Ip Man 3, Yen and Tyson kick off 2016...

Five years after the success of Ip Man 2, Director Wilson Yip and leading man Donnie Yen return for the long awaited third installment in the Ip Man saga. This time round Yuen Woo-ping handles the action choreography, while Yen faces new opponents in the shape of rival Master (Max Zhang) and a corrupt property developer played by Mike Tyson, while Ip's most famous student Bruce Lee also appears. Impact's Mike Leeder brings us the first UK review....

It's Hong Kong in 1959.. A gang working for a corrupt property developer (Mike Tyson) has been causing trouble, but when they intimidate the staff of a local school, one concerned parent makes a stand, that man is Master Ip Man (Donnie Yen)and he takes it upon himself to guard the school to keep it and the staff and pupils safe. He crosses paths with another parent and fellow Wing Chun Master Cheung (Max Zhang), and together they are able to stand up to Frank's men which only forces him to take more drastic measures.

Meanwhile as Ip Man fights for his community, his long suffering wife Wing Sing (Lynn Xiong) is diagnosed with cancer but doesn't want to tell her husband. While Master Cheung who competes in underground fights to make some more money for his family, has grown jealous of the legend of Ip Man and decides to challenge him and let the winner be known as the true Wing Chun master.

The success of Ip Man 1 and 2 almost put paid to the chances of an official Ip Man 3, there had been so many Ip Man-inspired Wing Chun movies, that even Yen himself felt that the character had been over-exposed and that maybe it was time to move on. But the stars aligned and here we are with the third and possibly final chapter, although Yen has spoken of interest in a possible fourth installment if the right script came along.

Yen may have just crossed the half century mark, but he's aging very well with his physicality remaining on an insanely high level and his acting when working with the right directors especially with Wilson Yip, really being a lot stronger than many of his peers. He's come a long way from the goofiness of Mismatched Couples etc, and you do at times find yourself wondering what he could do in a purely dramatic role. (He's made a few non-fighting cameos recently, but I think he could carry a purely dramatic role, as long as he'd then follow it up with more kick ass action in the subsequent projects!). Ip has an unassuming almost Clark Kent demeanor until he's forced to step up when the trouble begins, he knows when to fight and when to walk away, but rest assured fight-fans he fights in this film. There's various multiple attackers and some very cool one-on-one fights especially with Mike Tyson (it's a bout that brings back flashbacks to Michael Woods and Yen's memorable battles with Max Zhang from SPL 2 & The Grandmasters.

Now what of Mike Tyson as the pugilistic property developer Frank? Well... is he entirely convincing as an actor? Not yet... and his character seems to have some incredible connection to the HK Police that allows him to break the law - although the 50s, 60s and early 70s did see the HK Police suffering from some major corruption issues that would eventually lead to the formation of the ICAC (Independent Commision Against Corruption) and  a number of high ranking policeman being called out. But, come on it's Mike Tyson fighting Donnie Yen in a Hong Kong movie! And with Yuen Woo-ping, Yuen Chang-yan and Donnie himself choreographing the action, it works very well. The production team did have some trepidation about Tyson being able to switch from real fights to 'reel' fighting at the beginning, but he quickly adapted and while both he and Yen took a few bumps and bruises in the course of filming, he performed well and we look forward to his next HK-styled cinematic bout (that sees him battling Steven Seagal in the Chinese movie Salesman).

The film was originally announced as featuring a CGI Bruce Lee, but Shannon Lee and the Bruce Lee Estate raised issues, much as they've done with various Bruce Lee projects such as Bruce Lee My Brother, which (as with Ip Man 3) features Bruce Lee before he moved to America and married Linda Caldwell, believing it was infringing on their intellectual property rights. (of course, Johnnie Walker commercials, UFC games, Bruce Lee Tea and more are all perfectly acceptable if the price is right, it seems). We DO understand protecting copyright but there should be a line drawn in the sand as to how much they can enforce with regards to events from his life before he married Linda. Instead of a CGI Bruce Lee, we are given a brief appearance by Bruce Lee look-alike Danny Chan, best known for playing the Bruce-alike goalie in Shaolin Soccer, and Bruce himself in the officially sanctioned and utterly insane Legend of Bruce Lee TV series and the Johnnie Walker commercials. Was it easier to use him due to him actually looking like Bruce in real-life as a way of getting round the copyright issue? Who knows..... Chan is not a major player in the movie, his character appears in the opening battling Ip Man in a very cool fight scene that works... but is very out of tempo with all the other fights in the movie being SFX heavy. It's great to see the representation of Lee, who of course was Ip Man's most famous student but you do wonder how much of a role they originally intended the character to play...

It's also interesting to note - and a little sad too - that the Ip Man team had originally been thinking of a way to bring the late Darren Shahlavi's character back for the third film... he'd made such an impression on them for his work in the second film that they had been working on ideas for a cameo for him...only for his unfortunate passing to put paid to that idea.

Wing Chun movie fans will be overjoyed to see the great Leung Kar-yan from Warriors Two popping up as one of Ip Man's allies, although he is a bit cartoonish. Patrick Tam acts as if he has stepped out of a pantomime with his villainous goon. The lovely Lynn Xiong gives her strongest performance yet as Ip's long suffering wife, and I actually found myself wishing she had been given more to do in the trilogy, as her onscreen chemistry with Yen works very well.

Max Zhang from Grandmaster and SPL 2 gets another very memorable role and super showcase for his skills in this film... and comes close to stealing Yen's thunder. I think we won't have long to wait before he's headlining movies of his own. The man has the looks and the skills and Yen and company all speak highly of him. His role is, at first glance, a little similar to the one he played for Wong Kar-wai, but he's given a bit more room to flesh it out this time round. If you really wanted to over-analyse, you could almost believe that the battle between Yen and Zhang's characters over whose Wing Chun is superior is perhaps a snipe at the other Wing Chun movies such as The Grandmaster, The Legend is Born: Ip Man, Ip Man-The Final Fight! The battles between Yen and Zhang feature both the unarmed combat of Wing Chun, and the various weapons of the Wing Chun style including sword and staff.

Wilson Yip delivers as a director once again, showing just how good he can be with the right projects, even when the script isn't as strong as it could be. The team of Yip and Yen consistently delivers and I would love to see another collaboration between the two that wasn't an Ip Man movie next time, perhaps the Chinese Indiana Jones-styled adventurer Wisely project that they have spoken of doing for some time.

Yuen Woo-ping steps in to oversee the action this time round, while Sammo Hung (who handled choreography for the first two Ip Man movies) ironically was handling the action on the second Monkey King movie (where Aaron Kwok stepped into the role Yen played in the first film). A lot of people were worried that Yuen's involvement might suddenly take the film into wire-assisted wonderland, but apart from the opening fight between Ip Man and Bruce Lee, the majority of the film fight action is as grounded as the earlier movies and shows Yuen hasn't lost his step as an action director. He's ably assisted by his brother Yuen Shun-yee and his team, and Yen himself who also lent a hand with certain choreographic beats.

Ip Man 3 gets the thumbs up, and is just as entertaining for the martial-arts-movie fan as the other big Xmas movie Star Wars: The Force Awakens, with which its going head to head  in Hong Kong and most of South East Asia. It's a worthy third chapter and if it is the final word on the Donnie Yen take on Ip Man it's a memorable goodbye, but as Sean Connery once said Never Say Never Again!

The film is being released in the UK with preview screenings on Xmas Eve followed by a mid January release, and by WellGoUSA in North America in early 2016.

In the UK, those special Christmas Eve showings take place at the following locations. Contact them directly for more information: Odeon Panton St, Odeon Manchester, Cineworld Birmingham Broad Street, Cineworld Sheffield, Cineworld Glasgow Renfrew, Cineworld Milton Keyes, Cineworld Enfield and Cineworld Cardiff