Jun

What I learned from watching IP MAN 2

Yesterday, I watched the Chinese martial arts movie IP MAN 2 (2010) starring Donnie Yen. The movie was as good as the first one, if not better, the cinematography was awesome and the story while being extremely classic (Chinese version of ROCKY 4 replace the Russian boxer by an English one) gave some food for my thoughts.

Important concepts discussed on this blog and elsewhere can be observed in the movie.

ACTING instead of REACTING

In the movie Donnie Yen plays Ip Man a kung fu master trying to run a kung fu school in Hong Kong during the 50’s. At some point one of his student his kidnapped for a ransom. When Ip Man learns the news. He quietly sat , let the feeling sinking in, take a sip of tea and smoke a cigarette and meditate on the best course of action. This is acting not reacting. What everybody do is reacting and it keeps us in emotional immaturity. Acting isn’t a suppression of your feelings, if someone make you angry then feel the anger, acknowledge the way you feel , do not deny it. Then let it go completely and choose a course of action. If you stay in the reacting in the anger then the anger will prevent you to “act” for your highest good and the highest good of everyone involved. When you are centered , neutral or feeling good , you can take beneficial decision for yourself and others.

Narrow mindness vs Diversity
You can see this theme at play in the movie between the Chineses and the Brits.

A lot of people are engaged in a non-stop war against diversity. Like those European soccer supporters who are not accepting the vuvuzelas (trumpet) of African supporters during this South Africa Football world cup. Of course, it is a small example, they are thousands of examples from vuvuzelas to islamic niqab. Everything that is different is very often seen in a negative manner.