Release orderRecommended
0 / 7 watchedRelease order is story order for the main series. Watch the spinoff after Ip Man 3; treat the two separate takes as optional side trips.
Main series
- 1 Ip Man Wilson Yip and Donnie Yen launch the series in 1930s Foshan.
- 2 Ip Man 2 Ip relocates to postwar Hong Kong and spars with a British boxing champion.
- 5 Ip Man 3 Introduces Max Zhang as rival Wing Chun man Cheung Tin Chi. Mike Tyson co-stars.
- 7 Ip Man 4: The Finale Ip travels to San Francisco; the film ends with his death in 1972.
Separate takes
- 3 The Legend Is Born: Ip Man Herman Yau film with Dennis To as the young Ip Man. Different continuity from Yip's series.
- 4 The Grandmaster Wong Kar-wai's standalone take with Tony Leung. Not connected to Yip's films.
Spinoff
- 6 Master Z: Ip Man Legacy Yuen Woo-ping directs Zhang as Cheung Tin Chi after his defeat. Watch after Ip Man 3.
About Ip Man
Wilson Yip directed all four main films with Donnie Yen as Wing Chun master Ip Man, from 1930s Foshan under occupation to 1960s San Francisco. Release order matches story order, so start with Ip Man (2008) and run straight through to Ip Man 4: The Finale (2019).
Master Z: Ip Man Legacy (2018) follows Cheung Tin Chi, the rival from Ip Man 3, and slots in after that film. The Legend Is Born: Ip Man (2010) and Wong Kar-wai's The Grandmaster (2013) are separate, unconnected versions of the same life, marked below. Ip Man 5 was announced in 2023 with no date attached.
Good to know
Ip Man 4 ends with Ip's death from cancer in 1972, which leaves the announced Ip Man 5 with a continuity question the studio has not answered. The Master Z sequel with Max Zhang returning was reported in 2019 with a $13M budget and has shown no movement since. Two more unconnected Ip Man films, The Final Fight (2013) and Kung Fu Master (2019), sit outside this list.
