Foshan, Guangdong province, southern China, 1936. Ye Wen (Tony Leung Chiu-wai), aka Ip Man (in Cantonese), is a revered grandmaster of the Yong Chun, aka Wing Chun, school of martial arts, which he's studied since the age of seven after being inducted as a pupil of Master Chen Huashun (Yuen Woo-ping). He has two children and a dutiful wife, Zhang Yongcheng (Song Hye-gyo), descended from a Qing foreign affairs minister, with whom he likes to visit the Golden Pavilion to hear music together. By 1936, as the country is facing turmoil, the Golden Pavilionhas become a meeting-ground for notables and heroes. At a gathering organised by Gong Yutian (Wang Qingxiang), a grandmaster from Northeast China (then Japanese-occupied Manchuria) who wants to retire after one last fight and would like to unite the northern and southern styles of martial arts, a fight breaks out between the two sides, exacerbated by Master Gong's protege Ma San (Max Zhang). Master Gong afterwards scolds Ma San for being hotheaded; but when the former then meets an old friendfrom the northeast, Ding Lianshan (Zhao Benshan), who moved south 30 years ago after an incident, it turns out that Master Gong also has a history of impulsiveness. Master Gong has brought along his 20-year-old daughter, Gong Ruomei (Zhang Ziyi), aka Gong Er, who does not want to see her father lose his record of never being beaten. After sparring with four fighters skilled in the northern Baguazhang and Xingyiquan styles, Ye Wen takes on Master Gong in a stylised encounter, from which the latter retires gracefully. Dissatisfied with the outcome, Ruomei invites Ye Wen to a banquet at the pavilion and faces off against him with her Sixty-Four Hands style. After a spark is lit between them, theypart, but promise to meet again. In October 1938, Foshan falls to the Japanese and Ye Wen's world is destroyed. Meanwhile, on a train in the north, Ruomei impulsively saves a wounded man, nicknamed Yi Xian Tian (Chang Chen), from capture by Japanese troops. By 1940, Ma San has sidedwith the Japanese. Shattered, Master Gong disinherits him but dies as aresult. Ruomei returns home and, against the wishes of both her late father and the clan's elders, vows vengeance. However, one clan member, the faithful Jiang (Shang Tielong), accompanies her on her quest for Ma San. By 1950, Ye Wen has arrived in Hong Kong, where he has opened a modest martial arts school. He visits Ruomei, who has also moved to the city. Still unmarried, and devoted to her father's memory, she is tired,and has neither practised martial arts in years nor passed on her skills to any pupils. Two years later, Yi Xian Tian opens the White RoseBarber Shop in Hong Kong, and introduces the Bajiquan style to the territory.

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