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Ip Man KungFu Movie and The Anti Japanese Sentiment

3rd September 2010 (Updated) | Category: Politics and Social Issues

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Ip Man Movie (Pronounce as Yip Mang in Cantonese, a southern Chinese/Hong Kong dialect), is a must watch movie for KungFu fans, normally I dislike watching Chinese Kungfu movies due to its poor storyline and horrible cinematography. However, Ip Man is surprisingly good. The storyline is somewhat predictable – good guy fights evil guy, good guy lost, good guy came back from nowhere and kick ass, but what makes it a good KungFu movie apart from its good cinematography scenes is due to the fact that it is a true story, and not to mention the awesome chain punching technique of Wing Chun KungFu, do you happened to know that Yip Man is Bruce Lee’s master?

To say it attracts lots of moviegoers because it is a true story is simply wrong, I hate to admit it but it could be the anti-Japanese sentiment in the movie that captured the Chinese audience’s sentiment, it plays with the audience feeling and sentiment. As shown in the movie, the only time a Chinese can beat a Japanese is none other than in KungFu, be it in a movie or real world.

Anyway, I had a housemate from Nanjing, when I asked him about his view on the Japanese, his first reaction was: “I hate the Japanese”, and he proceeds: “China should go to war with Japan and not Taiwan.”

During my visit to Shanghai, I talked to a taxi driver, half way through our conversation; I asked him the same question on Japanese. The response? Same, he replied: “I hate the Japanese and we (China) should bomb them when the time is right.”

Being an overseas Chinese, third generation and never experience the brutality of the Japanese Imperial Army, it is hard for me to hate the Japanese. After all, I do own quite a number of Japanese gadgets. The older generation has this hatred towards the Japanese, especially China and the communist government, which uses this anti Japanese sentiment to their advantage while instill nationalism by publishing tons of articles on the brutality of the Japanese during world war two, one of the all time favorites is none other than the Nanking Massacre, commonly known as the Rape of Nanking.

The whole point of this conversation is not about the Imperial Japan’s past, but why do they refused to apologize sincerely? Their history textbook says little about their own past. I seriously doubt the younger generation (Chinese) has the same amount of hatred towards the Japanese, like I said before; they’ve never experience the brutality of the Japanese directly. What pissed the younger generation is the systematic distortion of the historical record propagated in the Japanese educational system.

“In August 1937, two Japanese soldiers, one an officer, were shot to death in Shanghai (the hub of foreign interests). After this incident, the hostilities between Japan and China escalated. Japanese military officials thought Chiang Kai-shek would surrender if they captured Nanking, the Nationalist capital; they occupied that city in December. *But Chiang Kai-shek had moved his capital to the remote city of Chongqing. The conflict continued. Note *At this time, many Chinese soldiers and civilians were killed or wounded by Japanese troops (the Nanking Incident). Documentary evidence has raised doubts about the actual number of victims claimed by the incident. The debate continues even today” – Japanese History Textbook 2005 version. Source: Wikipedia

Is it that hard to own up? To tell the truth? As time goes by, the younger Japanese are brought up to believe that their forefathers and nation committed no crime, therefore they should not apologize, to a certain extent, the younger generation refuses to apologize because they claimed that it is their grandfather’s fault, not theirs.

I don’t hate the Japanese, but I fear for them. If both sides continue to exchange hot words, it is a matter of time before China together with the North Koreans and possibly South Korea and Taiwan invades Japans, because if we forget the past, history will repeat itself.

Watch Ip Man vs 10 Black Belts – one word – Awesome!

The Japanese General is giving out white rice to any Chinese person who defeats the Japanese fighters at a ratio of 1 bag per 1 defeated fighter. Mandarin Dubbed + Original Japanese Speech. The General kills Ip Man’s friend in a 1(General)vs 3(Chinese men) duel. Right before the scene shown in this video, Ip Man witnesses Sifu Liu getting shot to death by the Colonel for losing a duel with 3 Japanese fighters and still dare to pick up the bag of rice he won earlier, though not by the orders of the General. Ip Man gets real pissed off, so he demands a fight with 10 of the black belts. Upon his victory, he refuses to take his reward (10 bags of rice) and the General tells him “again”; Ip Man replies “I did not come here for the rice”. The interpreter tells the General that he will come again. The General asks for his name and Ip Man replies “I am just a Chinese”. The interpreter tells the General, “He is Ip Man”.

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3 Comments

David Atkinson
on January 12th, 2009
1
Waited years for this movie to come out on grand master Yip Man. As young man growing up I heard so many stories about Yip Man.

I will be contacting uncle in Hong Kong about his thought’s on this movie. There is going to be so many difference’s of opinion when this movie as done the full global circuit.

I predict the next Wing Chun movie will be about Sifu Wong Shun Long also teacher to Bruce Lee.

Wong was famous for the roof top battles in Hong Kong.

Great post.
nancy
on April 22nd, 2010
2
As shown in the movie, the only time a Chinese can beat a Japanese is none other than in KungFu, be it in a movie or real world.–I strongly disagree unless you were talking about military wise at that period of time
admin
on April 25th, 2010
3
@nancy

IP Man the movie is more fictional than real. Most of the plots are spiced up, so was Jet Li’s Fearless. Unless someone organize a competition to determine the best martial arts between the koreans, japs and chinese. nobody will know for sure. Who know, it could be the Thai’s Muay Tai?