Two martial arts cinema icons are going to be going at it, as Donnie Yen (Rogue One) and Scott Adkins (Doctor Strange) are going to be trading blows in the upcoming fourth installment of Yen’s hit franchise Ip Man. Now the first Ip Man 4 teaser trailer is out, and you can watch it above!
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Ip Man chronicles the life and exploits of Ip Man (or “Yip Man”), a real life martial arts who was a legendary teacher of the Chinese martial arts form known as Wing Chun. He mentored many world famous martial artists, including Bruce Lee, who will once again be featured in this film, played by Ip Man 3 star Kwok-Kwan Chan (who also played Lee in the Legend of Bruce Lee TV series. The plot line will bring Ip Man to America, and will clearly have heavy influence from the US military in its storyline. That, along with American martial arts cinema star Scott Adkins starring, should give this installment of the series even wider international appeal, which is smart strategy, considering that Ip Man has been earning bigger and bigger box office returns with every new installment ($21M, $49M, $157M, respectively), as well as Donnie Yen’s growing presence on the Hollywood stage.
Also returning for Ip Man 4 is Yuen Woo-ping, the acclaimed martial arts cinema choreographer that American audiences know best from The Matrix trilogy and Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill films. As fans know, Yuen Woo-ping’s action designs are second to none, which probably helped Ip Man 3 to score big at the box office – though appearances by Mike Tyson and rival Ip Man film actor Zhang Jin didn’t hurt either. Yen is dropping Ip Man 4 at an opportune time in his career: the actor will next get a chance to impress US audiences as Commander Tung in Disney’s live-action Mulan next year, while there’s still talk that his Star Wars fan-fav character Chirrut Imwe could show up again, at some point.
Synopsis: The Kung Fu (Donnie Yen) master travels to the U.S. where his student (Scott Adkins) has upset the local martial arts community by opening a Wing Chun school.
Ip Man 4 does not yet have an official US release date.
