The Happenings

-- Ip Man --
Owing to controversy over the film title, Mandarin Film's martial arts biopic on Yip Man will still be called Ip Man rather than 《一代宗师·叶问》 Grandmaster Yip Man, thanks to unpleasantries from Wong Kar Wai who claimed conflicts with his very version that still remains in development limbo despite being announced several years ago.

Raymond Wong explains, "Actually, all along, we have called our film 《叶问》 Ip Man, but our mainland investors said that Yip Man was a great master of his times, so we changed our title to Grandmaster Yip Man out of respect for him. Yet, this brought about a series of debates over the title. To settle this matter amicably, after discussions with our various investors, movie consultant Yip Chun, director Wilson Yip, we changed back to our original title."

He also believes that it's not worth arguing over a name, "The title is of secondary importance, our main aim in shooting the film is to propagate Wing Chun. All studios should cooperate with and support each other, especially in a time when the film industry is not doing well."

Tony Leung says, "Our film will still be produced. I think Donnie Yen's version will be more focused on martial arts, of younger age, but the Yip Man I'm playing will be more drama-oriented, and it deals mainly with the latter half of his life. The two are definitely completely different works."

Production of Ip Man has wrapped up in Shanghai, after around three to four months of filming. Ip Man, directed by Wilson Yip, featuring action by Sammo Hung and starring Donnie Yen, Simon Yam, Lynn Hung, Fan Siu Wong, Xing Yu, Li Qi Long, To Yu Hang, is targeted for a Christmas 2008 release.  Shanghai Daily | Posters: Eastday