In
the 1950’s and 1960’s, Hong Kong’s go-go economy had yet to blast off. Master Ip earns little more than a
subsistence living teaching his Wing Chun style of kung fu to students. Well known throughout the city, Master Ip
could probably do a brisker business were it not for his own self-imposed
restrictions. Kung fu is a way of life
for him—not a commodity to be commercialized.
In
a way, The Final Flight is a bit
Gumpish, casting Master Ip as an observer of two decades of Hong Kong’s growing
pains, including the rise of trade unionism and the rampant gangsterism within
the Walled City. However, when it
finally gets down to fighting, Final delivers
some spectacular street melees.
While
produced independently of Wong Kar Wai’s long awaited martial arts spectacle
and Wilson Yip’s Ip Man franchise,
Anthony Wong is not a bad likeness for both Donnie Yen and “Little” Tony Leung
Chiu Wai in their AARP years. Wong might
not look particularly spry, but he is a steely old cat, so it is easy to buy
into him as the veteran martial artist.
After all, the genre has a long history of butt-kicking graybeards.
Indeed,
Wong’s Zen-like gravitas is perfect for the venerable Ip. He also develops some appealingly ambiguous
chemistry with Zhou Chu Chu, playing a scandalous nightclub singer attracted to
his old bad self. However, the film is
overstuffed with Ip’s disciples. You
would think half the city was studying under him. Regardless, Jordan Chan adds
real hardboiled heft to the film as Tang Shing, a not completely corrupt copper
and former student of Ip’s. He creates a
spinoff-worthy character should the filmmakers wish to further complicate the
Ip Man universe.
