Set in 1959, the movie follows Ip Man as he is settling into his low-profile life in Hong Kong. However, when a band of brutal gangsters led by a crooked property developer make a play to take over the city, he is forced to make a stand.
"Ip Man 3" is pretty much what you'd expect, but there's something extra special about an action movie that ends not on a moment of triumph but one of introspection.
Yen is appealing, the story moves right along, and the martial arts sequences are (to my untrained eye) impressive. In short, a good enough conclusion to the Ip Man saga.
'Why am I crying at the awesomeness of this fight?' Because it's art. Martial arts produce the same response as that 'Marriage of Figaro' aria in 'The Shawshank Redemption.'
The only real spark in the film is provided by Yen's costar Zhang Jin as Cheung Tin-chi, an upstart devotee of the wing chun school intent on knocking Ip off his hallowed throne atop Hong Kong's martial-arts pantheon.
Less offensively nationalistic than the second installment but falling short of the glowing humanity, genial Cantonese humor and visual flair of the first, the pic is somewhat tarnished by its pedestrian plot and limp characterization.
