Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		2.0

Ip Man: Season 1 Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman October 31, 2017

There have been a number of properties supposedly documenting the life and adventures of Ip Man, the iconic martial arts master who taught Bruce Lee, and at times it seems that I’ve had to review all of them (I actually haven’t). Among the many Ip Man projects are 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 and Ip Man: The Final Fight. (For those of you would prefer a film about Ip Man without his name in the title, there’s also The Grandmaster.) With this glut of content available, much of which admittedly tends to play with historical facts and figures along the way, one might assume that the tipping point had long ago been reached in terms of any new properties supposedly depicting this venerable character’s life. Based on some online reportage I read in preparation for this review, The Grandmaster may have played at least a tangential part in the development of this 2013 Chinese television series, since it was evidently in production as talks were underway to get the series started, and the continuing interest in Ip Man, as evidenced not just by The Grandmaster but perhaps even more so by the overwhelming success of the Ip Man film franchise (i.e., the ones with his name in the title) seemed to suggest that the saturation point had in fact not yet been reached.

The series’ tag line (at least as evidenced by the cover art of this Blu-ray release) is “meet the Master again”, but that assertion is perhaps seriously undercut by the fact that every episode begins with the twin warnings of “This is fiction” and “Any resemblance to real life is purely coincidental.” And that, really, is the major issue with Ip Man as a television series — it is almost willfully “inventive” when it comes to depicting the life of its title character, whether as an adult (played by Kevin Cheng) or as a little boy (played by Zhou Jianan).

This Blu-ray presentation for Western audience is perhaps further hobbled by the fact that huge swaths of text and regular use of song pass by with no subtitles helping to decipher what is being stated (and/or sung). There is some passing narration at times and there are subtitles delivering data on times and places, but there's still a regular feeling of "what am I missing?" that pervades the series, especially since it seems to jump back and forth between eras in Ip Man's life for no ostensible reason. The series seems to be wanting to emphasize the fact that some of the political turmoil that surrounded Ip Man's childhood "set the stage" for his supposed later focus on fighting for justice, but even these elements may well be at least somewhat confusing for Western audience members who aren't quite sure what all the internecine warfare in historical China is all about.

There is no doubt a lot of interesting content scattered throughout the series, including China’s slow emergence from an almost feudal past into something approaching modernity, an evolution that plays directly into Ip Man’s own history (at least in this version of events). But there’s an often cartoonish quality to various other elements, including some of the supposed “villains” who populate the series, who often come off as figures who should be twirling their waxed mustaches (several of them emit “evil” guffaws that play like something out of vaudeville). The action sequences, which are commendably plentiful, are well staged but are hampered by quick cutting and other techniques (like rampant “jiggly cam”) that never really deliver the impact they should (no pun intended).

Ip Man: Season 1 Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Ip Man: Season 1 is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Cinedigm with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. Perhaps affected subliminally by the production masthead which begins several episodes and which looks like it's been sourced from a ragged old VHS copy, I had a somewhat variable reaction to the look of this release. A lot of it looks nicely sharp and well detailed, offering excellent fine detail levels on things like the ornate, often braided, fabrics some of the characters wear, or even Cheng's decidedly non-historical spiky haircut. But there are some recurrent and (to my eyes, anyway) kind of odd anomalies at play here, including what looks like stair stepping on some "edges" like the tops of buildings and the like. These tend to occur in brightly lit scenes where I wonder if some green screen process may have been employed, but without any authoritative data to refer to, I can only state what I'm seeing, not what's causing it. The palette is somewhat tamped down throughout the series, with a somewhat purplish undertone at times that can make flesh tones look a little odd. Contrast seems boosted at times, leading to effulgent, almost blooming, whites.

Ip Man: Season 1 Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Ip Man: Season 1 features a nice sounding DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 track in the original Mandarin, though judging solely by lip movements, it appears that a lot of the actors were either not speaking Mandarin on set or at the least were dubbed later. As mentioned above, there's regular use of music (are those closing sequences previews or some kind, set to pop tunes? — no subtitles other than for dialogue are offered, so I'm not sure), and (as mentioned) without subtitles, the context is lost, but the music (which is decidedly modern and pop sounding a lot of the time) reverberates cleanly and clearly. As should be expected, a lot of the fight scenes featuring crunching sound effects which also have a good deal of force. All elements on this track are presented cleanly and clearly, with good prioritization, but some extra subtitles might have helped considerably.

Ip Man: Season 1 Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

There are no supplements of any kind on any of the three discs in this set.

Ip Man: Season 1 Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I frankly don't get what the potential "hook" of this series is supposed to be, and the fact that it doesn't look like there's been a "Season 2" of Ip Man, despite the fact that the show evidently premiered in 2013 (the title sequence includes 2012, for what that's worth), may indicate it didn't attract enough viewers in Asia one way or the other. The many films about Ip Man often took (extreme) liberties with the historical record, and that tendency is only increased with this fanciful but pretty unreal feeling series. There are some good fight scenes, and I personally actually enjoyed the vignettes involving the young Ip Man more than the sometimes melodramatic bits featuring him as an adult, so devoted acolytes of "The Grandmaster" may want to check this out. Video is a little problematic at times, but audio sounds great, for those considering a purchase.