Ip Man in Mandarin

In the 1930s, Foshan, the capital of Chinese martial arts. One day, the skilled northern martial artist Jin Shan Zhao (played by Fan Shaohuang) came to Foshan to challenge the local martial arts schools. After defeating the masters of various schools, he sought out Ye Wen (played by Donnie Yen), who had mastered martial arts but remained low-profile and did not run his own school. At the request of the police officer Li Zhao (played by Lin Jiadong), his friend the martial arts enthusiast Lin (played by Xing Yu), and encouragement from his wife Zhang Yongcheng (played by Xiong Dailin), Ye Wen used Wing Chun to defeat Jin Shan Zhao, establishing his status as a master in Foshan, with Li Zhao privately considering him as his mentor. Previously, Ye Wen's close friend Zhou Qingquan (played by Ren Dahua) wanted to partner with him to open a textile factory, but fearing separation from his beloved wife and son, he only supported Zhou financially. Years later, when the Japanese army invaded and occupied Foshan, Ye Wen, like the surviving locals, was forced to move with his family to a dilapidated house. Faced with survival, Ye Wen mixed in with the crowd to fight for a chance to work as a laborer at the coal mine, while Li Zhao became a translator for the Japanese army. The Japanese commander Sanpu (played by池内博之) was a martial arts enthusiast who, offering a bag of white rice as a reward, ordered Li Zhao to find a Chinese who could fight the Japanese in a duel. Many former martial arts masters and the martial artist Lin tragically lost their lives because of this. This infuriated Ye Wen, and he entered the fighting arena.