7.1 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
The Kung Fu master travels to the U.S. where his student has upset the local martial arts community by opening a Wing Chun school.
Starring: Donnie Yen, Yue Wu (I), Scott Adkins, Chris Collins (LV), Vanness WuAction | 100% |
Foreign | 62% |
Martial arts | 54% |
History | 17% |
Biography | 15% |
Drama | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Cantonese: Dolby Atmos
Cantonese: Dolby TrueHD 7.1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 16-bit)
English, French, Mandarin (Simplified), Mandarin (Traditional)
Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (1 BD, 1 DVD)
DVD copy
Slipcover in original pressing
Region free
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 5.0 | |
Extras | 1.0 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
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.
Ip Man 4: The Finale is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Well Go USA with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. According to the IMDb, this was shot with various Arri Alexa models and finished at a 2K DI. Aside from what looks to me like almost comically bad greenscreen in a couple of moments, this is a sharp and well detailed looking presentation that offers consistently high fine detail levels in elements like fabrics of costumes and even some of the background textures on walls. There's some highly stylized work here, including some almost odd framings of Geddes with his troops and the palette has been variously tweaked at times (as can perhaps be made out in some of the screenshots included with this review), but overall clarity levels are quite striking throughout the presentation. Some of the grading and/or lighting toward peach and yellow tones is quite evocative at times.
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.
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.
2015
Yip Man 2 / Legend of the Grand Master | 葉問2
2010
2008
2016
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2010
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2011
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2018
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2008
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