Yip Man Wing Chun movies and reality

posted on May 08, 2011 16:08

Since the movies Yip Man 1 and 2 by Donnie Yen came out, the people of Hong Kong are Wing Chun crazy lol. From high school kids to movie stars, government agents, police officers to air-line employees, everyone wants to learn Wing Chun. Seems Wing Chun is as popular in Hong Kong as MMA is in the US. Talk shows about WC, Yip man prequels and spin-off flicks, an up-coming TV series, Wing Chun documentaries the list goes on and on. I am very happy for the Wing Chun world because Wing Chun is my root and I sincerely love the art. The theme promoted about Wing Chun in Hong Kong is that Wing Chun is a great system design to defeat someone bigger, it’s simple to learn and it’s very direct in combat application. That’s all good BUT one thing should be kept in mind about WC – although there are millions of practitioners of Yip Man Wing Chun guys in the world , not that many can use it effectively in real Self Defence like a yip man or a Wong Shun Leung ...it takes years of HARD WORK . So today, I would like to do a little movie Review about the Yip man movies and its connection to the learning of Wing Chun outside the theatre. Hope this would help my HK friends who are thinking about taking up Wing Chun for self defense.

Donnie Yen did a suburb job portraying Grandmaster Yip Man. It is amazing that Donnie Yen only train 6-8 months for the movie and yet can look so convincing with his Wing Chun. That’s one thing I notice about Donnie Yen – rather he’s portraying MMA (in Flash Point) , stick fighting (in SPL) , spear fighting ( in Hero), he always looks as though he has practiced that system for years. How does he repeatedly pull that off? In fact I would go farther to say that he looks better at Wing Chun than some people who teach it for a living lol. How is that possible? I guess it helps that he started Martial Arts when he was 3 from his mother who is an awarding winning China National Wu Shu coach and on top of that, Donnie has studied many forms of martial arts and taught for years in Boston. This extremely rare event (someone that train in something 6-8 months and can perform more convincingly than a lot of people who claims to be expert teachers in it) should serve as a very important lesson for those who wish to learn Wing Chun for self defense. How did he do that? Donnie gave away the answer in an interview many years ago, he said “ the secret is to matter the basics” - basics like confidence, awareness, perseverance, discipline, controlling ones emotions, body co-ordination, balance, agility, timing, sensitivity, flexibility, strength, endurance, speed, power, accuracy etc. The key idea is to develop a baseline of mental and physical attributes – this idea is something that is often ignore in MA which is ironic since Gung Fu literally means skill/hard work. Without the emphasis on developing basic attributes, can Wing Chun work? Can any Martial Arts work?

Another thing I like about the movie is that it featured 90% authentic Yip Man Wing Chun techniques. For years Hong Kong films and TV series about Wing Chun did not contain real Wing Chun moves. It’s refreshing to see the Yip Man movies with a lot of real Wing Chun movements - simple, direct and combatively effective. However, the fight sequences in the movie world make it necessary to film it in a beat by beat sequence. If you have never practice martial arts before, simply watch the fight scenes very carefully and you will see that there is a consistent beat in the fights with sudden changes added in periodically. This idea of beat by beat motions makes the fight scenes beautiful on camera which is great for movies but it is the direct opposite of one of Wing Chun major principle – forward pressure. This idea is like water flooding in any gaps without any stoppage or thought whatsoever. This concept is summarized in the last part of Wing Chun’s most famous Chinese saying "lak sau jik chung" – once disengaged, charge forward! (NOTE: if this idea is carry to an extreme, it would cause some amazing modifications to happen as Bruce Lee and his first Student, Jesse Glover of Non-classical Gung Fu have illustrated).

Because of the "lak sau jik chung" concept, Wing Chun unlike a lot of Martial arts training does not advocate the back and forth flowing exchanging , taking turns, counter for counter approach to training. The idea is to flow through and end it quick, to not give the bad guy another turn once he begins the fight. Although this is a great application idea, for training purpose, it is not ALWAYS a good thing...

To me one of the only disappointing moments was in Yip Man 2 when Donnie Yen was fighting a boxer and he couldn’t hurt his much larger opponent enough to end the fight until he resort to using some Hung Gar vital points “ poison hands” techniques. Hung Gar is a great system but if we were to talk about Wing Chun, this part of the movie might have violated some basic Wing Chun principles. Wing Chun does not make use of large motions type of punches (which is an effective way to attain KO power). Instead it relies on machine gun types of punching which causes a rapid shaking of the brain which can easily result in a KO too. If someone for some reason can withstand the assault, Wing Chun does make use of attacking vital areas such as attacks to eyes and throat in even its most basic techniques found in the very first form etc. This part of the movie was silly because first of all, Grandmaster Yip Man did not fight any British boxing champion. In real life, it was actually Yip Man’s student, Wong Shun Leung ("Wong Leung" in the movie) who fought a 240 lbs Russian not British Boxer in Hong Kong and Wong Shun Leung won that fight by KO with just three punches!!! He did not in real life have to resort to any "Poison Hands" ! In the Movie, “Wong Leung” was portrayed as a student with average skill but in real life, everyone in the Wing Chun family knows that Wong Shun Leung was the man who put Wing Chun on the map in Hong Kong by winning 50-60 bare knuckle Challenge Matches against many different systems.

The Thing that I love the most about the Yip Man films is how Donnie portrays Grandmaster Yip Man as a humble, classy kind of guy. This is a direct contrast to how martial artists are portraying on films and in reality. In southern China, especially in Hong Kong, Chinese Gung Fu men are look upon as thugs and gangsters historically. Practitioners does very little to change this image through their behaviors. Well, Yip Man the movie and the real life Grandmaster himself definitely show what Wu Du (martial virtue) is about through his patience, emphasizes on solving conflict without resorting to violence and his general humility. This is inspiring and most often needed in our world today in an age where Martial Arts are commonly an activity which encourages the glorification of violence. Perhaps what most people who do not practice martial arts will miss in this presentation of a “peaceful warrior master” is that fighting and quality of character are not two separate things. The fact is, the two are actually directly connected. Fighting ability requires a functional amount of power and speed but more importantly, it requires the development of “sensitivity”. Sensitivity is a quality that ranges from the awareness of a situation, to the non touching sensation and connection to an opponent in the pre-contact stage of the fight, to finally, the contact touching part of the conflict. This idea is heavily emphasizes in Wing Chun because it is the great equalizer when facing someone with superior power and speed. The root of sensitivity as in all things lies in ones heart. If the heart is compassionate, open, and powerfully extended, there will be sensitivity or should I say that IS sensing. On the other hand, it is nearly impossible to be sensitive to what’s inside or outside of oneself when one is filled with uncontrolled anger and fear.

This is the main reason why quality of character and fighting ability are DIRECTLY CONNECTED. In Chinese they say the Hsin (HEART) directs the Yi (intention) and the Yi moves the Chi (energy), Chi moves the Li (muscles/body) to form Ying (shape/movement). So the Hsin (heart) IS the root of it all; this is the reason why a center mind, calm spirit, quality of character is emphasized by internal arts and Wing Chun as well. Philosophy is not just empty talk but it’s directly connected to the physical. The physical art changes the character and the character changes the physical… all connected. Wing Chun classically, usually waits and lets the bad guy attacks first and as soon as he does, the Wing Chun is supposed to attack the attack. Once he’s in, he's "supposed to" follow up and "flow through barriers" by feeling where the enemy is "empty". How can anyone do these things to a high degree without being extremely sensitive? How can one be sensitive without being calm? How can one be calm and extend while being angry or hateful? And I feel Donnie Yen did an excellent job portraying a noble, calm character. So much different than the usual martial arts "master", portrayed as violent meat heads.

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