“Ip Man 5” Theatrical Poster
Just when you thought it was over, they pull Ip back in! A teaser poster was revealed at Cannes 2023/2024 to gauge buyer interest for Ip Man 5, which would mark Donnie Yen’s (Sakra, John Wick 4, Chasing the Dragon) return as the titular legendary figure for Mandarin Motion Pictures. So here we are…
The first Ip Man film was a rock solid success from all sides of the spectrum, so of course, it was followed by 2010’s Ip Man 2, 2015’s Ip Man 3, and 2014’s Ip Man 4: The Finale – not to mention an official Ip Man spin-off, in the form of 2018’s Master Z: The Ip Man Legacy (where Yen served as producer).
The 5th film is in early stages of development – and Yen is currently shuffling around a number of projects including Flash Point Resurgence, Sleeping Dogs and an Untitled John Wick Spinoff – so we don’t expect to see any movement for Ip Man 5 until 2025/2026.
With that said, it’s time for some rock solid speculation:
Who’ll be directing Ip Man 5?
No director has been confirmed, but considering Wilson Yip (Paradox, SPL) directed all four existing Ip Man films, it’s a safe bet that he’ll be back for a 5th round.
Who’ll be handing the fight choreography for Ip Man 5?
As it stands, Sammo Hung choreographed Ip Man 1-2 and Ip Man 3-4 was choreographed by Yuen Woo Ping, so it’s a 50/50 toss up! Given that both legends are getting up there in age, there’s a strong possibility that Yen may direct action scenes himself, or at least co-direct action with a frequent collaborator like Tanigaki Kenji (Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In), who worked with Yen on 2018’s Big Brother, 2020’s Enter the Fat Dragon and 2023’s Sakra.
What will be the highlight fight for Ip Man 5?
The Ip Man franchise is notable for having two or three, high-profile fight highlights for each film. Examples include Yen taking on Louis Fan (The Story of Ricky), Hiroyuki Ikeuchi (Manhunt), Sammo Hung (Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In), Max Zhang (Master Z: The Ip Man Legacy), Simon Kook (Foggy Mountain), Mike Tyson (Kickboxer: Retaliation), Scott Adkins (John Wick 4), Chris Collins (The Trough), Wu Yue (Paradox), as well as Yen’s famous fight with 10 Karate men, which introduced the much-copied chain punch for the first time.
So who will Ip Man fight in the 5th film? From a marketing point of view, here’s some of our potential picks: Iko Uwais (The Raid), Don Lee/Ma Dong-Seok (Round Up: Punishment), Tak Sakaguchi (One-Percent Warrior), Andy On (Blind War), Xie Miao (Eye for an Eye: The Blind Swordsman) and, dare we say, Conor McGregor (Road House remake). All these guys can easily fit the winning formula. After all, producers have one goal and one goal only: to sell tickets.
What will be Ip Man 5‘s storyline?
As with all the Ip Man films, you can say goodbye to the words “historically accurate”. Besides, this is movie land where anything is possible! So let’s use Ip Man 4: The Finale as a reference point, which took place in the late 60s; therefore, Ip Man 5 will likely take place in the 70s, which surely means that the plot would involve Bruce Lee. And since Danny Chan portrayed Lee in both Ip Man 3 and Ip Man 4: The Finale, our money is that he’ll have a bigger role in Ip Man 5 (after all, Bruce Lee is synonymous for 70’s Hong Kong).
It’s no secret that the triads (Chinese mafia) had a significant influence on the Hong Kong film industry in the 1970s and 1980s. And it was during this time that Lee, who shot to super-stardom in just a couple of years, was the hottest commodity in the Hong Kong film industry. Greedy producers (*cough* gangsters) wanted a piece of the most bankable kung fu star (just ask Billy Lo), so who knows? Maybe Ip and Bruce could battle triad gangsters and some of these brawls can take place in the Kowloon Walled City, which would be a great way to capitalize off Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In, which is the buzz martial arts flick of the moment.
Side note: Ip Man passed away from laryngeal cancer on December 2, 1972, which was only seven months before the death of Lee (but fuck it, let’s see Ip avenge Lee’s death anyway!).
What would you like to see in Ip Man 5? Feel free to leave a comment below!
Great post. The Ip Man series has been nothing but home runs, IMHO, even the fourth film (Accented Cinema has a great review that redeems it), and the spinoff was a slice of classic HK filmmaking – a shame Max Zhang hasn’t fully broken through yet – he has the looks (my girl friend called him a Chinese Johnny Depp), smolder, and martial arts skills.
I could have sworn that Donnie Yen himself was announced as the director, though I could be mistaken. Given that Ip Man died in the last installment, this would have to be a flashback to make any kind of sense. No more of Danny Chan’s Bruce Lee please – his pale imitation is frankly embarrassing.
Given the state of geopolitics today and the general tone of the series, I’d expect the film to address the themes of modernity vs tradition, East vs West, and possibly another round of China vs the USA.
Gotta give props to Donnie – he’s in better shape at 60 than most of us at 20!
Thanks Throwdown. I’m totally down for another Ip Man. I’m all for sequels and even remakes. If anything, they’re just fun and you can’t deny, even with all the negativity, it’s exciting news!
I wish they would return to the tone of the first half of Ip man 2. Ip’s students getting in trouble with rival schools and gangs and Ip having to save them. No more of this commie nationalist bollox of Ip Man 4….leave that to Dante Lam. Knowing his current status of commie ambassador though, its more likely that Ip man will insert himself into the events of Munich and declare that China is the force of good and peacekeeper between Mossad and Arab terrorists
I still don’t get all the hate for Ip Man 2. it was essentially ROCKY 4-sploitation!
No “insert-ploitation here” going on. It was just a fun movie with quality fight scenes. The script wasn’t as good as the first movie, and Simon Yam’s character got a shitty send off, but in terms of following the classic martial arts film format, it delivered.
The fight scenes told a great story in how Sammo vs Darren was about how Sammo tried to match his ferocity, but couldn’t beat him because Darren can take as much punishment as he gives.
Then when Donnie fights Darren, he learned from Sammo’s mistake and took him down piece by piece until he was open for the “killing blows” so-to-speak.
Yeah, it’s IP Man 3 that is the weakest entry.
I’m inclined to agree because the stakes were limited in Part 3.
The trailer made it look like Mike Tyson was gonna be the main villain and that the movie would be all about bringing down his organization, but that plot point ended fairly quickly.
While you don’t need to be a specialist to know that Tyson isn’t a thespian, it was a mistake to give him dialogue. It would have made more sense to cast Lam Suet as the land developer while Tyson would be his right hand man with zero lines.
After Donnie and Max Zhang became allies earlier in the film, it made no sense for Zhang to become the villain out of the blue. While their fight scene was well choreographed, it resolved nothing since it had no audience, and again, nothing was really at stake. Max appeared to learn nothing from the encounter at the time.
I was hoping Master Z would address those issues, but alas, that wasn’t to be even though I thought it was a better flick.
I do hope that this movie will be something special. It would make the most sense for Donnie to direct and Kenji Tanagaki to choreograph the action. I just hope Donnie has time to do this if he really wants to do the Caine spin-off, Flashpoint 2, and Sleeping Dogs before he turns 70.
you know… come to think of it… It’ll be cool if he plays Ip Man at age 79!