"I Will Always Have the Utmost Respect for Wing Chun," says Donnie Yen

The resounding success of Ip Man 2 across Asia in recent weeks has been marred by reports alleging lead star Donnie Yen's apparent arrogance towards Wing Chun. For those who haven't heard, Donnie was quoted at a promotional event for the movie in China for saying: "I feel Ip Man's success had nothing to do with Wing Chun. If I had fought in Hung Kuen, Hung Kuen would be popular. Summer, autumn or winter (joking about the 'Chun' in Wing Chun's Chinese name, which literally means spring), the result would have been the same."

Subsequent reports had Grandmaster Ip Chun, eldest son of Ip Man, lambasting Donnie's arrogance: "To say the movies had nothing to do with Wing Chun, please compare them with his other movies and if they were successful. I don't wish to judge, the public can see for themselves." And of course, as Ip Chun himself descended on our sunny island to promote the upcoming Ip Man prequel, The Legend is Born, the press took the opportunity to hear from the Grandmaster himself.

"There was a magazine that published a photo of me scolding Donnie for what he said. What the magazine didn't say was that the picture was taken a long time ago. In fact, I don't even know there was such a photo," Ip Chun said. "Why would I want to scold Donnie? At my age, it'll only be at the expense of my health!"

"Actually Donnie called me the night when the news broke, and he said that he has always and will always have the utmost respect for Wing Chun," said Ip Chun. "And I think Wing Chun practitioners out there should be heartened to hear that." So there, for all the apparent hoo-ha over the rift between Ip Chun and Donnie Yen, it seems that Donnie has done his due diligence to clarify matters.

For more exciting coverage of the The Legend is Born: Ip Man press conference, watch for our stories come 17 June (sorry, that's press embargo for you).