In the late 70s and early 80s , Honolulu, Hawaii had three Theaters to watch Chinese Martial Arts Movies. We saw movies at The Empress , which feature primarily Shaw Brothers movies, Golden Harvest, which had well , Golden Harvest Productions and Liberty, which showed everything else. I remember the only 2 Wing Chun Movies that we saw as a class, was ,”The Prodigal Son”, which told the story of “Leung Jan” and “Warriors 2 “, which told t about Leung Yee Tai”. Both of these stories, although romanticizing their real life character, did a good job in depicting the spirit of Wing Chun, thanks to the Direction of the Great Sammo Hung.
Now over 30 years later, their is a huge revival in Wing Chun Movies, again with Sammo Hung involved , we have Ip Man , Ip Man 2 and The Legend is Born, Ip Man. Other excellent Wing Chun films are, Ip Man the Final Fight, Kung Fu Wing Chun and the Grandmaster. We also have western movies that showcase Wing Chun , such as Robert Downey Jr. in Sherlock Holmes and Nicolas Cage in Bangkok Dangerous. Of course we can also say that any film with or about Bruce Lee will either mention or show something influenced by Wing Chun Kung Fu.
My personal opinion is that, as Wing Chun practitioners , we should feel fortunate that we have such a great representation of our style being presented on film. I believe that the positives over ride the negatives in ways that these Wing Chun Films have been made. There is seldom a conversation about martial arts movies that I have in talking to people that the movie “Ip Man ” , is not mentioned. With the advent of rumors of other Wing Chun movies in production, I am thankful that it is not going to take another 30 years for another Wing Chun movie to be made.
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