Master Z: Ip Man Legacy (2018, Yuen Woo Ping) (Patreon)

59/100

Better than any of the films in its parent franchise, but not so much better that it was worth sitting through all three of them in needless anal-retentive preparation*. (And now I've been assigned to review Ip Man 4, possibly as a direct result.) Yuen Woo-ping, who choreographed Ip Man 3's fight sequences and goes uncredited as director here for some reason, apparently felt frustrated by Yip's insistence on kowtowing to gravity; Master Z features plenty of eye-popping wirework, peaking early with the battle that takes place among the enormous neon signs cluttering Bar Street (gorgeously recreated on what I presume is a Hong Kong studio backlot). Still plenty of quick-cut pummeling as well, plus creative flourishes like the single-hand whiskey tumbler standoff between our hero and otherwise underutilized special guest star Michelle Yeoh. (Tony Jaa likewise seems like a largely wasted opportunity.) There's still just way too much attention paid to Edmond Wong's reliably bland plotting, though, and while Bautista's sheer bulk makes for a nice contrast with Zhang's quicksilver elegance, he can't do much with Wong's standard corrupt gweilo (though at least he can act, which is not generally the case when it comes to these films' non-Asian cast). I gather some folks more or less ignore martial-arts narratives and judge the films strictly on their basis of their setpieces; by that metric, this one is extremely good. But I can only get so enthused about something that's 30% thrilling and 70% lightly dull. (See also: the universally acclaimed new Scorsese!)

* Though watching only this film would have meant failing to recognize the deployment of Kenji Kawai's Ip Man theme at a crucial moment, functioning much like the way that Bill Conti's Rocky theme is used in Creed. I guess one doesn't "need" to know that the score connects Cheung to his former rival, but most of the climax's emotional weight resides in that connection. So I feel vindicated in my obsession.