Ip Man 3

First for this film I'll analyse the performance. For a martial arts movie, the performance was solid. Most martial arts movies rely on the fight scenes alone to carry them but there was no shortage of realistic performances in this film. The protagonist, Ip Man, played by Donnie Yen, nearly always seemed cool, calm and collected, which, for a martial arts grandmaster, you'd expect. And of course martial arts wise, it was very true to the story and history of Ip Man. I'll give this film 4/5 for it's performances.

Next I'll analyse the mise-en-scene. Considering that I already know a lot about Ip Man and his story, I never found myself confused or questioning anything important. Taking this into account, I still don't believe that there was anything bad or wrong with the mise-en-scene. I didn't notice anything that might lead somebody to misunderstand something. Although improvements could be made. For example it appeared to me at some points in the film that some of the things on screen were unneeded and took away from the main focus of the scene. For example in the opening when Bruce Lee enters and speaks to Ip Man. The amount of plants seemed unneeded. The billboards outside were excessive. There was a lot of detail that the movie could do with out. 3/5.

For sure the best part of the film is the cinematography. In any martial arts movie, the cinematography needs to be astounding. To build intensity, to keep the fast pace, to immerse the audience in the fight. Not to mention with things moving so quickly it is easy to lose what's going on and get confused by everything that's happening. Not once did I ever find myself wondering how something happened or how someone got somewhere, etc. This is all thanks to the cinematographer. But the fight scenes cinematography aren't the only works of art. Because of Ip Man's wife contributing a lot of emotion to the plot, there were a lot of scenes where there was heavy need for close ups and I don't believe the film missed any of these opportunities. 5/5

Nearing the end I will discuss the sound. Again, a good martial arts film has good sound directing. Without it, the main point of the film, the fight scenes, seem lifeless and weak. Not only was the music intense, but it was the perfect volume to the point where it still achieved the effect it needed to without taking away from the sounds of impact. Which brings me to my next point, the sounds of impact really do bring the scenes alive and make us nearly feel every blow like we're there, witnessing the fight first hand. Even the sound of air rushing out of the path of the fists is near perfect. Just listen to the clip below with your eyes closed and see if you can make it without flinching from the sound of some sort of blow making you feel like you're being attacked. 5/5

Finally, the lighting. I'll get straight into it with what I don't like about the lighting effects. Everything is too brightly lit. It's true that this helps to make the fight easier to follow but there were so many missed opportunities to establish characters or settings using light. The only effective use of light I saw was during the underground fight scene. It was dark and the only light was on one of the main characters and his opponent. This drew all the attention towards the fight and showcased that the audience were dark, shady characters. However this one example is not enough to excuse the rest of the missed opportunities. 2/5.