Quartile rating: 7/10 · 1 rating
Following the death of his wife, Ip Man travels to San Francisco to ease tensions between the local kung fu masters and his star student, Bruce Lee, while searching for a better future for his son.
Ip Man 4 wraps the franchise with a familiar formula: a righteous Chinese master travels to a new locale, faces institutionalized racism, and defeats a series of escalating Western antagonists through Wing Chun mastery. The plot hits well-worn beats from the earlier entries — cultural clash, underdog triumph, nationalistic pride — offering little structural surprise. The racism-in-America backdrop gives it some dramatic grounding, and Donnie Yen remains a compelling, restrained presence, elevating scenes that the script undersells. Cinematography is competent franchise-level work, with cleanly choreographed action sequences that satisfy without pushing the form. Novelty is low: as a fourth installment it recycles the series' core template almost exactly, with the San Francisco/Chinatown setting being the primary distinguishing element. The ending delivers the expected emotional closure for Ip Man's arc — his farewell is genuinely moving given Yen's performance — but it relies heavily on series investment rather than earned standalone drama.