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-- Ip Man 2 --

Lots of Ip Man 2 images of Donnie Yen, Sammo Hung, Fan Siu Wong, Kent Cheng, Darren Shahlavi, To Yu Hang, Jiang Dai Yan, etc. have recently been published on Flickr by its Australian film distributor Dream Movie.

 

Continue reading "Ip Man 2 Stills and Teaser"

-- The Legend is Born - Ip Man --

The Legend is Born: Ip Man trailer, with really awesome intricate, blazingly-quick Wing Chun exchanges between Sammo Hung, Yuen Biao, To Yu Hang, Fan Siu Wong and Ip Chun, courtesy of action director Leung Siu Hung, has just been posted to Youtube. And it appears that martial arts philosophy plays quite a big part in the film, based on the conversations in the film.

 

The production recently celebrated the completion of the film, attended by the main cast To Yu Hang, Yuen Biao, Huang Yi, Bernice Liu, Rose Chan, Xu Jiao, Lam Suet and Ma Sai, as well as Gold Typhoon's Paco Wong.

Continue reading "A Trailer Showing How The Legend is Born: Ip Man"

It had long been the wish of Sin Kwok Lam, a longtime martial arts practitioner and shrewd businessman and capitalist who is a major player in Hong Kong financial sector and has even published a controversial book on big corporations swallowing up small firms last year, to bring the account of his grandmaster Yip Man to screen, but he couldn't find any filmmakers willing enough to take the risk as Yip Man was little known. Continue reading "And thus, Ip Man, The Legend, is Born"

《叶问前传》 Ip Man the Prequel (tentative) has begun production in Hong Kong on November 7. Herman Yau is directing this film, produced by Sin Kwok Lam. Ip Chun serves as the film's advisor and will cameo as Yip Man's second mentor Leung Bik. Under invitation from Foshan government, 2/3 of the scenes from Ip Man the Prequel will be shot on location in Foshan, including the original village Ip Man lived in.

Continue reading "Ip Man the Prequel Begins Filming"

-- Young Ip Man --

Following his appearance as Liu Bei in Light-transcending Pandora's Box, Jeffrey Lau's parody on Red Cliff, Yuen Biao is joining Young Ip Man, produced by Sin Kwok Lam, directed by Herman Yau, this November, while the prolific Jeffrey Lau would start filming another work around the same time.

Yuen Biao would be playing Ip Man's senior Ng Chung Suk, responsible for further training Ip Man after their master Chan Wah Shun passed away.

 

Young Ip Man, which traces Yip Man's life between age of 11 to 28, also stars To Yu Hang, possibly as Yip Man, Fan Siu Wong, who has recently been training Wing Chun daily under Sin Kwok Lam, and Huang Yi as Yip Man's girlfriend.

As such, owing to schedule conflicts, Yuen Biao could only make a cameo in the ongoing production Legend of Shaolin Kungfu 3. The role he'd be playing is still undergoing negotiation.

 

Meanwhile, Tony Leung, who is back to Wing Chun training, still feels some pain when exerting him arm as it takes 3 months before his fractured arm would fully recover. Producer Ng See Yuen says The Great Master by Wong Kar Wai and apparently with Yuen Wo Ping as the martial arts choreographer, which, coincidentally, is about Yip Man's life after his migration to Hong Kong and his relations with other sects, has to begin filming in November - come what may. But who knows it'd be pushed back yet again. Ng See Yuen is forbidding Wong Kar Wai, who's facing tremendous pressure, from altering the script on the set, "The script must be finalised first, can't let him keep changing the script as he shoots the film."  Sina, Chongqing News

-- Ip Man 2 --
《叶问2:宗师传奇》 Ip Man 2: Legend of Grandmaster held a press conference (video), attended by producer Raymond Wong, director Wilson Yip and the cast, in Foshan on 10 August evening to mark the commencement of the production.   

 

Actual filming will take place on a soundstage in Shanghai the next day and it will have twice the amount of martial arts scenes. The film is due for release next summer.

Continue reading "Ip Man's Legend as a Grandmaster in Hong Kong"

-- Ip Man 2 --
Ip Man 2, directed by Wilson Yip, starring Donnie Yen, Sammo Hung, who also serves as the martial arts director, Kent Cheng, Lynn Hung, Huang Xiao Ming, Fan Siu Wong To Yu Hang, Ashton Chen aka Shi Xiao Long, is beginning production August 10.

Contradicting an earlier news, rather than To Yu Hang, Raymond Wong says that Huang Xiao Ming, non-martial artist, would be playing Yip Man's disciple, King of Hand-talk, Huang Jin, which is based on Yip Man's real-life disciple Wong Shun Leung. Huang Jin is a keen martial artist but his youth and brashness often land him in sticky situations.

The kid Bruce Lee has been narrowed down to two candidates: 10-year-old Jiang Dai Yan from Henan and 12-year-old Pan Run Kang from Heilongjiang but they haven't found an ideal candidate for teen Bruce Lee. Bruce Lee scenes would be pushed to October as they continue the talent hunt.  QQ

Both Wilson Yip's Ip Man 2 and Wong Kar Wai's The Great Master are slated for production next month.

 

Budgeted at 100m yuan, Ip Man 2 traces Yip Man's life as he arrives in Hong Kong. Raymond Wong reveals that Donnie Yen's pay has doubled since the first film, commanding around 15m to 20m yuan. Ip Man 3 is currently in the process of being written, and it will have bigger focus on Bruce Lee.

Bruce Lee casting call is concluding soon, and 12-year old 潘润康 Pan Run Kang (video) from Harbin, who not resembles Bruce Lee but is also trained in martial arts, stands a very good chance of playing the child Bruce Lee.

Huang Xiao Ming will join the film as Sammo Hung's disciple, while, this time around, To Yu Hang returns and takes on another role - Donnie Yen's disciple. The dispute between the disciples of Hung Gar and Wing Chun leads to their masters' eventual confrontation.

According to Yip Chun, production of Wong Kar Wai's The Great Master is expected to begin "on schedule", as Tony Leung's arm fracture won't affect or delay filming.

Young Ip Man/Ip Man the Prequel (unrelated), which explores the early parts of Yip Man's life, is expected to begin production in November, with Herman Yau directing, and tentatively, To Yu Hang would be playing the eponymous kungfu master, while Yip Chun would be making his debut as Leung Bik.  Southern Metropolis Daily

 Gillian Chung has been hard at work, training in Wing Chun under Sin Kwok Lam for a year, and now has a good grasp of it. Sin Kwok Lam, whose kungfu lineage can be traced to Yip Man, praises Gillian Chung for her talent in martial arts, as well as her positive attitude towards learning. Continue reading "Gillian Chung Stages Her Comeback"

Ip Man, the most successful collaboration between director Wilson Yip, martial arts director Sammo Hung and actor Donnie Yen to date, is due for home video release on Feb 13. The cast for this martial arts biopic includes Donnie Yen, Fan Siu Wong, Lynn Hung, Simon Yam, Xing Yu, Chen Zhi Hui, To Yu Hang, Ikeuchi Hiroyuki, etc. Ip Man is doing very well at the box office in the region, grossing around HK$24m in HK and over 90m yuan in China.

 

Ip Man features Donnie Yen in his breakthrough role as the atypical hero who doesn't go around standing up for justice. Yet when the times changed, he's forced out of his laidback and unassuming lifestyle to challenge the invaders. Ip Man, may be preordered from YesAsia on the following formats: 1-disc DVD, 2-disc special edition DVD, and Blu-ray.

 

Both the 2-disc DVD and Blu-ray versions come packed with extras like making of, interviews, deleted scenes, shooting diary, and featurettes on Ip Man and Wing Chun martial arts.

-- 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

-- Grandmaster Yip Man --

Hong Kong's Long Fist gold medallist 杜宇航 To Yu Hang started his training in wushu at the age of six at Hong Kong Wushu Union's classes, before subsequently becoming Hong Kong Wushu Team member. He has recently taken part in Hong Kong leg of Olympics Torch Relay 2008 as one of the local 120 Torchbearers.

To Yu Hang has just made his screen debut in Wilson Yip's Grandmaster Yip Man, "Once, I was on a TV programme on the bus that introduced Hong Kong athletes, it happened that the boss of the a talent agency saw it, got in touch with me, asking if I would be interested to join the showbiz. We talked for a long time, he lamented about the dearth of martial artists on screen, and invited me to develop my career as an action star. I thought, since I'm still young, I should try out different things, and so I joined my agent's big family."

Continue reading "To Yu Hang on Joining Grandmaster Yip Man"