Donnie Yen is an international superstar, but most American audiences know him from Hollywood films such as XXX: Return of Xander Cage, Rogue One, and Shanghai Knights. For more than a decade he’s had the global blockbuster Ip Man franchise all to himself, and now he’s set to bring it to a close with a fourth film that’s guaranteed to be a martial arts extravaganza.
Yen is back as the Wing Chun grandmaster in Ip Man 4, a film that will expand on his relationship with student Bruce Lee. Set in the 1960s, the story finds Ip Man coming to the United States to reunite with Lee (played once again by Danny Chan) who has decided to open his own Wing Chun school in Seattle.
The footage is brief, but shows Yen’s speed and precision attacking a training dummy, followed by glimpses of what appear to be future battles. The two prior films have included Mike Tyson and Dave Bautista, the latter part of the Ip Man Legacy spinoff, but you’ll find no big American stars attached to this latest film. It really belongs to Yen, and that should be more than enough.
SYNOPSIS: Ip Man’s life remains unchanged after his wife’s death, but he and his son are slowly drifting apart. To seek a better future for his son, Ip Man decides to travel to the U.S. only to find the stable, peaceful life abroad is only skin deep. Underneath lies a deep rooted racial discrimination that is far worse than he has expected. Ip Man re-examines his position and ponders on the reason he took up martial arts in the beginning.
Once again directed by Wilson Yip, Ip Man 4 opens Christmas Day.
