The different faces of Ip Man

Within a short period of 10 years, I have watch more than 5 different movies on the story of 'Ip Man'. Here's a quick recap on who 'Ip Man' is. He is a martial arts teacher and one of his student is the international superstar, 'Bruce Lee'. Movies wise...

'Ip Man'(葉問) This is the start of the trend. And after the release of this movie, there's a big boom of youtube videos titled with 'I want to * 10'(我要*十個). On top of that, it's like the 'Matrix' effect back then where tons and tons of films started remaking a similar scene from the 'Ip Man' movie. Seriously, this is one of the better 'Kungfu' films since the 'Wong Fei Hong'(黃飛鴻) movie series featuring 'Jet Li'(李连杰). Which reminds me, if I'm not mistaken 'Donnie Yen'(甄子丹) was acting as one of the villain in one of the 'Wong Fei Hong' movies back then.

'Ip Man 2'(葉問2) With the success of the first film, they started rolling out the 2nd film. And 'Donnie Yen'(甄子丹) returns with more 'Kungfu' action. In the first film, it's more of this life in mainland china where he started off leading a wealthy lifestyle and due to the war in China, he ended up becoming poor. And due to unforeseen circumstances, he ended up heavily injured in a fight and the whole family decided to settle down in 'Hong Kong'. In the second film, it's more of his life in 'Hong Kong' and the difficulties that he encounter when he tries to setup his Martial Arts School. Though the story is pretty straightforward but it's all the 'Kungfu' fighting that makes the whole film interesting. (Note: I think that the fight between 'Sammo Hung'(洪金宝) and 'Donnie Yen' standing on a round table is the best part which shouldn't be missed.)

'The legend is born - Ip Man'(葉問前傳) A completely different approach of 'Ip Man', the main focus of this film is on the early stage of the life of 'Ip Man'. It shows a younger 'Ip Man' that is much more rebellious. But as compared to the earlier adaptations, this film focuses more on the story rather than all the fighting scenes. But, the scriptwriters have managed to structure the story in an interesting manner which slowly builds up the tension to the last scene, which is a big fight between friends, families and members of the same sect. By the way in order to boost the sales of the movie, one of the incentive would be the actor playing the role of 'Ip Man', 'Dennis To'(杜宇航) was a martial artist.

'The grandmaster'(一代宗師) 'Wong Kar Wai' version of 'Ip Man'. Infamous for creating and producing artistic movies that has deep 'depth', combines with the fantastic acting skills of 'Tony Leung'(梁朝伟) has pretty much explains how powerful this film will ended up to be. Rather than focusing on the story of 'Ip Man' only, it focuses more on the story of numerous Martial Arts teachers during the 20th century. As mentioned earlier, on top of the story, 'Wong Kar Wai' approach of the movie not only makes things interesting, it's artistic and bring depth to the overall action pack film itself. In fact, even the liners that are coming out of the actors are deep. =.=""

'Ip Man: The Final Fight'(葉問：終極一戰) As compared to the earlier films, 'Anthony Wong'(黃秋生) has ended up to be much more plump and much more uncle-like as compared to the other 3 'Ip Man'. Besides focusing on the story of a more emotional 'Ip Man' in 'Hong Kong', this film also brings out the life the 'Hong Kongers' were leading back then. Pretty much similar to the '3rd' film, this film focuses more on story building than all the 'Kungfu' fighting scenes. Anyway, as usual these movies ain't based on the true story of 'Ip Man'. They are just just beautifying the story so that it can interest the audiences like us. :D

* Click here to find out more about the movie 'Ip Man'(葉問).
^ Click here to find out more about the movie 'Ip Man 2'(葉問2).
~ Click here to find out more about the movie 'The legend is born - Ip Man'(葉問前傳).
# Click here to find out more about the movie 'The grandmaster'(一代宗師).
- Click here to find out more about the movie 'Ip Man: The Final Fight'(葉問：終極一戰).
  (In order to make your life easier, instead of pasting the official sites here, I have pasted
  the links to the respective IMDb pages here.)

Movie: Experiencing the Hangover...

I have finally watched the 3 sequel to the movie 'The Hangover'. However, rather than watching it in a numerical order, I'm watching it in the sequence of 2, 3 followed by 1. However, out of the 3, I still find the 2nd to be the best. Anyway...

The main idea behind the first 2 sequel is pretty straight forward. A group of friends calls for a big celebration and they ended up drinking. As they woke up the following day, one of them has gone missing and none of them has a clue and memories of the events that have happened the previous day. Hence, the search of their important memories and their missing companion begins... As for the last sequel, it's interconnected to the first 2 sequel. However, it's not as hilarious as the first 2 sequel, especially when they have dropped the 'Hangover' idea in the sequel. Either ways, this comedy trilogy is worth giving it a shot and it's one of the better comedies over the last few years. :D

* Click here for the official website of 'The Hangover 3'.

Movie: Shield Of Straw

In order to protect a criminal, are you willing to go against the whole nation?

Poster of the movie 'Shield Of Straw' This movie is based on the novel titled 'Shield of Straw'. In order to seek revenge, an important person of the political circle has put up a death notice which is worth one billion yen. Therefore for the sake of the appealing prize money, the whole nation has gone all out trying to track down and murder the criminal. Therefore, it ended up to be a group of policemen going against the entire country sorta situation. Furthermore, even the people around you, can turn against you within the next second... Therefore at the end of the day, who do you think has committed the most unforgivable mistake at the end of the day? Is it the criminal? Or is it the Policemen that have been protecting the criminal? Or is it the civilians that are trying to kill the criminal for the sake of one billion dollars? Or is it the important person of the political circle, who is trying to seek revenge. Well, this would be a good question that is worth giving a thought. :)

* Click here to find out more about the movie 'Shield Of Straw'. (Japanese website)

Movie: Now You See Me....

and Now You Don't. Sorry to disappoint you but I'm not a magician. In fact, I have seen this interesting movie a few weeks back and I suddenly realised that I haven't written about this movie.

Image taken from the official site of 'Now You See Me'. As for this movie, it's like a mixture of a few movies. There's a bit of the magical elements of 'The Prestige' mixed with the 'Police and Thief' sort of story from a typical 'Police' film. The plot is very interesting. Just when I thought that the movie has come to an end, it continued and ended up to be a far more bigger conspiracy than one could have expected. By the way, although it's supposed to be a film revolving around 'Magic tricks', but I personally find the overall plot of this movie to be far more entertaining. :)

* Click here to find out more about the movie 'Now You See Me'.

Movie: Super Hero of the 21th Century...

In the 21th century, what would be the characteristic of a superhero? Does he needs to be a gentleman or does he needs to be a guy with a strong sense of justice? In fact, I have watched a superhero movie a few days ago. And in the movie itself, it has mentioned that one needs to be a pervert in order to fight for justice. And does it really apply in the 21th century? By the way, the name of the movie would be...

'HK FOrbidden Super Hero'. This is a rip-off of a Japanese Manga in the 90s. Being the child of a Police detective and a SM Queen, High School Student, 'Kyousuke Shikijou', has a hidden Identity and that would be 'HK'. He has unintentionally awaken his special capabilities when he has mistaken a mask with a used ladies panties, which marks the starting point of his perverted superhero life. For the sake of love and justice, a new superhero is born... In fact, most of the superheroes movie out there are mostly movies with a serious plot. As for this movie, it's more of a pretty hilarious superhero movie than a serious movie. The way the hero performs his attack, the conversations that all the characters are making, can be pretty stupid and hilarious too.

Anyway, here's an interesting video that teaches us the various movie theatre etiquette by the unlikely type of superhero, 'HK'.

* Click here to find out more about movie 'HK Forbidden Super Hero'. (In Japanese)
^ Click here to find out more about the movie 'HK Forbidden Super Hero' on
  'Filmgarde Cineplex' website.

The real mask

Just in case anyone is having the thought of getting a mask to protect yourself from the haze, here is my personal view about getting a facial mask.

First of all, you should only be wearing a mask outdoors in order to protect yourself from the haze. It should not be brought inside an air-conditioner room because it might be damaged by the air-conditioning. Pretty much similar to a pair of spectacle. If you have brought a mask from a cold to a warm environment, water can gather around it and eventually spoilt it and defeats the purpose of buying and wearing it. Similarly, if you are thinking of wearing it throughout the whole day, that will work if you are staying in the outdoors for a very long period of time. However, if you are going to step in and out of an air conditioner room, you will eventually spoil it. Therefore logically speaking, in order to protect yourself from the haze, you should be using & changing 2 or more masks per day. And in case you have been speaking behind the mask for a very long period of time, you could also moist the mask and eventually spoil it. That goes for sneezing too. Since you are breathing behind the mask, you are going to inhale all the harmful bacteria. In other words, the moment when you have moist the mask, you should throw it again, as it might deteriorate your health even much more further.

Basically, I'm not against the idea of wearing a mask to protect yourself from the haze. But, if you are going to protect yourself from the haze, I would rather you go all out to protect yourself completely.

I don't believe in shoemaker elves...

Probably most of you out there have heard or read the story of 'The elves and the shoemaker' before. However...

By the way, this article might be a bit too 'dark', therefore are you sure you want to continue reading?

That is merely a fairy tale written by the Grimm Brothers. I don't believe that the shoemaker elves exist in this world and I believe that tasks that was assigned to an individual, he should try to complete the task himself. And at the same time, do not believe that help will be given. Back then, probably I was too native, therefore I will still trust the words of others, but eventually things doesn't really work out that way. After putting too much trust in others hoping that they will help me out, I finally fully understands how meaningful the following 2 liners are.

It might take a long period of time to build a tower of trust, but at the same time, it might take a short instance to ruin it. Words are cheap and actions are everything.

Eventually, at the end of the day, your best source for help will be yourself. Always believe in yourself and at the end of the day, you will be pretty amaze with the amount of things that you can achieve. :D

Anyway, speaking of trust, always ask yourself this question. If a task was given to you and a friend has offer his help, how much help are you going to get at the end of the day? Similarly if a task was given to him, how much help are you willing to offer him? At the end of the day, will the amount of help that you are getting and you are willing to offer going to be the same? If it's different, why would it be different? This would be something interesting for one to really think about. :D

* Click here for the fairy tale 'The elves and the shoemaker' by the 'Grimm Brothers'.