4 of the century’s best action movies are leaving Netflix soon

I like martial arts cinema. It’s been a giant half of my beat since I joined the Polygon crew. But that hasn’t all the time been true.

The action movies I grew up with had been extra of the James Bond selection — so much of spy movies, some superhero fare, with the occasional Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon snuck in. About 10 years in the past, I occurred to return throughout a flurry of glorious fashionable martial arts movies all in the course of every week. Undisputed 2: Last Man Standing, Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning, and Blood and Bone opened my eyes to what was potential in the direct-to-video house. But it was Wilson Yip and Donnie Yen’s Ip Man sequence that cemented my curiosity in the style and pushed me to find extra.

Loosely based mostly on the life of well-known Wing Chun grandmaster Ip Man, the movies reunite Yip and Yen after the pair delivered consecutive bangers with SPL and Flash Point. The Ip Man movies mix terrific struggle choreography with shifting period-piece storytelling, all revolving round the distinctive abilities of their main man, a film star working at the absolute top of his powers.

Image: Well Go USA Entertainment

Donnie Yen is amongst the most charismatic and proficient film stars working immediately. Western audiences could also be most acquainted with him from his latest roles in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and John Wick: Chapter 4, or from Shanghai Knights and Blade II. (He additionally served as Blade II’s action choreographer). But he has a protracted, lengthy historical past of utilizing his star energy to propel glorious Hong Kong action movies, and the Ip Man sequence is just one of the newest examples.

Yen’s unimaginable martial arts talent mixed with the sequence’ choreography is the showiest half of the movies. But what elevates them to genuinely nice filmmaking is the method they lean on his deep soulfulness to inform a shifting story. The Ip Man movies cowl tragedies on each the private and nationwide degree, confronting oppression, cruelty, and the some ways individuals damage one another — not simply by means of bone-crushing blows.

And Yen is as much as the process, imbuing Ip with a deep melancholy. He begins out as somebody who fights as a result of he desires to, participating in pleasant competitions with fellow martial arts masters, however he ultimately fights as a result of he has to, defending the individuals and values he holds most expensive. The movies’ narratives and Yen’s efficiency do a terrific job of constructing out this readability of function, making it straightforward for audiences to grow to be deeply invested in his fights.

There’s a lot extra to love about the Ip Man movies, however the standout factor is the franchise’s glorious action, helmed by the two most influential and achieved martial arts administrators and choreographers of the fashionable period. Ip Man and Ip Man 2 have action directed by Sammo Hung (best identified for his collaborations along with his childhood good friend Jackie Chan), whereas Ip Man 3 and Ip Man 4: The Finale have action directed by Yuen Woo-ping (who helped launch Chan as a star with Drunken Master, and is understood internationally for his work on the Matrix movies; Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon; and Kill Bill). In their arms (and Yen’s), the franchise’s struggle scenes sing, matching Ip in opposition to some of the premier display screen fighters working immediately, together with Max Zhang, Louis Fan, Scott Adkins, and Hung himself.

The standout struggle from Ip Man sees an enraged Ip demanding to struggle 10 Japanese troopers (all black belts) after he sees them mistreat a fellow grasp. Until this level, Ip has been comparatively quiet and reserved, hesitant to deploy his prowess in opposition to the Japanese troops occupying his dwelling throughout the Second Sino-Japanese War. But after he witnesses this merciless act in opposition to a good friend and colleague, a swap is flipped, and Ip brutally dispatches all 10 fighters in a ruthless show of Yen’s unthinkable pace and martial arts talent.

Not content material to only replay the hits, the later movies add thrilling wrinkles to some of their greater set-pieces. In Ip Man 2, Yen fights Sammo Hung on high of a barely balanced desk. In Ip Man 3, he fights former Tony Jaa stunt double Simon Kook in a tightly packed elevator whereas taking his spouse dwelling from the hospital.

In every of these struggle scenes, the Ip Man movies use spectacular choreography in service of the bigger story and character beats. Yes, they are spectacular moments of spectacle, however they aren’t simply that. The best action movies use the magnificence of our bodies in movement to indicate the methods we will specific anger, regret, pleasure, redemption, and a litany of different feelings not simply by means of phrases or facial expressions. There are few higher autos for that than Yen, an unbelievably expert martial artist with the performing chops to match.

Along with Undisputed 2 (obtainable for digital rental or buy), Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning (free with adverts on Crackle), and Blood and Bone (free with adverts on Crackle), the Ip Man movies had been welcoming gateways for me into the world of martial arts cinema, and now they are often for you, too. Just ensure that to catch them earlier than they go away Netflix on July 21.

If you’re studying this after the movies have left the platform, you possibly can nonetheless watch the first three Ip Man movies on Peacock, Hi-Yah!, totally free with a library card on Hoopla or Kanopy, or totally free with adverts on Tubi, Crackle, and Pluto TV. You can watch Ip Man 4: The Finale on Hi-Yah! or totally free with a library card on Hoopla and Kanopy. For extra Ip Man goodness, I extremely suggest additionally trying out Yuen Woo-ping’s Ip Man 3 spinoff Master Z: Ip Man Legacy (Peacock, Hi-Yah, totally free with a library card on Hoopla and Kanopy, or totally free with adverts on Crackle, Pluto, and Freevee), and Wong Kar-wai’s very completely different tackle the Ip Man story, The Grandmaster (streaming on Prime, or totally free with adverts on Tubi).

For extra Donnie Yen excellence, try In the Line of Duty 4 (free with adverts on Tubi, Crackle, and Freevee), Wing Chun (obtainable for digital rental or buy on Amazon), and his earlier collaborations with Wilson Yip, SPL (free with adverts on Tubi) and Flash Point (streaming on Peacock and Hi-Yah!, totally free with a library card on Hoopla, or totally free with adverts on Tubi, Pluto, and Freevee).