The hidden secret of the Ip Man series!
If you watch the Ip Man trilogy as one story, you’ll find that it’s actually an incredible sci-fi saga. From Ip Man 1 to Ip Man 2 and then Ip Man 3, it tells the same story in three parallel universes, with three different versions!
Parallel Universe 1 (Ip Man 1) version:
At the beginning, the martial-arts world was packed with schools, each with its own master and students. The masters all got along peacefully and lived in perfect harmony:
Then a fresh face appeared in the martial-arts world. Let’s call him the ‘young newcomer’:
The ‘young newcomer’ also wanted to become a master and take on students, so he started challenging the masters of all the major schools to advertise himself. The ‘young newcomer’ was seriously tough and beat up all kinds of masters:
In the end, the only one left unbeaten was the strongest fighter in the martial-arts world, the Grandmaster of the Martial Arts Alliance (let’s call him ‘Master of Masters’):
The ‘young newcomer’ went after ‘Master of Masters’, and the two had a showdown. This time, the one who got beaten up was the ‘young newcomer’:
The young newcomer was crushed, while Master of Masters remained Master of Masters.
Master of Masters really loved his wife:
Then another foreign expert showed up in the martial-arts world. Let’s call him the ‘foreign bad guy’:
The ‘foreign bad guy’ also loved beating up all kinds of masters, just like the ‘young newcomer’. I don’t know why everyone in this story is so obsessed with beating up masters.
So the masters got beaten up all over again:
By the end, once again, only ‘Master of Masters’ was left. So the ‘foreign bad guy’ went to beat up ‘Master of Masters’:
And Master of Masters beat him into a pile of crap:
The end.
Parallel Universe 2 (Ip Man 2) version:
At the beginning, the martial-arts world was packed with schools, each with its own master and students. The masters all got along peacefully and lived in perfect harmony:
Then a fresh face appeared in the martial-arts world. Let’s call him the ‘young newcomer’:
The ‘young newcomer’ also wanted to become a master and take on students:
So he too started challenging the masters of all the major schools. The ‘young newcomer’ was seriously tough and beat up all kinds of masters:
In the end, the only one left unbeaten was the strongest fighter in the martial-arts world (we’ll still call him ‘Master of Masters’):
The ‘young newcomer’ went after ‘Master of Masters’, and the two had a showdown. This time, they fought to a draw:
So Parallel Universe 2 ended up with two ‘Master of Masters’. We’ll call them ‘Young-Newcomer Master of Masters’ (left in the image below) and ‘Fat-Grandpa Master of Masters’ (right in the image below).
‘Young-Newcomer Master of Masters’ still really loved his wife:
‘Fat-Grandpa Master of Masters’ also really loved his wife:
Then another foreign expert showed up in the martial-arts world. We’ll still call him the ‘foreign bad guy’:
He too loved beating up all kinds of masters, just like the ‘young newcomer’:
I don’t know why, but people in this universe also love beating up masters.
This time, even a master as formidable as ‘Fat-Grandpa Master of Masters’ got beaten up:
Once again, only ‘Master of Masters’ was left. So the ‘foreign bad guy’ went to beat up ‘Master of Masters’, and Master of Masters once again beat him into a pile of crap:
The end.
Parallel Universe 3 (Ip Man 3) version:
At the beginning, the martial-arts world was packed with schools, each with its own master and students. The masters all got along peacefully and lived in perfect harmony:
Then a fresh face appeared in the martial-arts world. Let’s call him the ‘young newcomer’:
The ‘young newcomer’ also wanted to become a master and take on students, so he started challenging the masters of all the major schools to advertise himself. The ‘young newcomer’ was seriously tough and beat up all kinds of masters:
In the end, the only one left unbeaten was once again the strongest fighter in the martial-arts world (we’ll still call him ‘Master of Masters’):
The ‘young newcomer’ went after ‘Master of Masters’ again, and the two had a showdown. This time, the one who got beaten up was the ‘young newcomer’ again:
The young newcomer was crushed, while Master of Masters remained Master of Masters.
Master of Masters still really loved his wife:
And Master of Masters had also learned to dance (which suggests that this universe is a little abnormal):
Then another foreign expert showed up in the martial-arts world. We’ll still call him the ‘foreign bad guy’:
He too loved beating up all kinds of masters, just like the ‘young newcomer’. I don’t know why, but people in this universe still love beating up masters.
So the masters got beaten up all over again:
By the end, once again, only ‘Master of Masters’ was left. So the ‘foreign bad guy’ went to beat up ‘Master of Masters’:
The ‘foreign bad guy’ in this universe was ridiculously powerful. He clearly could have beaten ‘Master of Masters’ into a pile of crap, but what can you do when you’re a villain? Although this ‘foreign bad guy’ wasn’t beaten into a pile of crap by ‘Master of Masters’, he still disappeared for no apparent reason.
This shows that Parallel Universe 3 really is an inexplicable universe with a screw loose.
The reason behind all this is that in Parallel Universe 3, causality is reversed. Things that happen first in other universes happen last in this one. And things that happen later happen at the beginning here.
So in Parallel Universe 3, although the story is obviously exactly the same as in the first two universes, the order of events is reversed:
The ‘foreign bad guy’ appears first, gets beaten up, and disappears.
Only then does the ‘young newcomer’ make his entrance, and in the end Master of Masters beats him into despair.
The end.
So? After reading this interpretation, do you feel that the Ip Man series is particularly brilliant? But the most brilliant thing about the series is still its educational value.
This story teaches us:
1. If you’re going to be a master, you have to be the toughest one around, or you’ll get beaten up.
2. Loving your wife is the ultimate law conserved across universes. Even in a crazy universe where causality itself has stopped working, loving your wife is still the most important thing in the universe.
The end.
Written by: Zhichao Wei, possessed by the spirit of A-Mo Gu
2016.3.9 Addendum:
I never expected this joke of an article to attract so much attention. The comments under this answer have been piling up so fast these past few days that I’m sorry I can’t reply to everyone one by one.
For the record:
I really am not A-Mo Gu, ke~ke~ ヾ(≧▽≦*)o
Everyone in the comments said I was possessed by A-Mo Gu, so I imagined reading this article aloud in his voice—and it really does sound a lot like him, hahaha. ‘Hi everyone, I’m A-Mo Gu. Today I’m going to tell you a story about beating people up and getting beaten up.’
Leave a Reply