IP Man 2, which was released theatrically today, played at the 2010 Asian Film Festival of Dallas. Here’s our review:

The first IP Man was an audience hit at the 2009 Asian Film Festival of Dallas, and the sequel delivers much of what we expect from straight-forward, Kung Fu action dramas. IP Man is a master of a style of martial arts known as Wing Chun, and despite his exceptional skill, when the movie begins, he is poor and without pupils, struggling to feed his family and pay the rent. A challenge to fight a few street kids early in the film proves IP Man’s prowess and wins him some students. The film’s first conflict comes when the other local martial arts masters challenge IP Man’s authority to teach (which he proves ably) and then try to force him to play guild dues, which the IP Man refuses to do.

The movie takes a campy, but oddly satisfying turn when the local Kung Fu teachers are challenged by a British boxer to prove which style of fighting – eastern or western – is better. To this point, I had no idea the film was set in Hong Kong during British rule in the 1950s. The rest of the film is a classic arena-match drama, with the cruel British boxer defeating the best of Kung Fu masters until IP Man steps in to redeem the eastern style.

Despite the cheesy portrayal of the colonialists and the overly high regard the film pays towards western boxing verses Chinese martial arts, IP Man 2 succeeds as an action film. Think of it as a musical, with highly stylized and overacted dramatic passages serving only as the lead up for what you are really there to see: the choreographed fight sequences. In this way, the film delivers, and even adds a last second twist (which I won’t spoil) that gives the film a quaint relevance to the canon of Kung Fu films.