are sourced from the 1080p Blu-ray.

Ip Man 4: The Finale is presented in 4K UHD courtesy of Well Go USA with a 2160p transfer in 2.39:1. Well Go USA is just starting to get its feet wet in the 4K marketplace, but this presentation is another generally winning one from the label. This enjoys good if not mind blowing upticks in fine detail across the board, so that everything from some of the crags and pores on Donnie Yen's cheeks to ornate designs on wallpapers or even the textures of some of the outfits are better delineated in this presentation. But it was really the added nuance in the palette courtesy of Dolby Vision that I repeatedly noticed throughout this presentation. It really first struck my eyes early in the film when Ip Man walks into the arena where Bruce Lee is competing. In this version the walls of the entrance hall are distinctly more pink looking than the almost beige looking version in 1080p. But beiges proliferate here as well, and look beautifully warm, almost peach colored at times, and the film's use of other tones in the yellow range is really beautifully vivid and memorable. There are any number of really gorgeously saturated moments throughout this presentation (even things as mudane as the floormats at various bouts are almost resplendently aqua or teal at times), but there are a few rather odd looking moments, many featuring Ip Man, that can look weirdly desaturated, with an almost grayish undertone. The increased resolution of this presentation is not always kind to some of the special effects, as in what look like greenscreened backgrounds during a scene with Ip Man in a car.

Ip Man 4: The Finale 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Ip Man 4: The Finale features a really effective and at times quite bombastic Dolby Atmos track in the original Cantonese (there's a lot of English in the "Cantonese" track courtesy of all of the American characters, but there's also a completely English track on this disc in DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1). While the film's glut of narrative threads means there are some relatively expository moments where surround activity can be limited to occasional ambient environmental sounds, when one of the film's handful or so of set pieces erupts, the track is undeniably energetic, with good placement of both horizontal and vertical effects. While some smackdowns have considerable punch (sonically speaking), the only place where some might have liked a bit more activity is with regard to LFE. Dialogue is presented cleanly, though when Yen speaks English, it's obviously fairly heavily accented.

Note: I encountered a kind of strange anomaly and am reporting it here in case anyone else has the same thing happen. The disc's menu has a Dolby Digital 5.1 track playing some of the theme music. When I first went to play the film, ostensibly with the default Cantonese Dolby Atmos track, my receiver's display did not change from Dolby Digital and there was actually no sound at all when the film started. I tried using the Pop Up Menu, accessing the audio options, and clicked on Cantonese Dolby Atmos (again, since it was supposedly already selected), and nothing happened. I then decided to exit to the Main Menu, where I selected the English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track from the Setup Menu and started the film again. This time, the correct audio loaded, and when I used Pop Up Menu again to toggle to the Cantonese track, it worked. Just to see what would happen, I ejected the disc and started over, and the same thing did not recur, so hopefully it was just one of those inexplicable ghosts in the machine.

Ip Man 4: The Finale 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

There are no supplements on the 4K UHD disc. For a list of the meager supplements on the 1080p Blu-ray disc included in this package, please refer to our Ip Man 4: The Finale Blu-ray review.

Ip Man 4: The Finale 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Considering how divorced from the actual historical record this film apparently is, Ip Man 4: The Finale could have just as easily sent Ip Man into space to battle Moon Monsters a la some old Ray Harryhausen effort, and heaven knows, that may be the next Ip Man entry coming down the pike. Of course I'm joking, but in all seriousness, as fanciful as much of Ip Man: The Finale probably inarguably is, it's actually quite entertaining and manages to deliver even a glint or two of real emotion. The seemingly Dorian Gray-esque Yen is as engaging as ever in the role, and it is kind of fun to see Adkins as such an unrepentant badass Marine. Technical merits are solid, and with caveats noted, Ip Man 4: The Finale comes Recommended.