No Hacking This IP

 I read in the recent Sunday Times about a poll going on to find out who is the best Ip Man so far. There’s currently four of them: Donnie Yen (the first), the second guy who is so unfamous that I don’t know his name, Tony Leung Chiu Wai and Anthony Wong, who is acting in the latest instalment currently still on local screens. At first glance, it might seem like close competition, but on closer scrutiny, this must be one of the easiest polls I have ever seen in my life. Asking who is the best Ip Man is like asking  who is the best basketball player of all-time? If the answer is not Michael Jordan, there’s something seriously wrong with you.

And the answer to the Ip Man poll is so obviously Donnie Yen. He wins it all hands down, to be frank. Watching his first two Ip Mans is like watching something out of heaven. The man’s gongfu moves, his piercing dead-eye stare and sizzling, off-the-charts charisma seem to burn up the screen. This guy was BORN TO PLAY IP MAN. Just like Bret ‘The Hitman’ Hart, there was no-one better than him, no-one as good as him, and no-one that will ever be as good as him in the future. Pure and simple. I’ve got both of his Ip Man DVDs, by the way; and let me just say it didn’t take a long decision process for me to buy them.

The second guy, while relatively oblivious to the public eye, actually did a pretty decent job, and I would rank him second amongst the four contenders. He is certainly the youngest, has some decent acting chops and even looks a little like Donnie Yen, which obviously helps. Tony Leung is a fantastic actor, but he is no Ip Man lah. He looks like a bloody idiot trying to play the gongfu legend; it suits him as much as Kim Jong Un suits Barack Obama. It was actually quite a disgrace to the entire Ip Man franchise. Yes, I know it was an arthouse-oriented flick, but please don’t ask Tony Leung to play Ip Man ever again. I haven’t seen the latest edition of Ip Man so I can’t quite comment on Anthony Wong. He is another superb actor (whether good guy or bad), he has got that ‘actor look’, but I’m pretty sure he cannot play Ip Man also lah. One thing, he does not look like your typical gongfu protagonist. He also looks kinda heavy for that role, and a bit on the clumsy side for a martial arts legend. Perhaps most importantly, he does not possess the ‘good-guy’ charm of Ip Man.