Ip believes in the law and in China, so he has no patience for the Foshan gang that has aligned itself with the local Imperial-supported, opium-importing Japanese business council. As the film opens, Ip single-handedly faces the entire gang, while San Ye, the leader of the patriotic (but still criminal) Ax Gang settles business with the opposing gang’s leader. Rules are still rules, so Ip still must take the Ax leader into custody. Unfortunately, that leaves him vulnerable to the corrupt cops on the force.
Naturally, his daughter blames Ip for her father’s death, even though the honest cop is secretly protecting her, under the guise of the masked vigilante, “The Black Knight.” To humiliate the local population, the Japanese syndicate sponsors a martial arts competition, with the Imperial Army’s karate champion taking on all comers (flagrantly copying a page from Wilson Ip’s original Ip Man, but whatever). Of course, he only gets one challenger, Ip Man, who will be more than enough.
Li’s Kung Fu Master does not connect on an emotional level the way Donnie Yen’s first three Ip Man films did and it lacks the stylish grandeur of Wong Kar-wai’s The Grandmaster. It is definitely less ambitious in nearly every respect, but what it sets out to do, it does really well. Action director Sun Fei’s fight scenes start of big and over-the-top—and only get more so as the film continues. Dennis To’s Ip is typically outnumbered something like 70 or 80 to 1, but it is never enough. Eventually, you’d think the hapless gang-members would look around and realize: “we’re going to need a couple hundred more guys.”
