Blog #3: Relationships Between Shots

The media I decided to choose is the 10-man fight scene in the biographical martial arts film, Ip Man. The setting takes place in 1937 during the Japanese invasion. While the Japanese occupied Ip Man's hometown of Foshan, they were scouting Chinese martial artists in order to offer them to train the Japanese soldiers in return for refuge. In this particular scene, Ip Man have just witnessed his sparring partner and long-time friend murdered by the hands of a Japanese officer. In an act of rage, Ip man demands to fight 10 Japanese martial artists.

The music played in this scene protrudes the theme of tragedy, sadness, and anger, beginning with slow beats of the drum which then picks up once the fight begins. The foley in this work is spot on. The echo of the footsteps Ip Man took as he walked onto the arena floor gave the feel of solitude[3:23-3:30]. The sounds of the connecting punches as well as the bone cracking evokes the emotion of anger and rage of the once merciful kung fu master.

The muted color scheme during the whole clip sets a grave tone. Ip Man wears a black changshan which contrasts with the white karategi surrounding him. The only real color shown in this span of the clip is the blood on the bag of rice from the gunshot wound inflicted on Li[3:19], highlighting the reason of the fight that's about to take place.

It is important for a martial arts film to have good sense of movement and direction so the audience can follow the actions. The camera pitted Ip Man in the center while being surrounded until there were no enemies remaining which perfectly describes the situation. My favorite scene in the fight was  the high-angled shot of Ip Man fending off multiple enemies simultaneously with the use of both his arms and legs [4:38]. It would've been hard if not impossible to display so many actions at once with a different angle.

Continuity between the shots were fluid for the most port. Unfortunately I noticed a discontinuity[4:47-4:50] where Ip Man's facial expression and head orientation does not match in these two shots, which somewhat detracts from the experience and feels a bit awkward.

It's always hard to find an action film that delivers both a good story and intense action scenes. I highly recommend anyone who hasn't watched this to give it a a shot!