Ip Man

Accompanying the film on disc one of this double-disc set is a selection of trailers for Ip Man and other Cine Asia titles, including an awesome trailer for Machine Girl. Nice, but nothing that can’t be found online. Disc two is where the real extras on this supposedly “Ultimate Edition” begin and, at first glance, they are plentiful – interviews, making of, location/set design featurettes, footage from the premiere and deleted scenes.

The wealth of interviews (over an hour's worth, subtitled) feature all the major personalities involved in the production – including director Wilson Yip, action director Sammo Hung, stars Donnie Yen and Lam Ka-Tung, and Grandmaster Ip’s son, Ip Chun – and though they are a tad repetitive, each of the interviewees discuss their roles in-depth and actor Fan Sui-Wong is particularly entertaining. In addition, it is nice to learn that the directors' favourite memories of the shoot were the bike rides to and from the set and Donnie Yen provides fascinating insight into his acting process and his collaboration with the directors.

A nice touch added for the UK DVD is a 15-minute featurette, From Ip Man To Bruce Lee – Tracing The Legend. Guro Dan Inosanto discusses how the Wing Chun evolved into Jeet Kune Do, a constantly developing style of which Bruce Lee was an innovator. Guro also demonstrates the JKD fighting style and takes pains to emphasise the importance of Ip Man: “Without an Ip Man there would have never been a Bruce Lee.”

The 20-minute making of is pretty standard issue and there is a lot of crossover with the material from the interviews, interspersed with film and behind the scenes footage. The two-minute pre-production featurette is merely a selection of random pieces of footage, while the three-minute shooting diary isn’t much better, even if the footage spliced together is a bit more exciting. Better still are the three location/set design featurettes, which really emphasise the care paid to the films production values. The gala premiere footage, however, is merely filler material.

Finishing the DVD are a photo gallery and selection of deleted scenes – nothing essential but there are a couple of scenes which would have added a bit of depth to the supporting characters. Like the film itself, this selection is a mixed bag but there is some good stuff here if you liked the feature presentation and the extras do shed a little light on the real Ip.