In the realm of action movies, Scott Adkins is a respected name. This was especially true in 2019, when Scott played a variety of roles, from a revenge-driven former convict in "Avengement" to the villain in "Triple Threat."
Scott Adkins
Adding to his impressive year, 2019 also marked the moment action fans saw Scott face off against Donnie Yen in the concluding chapter of the "Ip Man" series, "Ip Man 4: The Finale".
The Opportunity to Work with Donnie Yen
Donnie Yen requested that Scott Adkins be cast as the villain in "Ip Man 4." Working with Donnie was an opportunity I jumped at.
Portraying a US Marine Sergeant
In the movie, Scott plays ‘Barton Geddes,’ a US Marine sergeant who embodies many well-known military characters. He drew inspiration from figures like Clint Eastwood’s character in “Heartbreak Ridge” and R. Lee Ermey’s iconic roles. R. Lee Ermey is renowned for military characters like in “Full Metal Jacket”, and when you think of an image of a really tough American soldier, he really springs to mind. Another great movie military figure.
He didn’t want to directly copy those characters, but their influence is definitely visible.
Working with Yuen Woo-ping
Regarding the action, Scott’s movie fighting style often includes high-kicking and acrobatics. Really, it all just comes down to Yuen Woo-ping‘s direction of the action. He’s the gold standard of kung fu films, and I’d worked with him before when I was a bit younger, but I didn’t pay as much attention to his process as perhaps I should have. Indeed, Yuen Woo-ping seems as much a master of action now as he’s ever been.
It was fabulous, and I learned a lot from working with Donnie on the movie as well. He’s phenomenal to see on screen, and when you’re working with him or with guys like Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung, or Wu Jing, you’re working with the best of the best, so it’s a challenge but also an honor.
Every movie project brings its own lessons with it. Given your own extensive career in action movies now, what would you say you took from working with a star like Donnie Yen, action choreographer master Yuen Woo-ping and director Wilson Yip?
Lessons Learned from Hong Kong Cinema
Scott already knew how things worked in Hong Kong movies, as that’s where he started. But there’s always more to learn, so I really tried to take as much as I could from Yuen Woo-ping and Donnie Yen. Really, so much of it also falls to the camera operator. They really need to understand the fight choreography as well as the performers do, and our camera guy on “Ip Man 4” was so good. Sounds like he was as much on his A-game as everyone else.
He had worked with Chris before on “Wolf Warrior“, and it was great to meet up with him again on a set. A lot of his life experience in the Marines became part of the story as well. He certainly pulled it off.
IP MAN 4 | Making of 《叶问4》幕后花絮
"Ip Man 4: The Finale" Overview
"Ip Man 4: The Finale" is a 2019 biographical martial arts film directed by Wilson Yip and starring Donnie Yen as Ip Man. A co-production of Hong Kong and China, the film began production in April 2018 and ended in July of the same year. It was released on 20 December 2019 and became the highest grossing Chinese film in Malaysia and Singapore, as well as the 5th highest grossing Hong Kong film in Mainland China.
Synopsis: In 1964, Ip Man is diagnosed with throat cancer due to his history of chronic smoking. After his rebellious son Ip Ching fights back against a bully and is expelled from school, Ip Man decides to travel to San Francisco in order to look for study opportunities.
Ip arrives in San Francisco, where his student Bruce Lee has upset the local martial arts community by opening a kung fu school, teaching non-Chinese people martial arts, and writing a book explaining Chinese martial arts in English.
He discovers from his reporter friend Liang Gen that, because he is a foreigner, he needs a referral letter from the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association to enroll Ching into an American school.
While leaving the school after a meeting with the principal, Ip sees Wan's teenage daughter, Yonah, undergoing a racist attack from a rival cheerleader, Becky, and her male friends. Ip steps in to rescue her and escorts Yonah home, where Wan is upset that she got into a fight. Ip tells Wan that Yonah was not wrong to defend herself, but Wan rebukes him by claiming that Ip, as a foreigner, cannot understand the tension between whites and Chinese in America.
Just before Ip leaves, Wan accuses him of using his daughter to get the letter and challenges him to a fight for it. The duel is interrupted by an earthquake, and Wan says they will finish it at the upcoming Mid-Autumn Festival in Chinatown.
Meanwhile, Becky lies to her parents, claiming that Yonah attacked her. Her father, Andrew Walters, an officer of the INS, is pressured by his wife Gabriella into holding the Association responsible and deporting all illegal immigrants associated with them.
Elsewhere, Hartman Wu, a staff sergeant in the US Marines and student of Lee, attempts to persuade Barton Geddes, the Gunnery Sergeant on his base, to incorporate Chinese martial arts into their hand-to-hand combat training. However, Hartman manages to convince the unit's commanding officer of kung fu's potential use, and is permitted to film the Festival for research purposes; the infuriated Geddes instructs Frater to challenge the grandmasters at the Festival.
Frater easily takes down 3 of the grandmasters before Ip intervenes and defeats him, hospitalising him. Meanwhile, Wan, who was supposed to be present at the Festival, is arrested by the INS. Upon seeing Frater in the hospital, Geddes barges into the Association building and uses his strength and karate prowess to brutally defeat all the grandmasters present. He then threatens Walters into releasing Wan into Marine custody before bringing Wan into the camp to fight him.
Due to a tip-off by Billy, a subordinate of Walters and student of Lee, the Association is evacuated by the time the INS conducts its raid. At the camp, Wan and Geddes fight, with Wan at first able to match Geddes, but he is eventually overwhelmed and seriously injured. Wan is taken to the hospital, where an emotional Ip calls Fat Bo to reveal his cancer; Fat Bo then angrily forces Ching to talk to his father, after many previous refusals. The older Ip apologizes to his son for striking him, and promises to teach Ching kung fu when he returns to Hong Kong.
Wan prepares the referral letter for Ip, but Ip turns it down, having decided against moving to America. Ip returns to Hong Kong and accepts that Ching likes martial arts. An epilogue shows Lee paying respect to Ip at his funeral.
During the 2019 Hong Kong protests, protesters urged a boycott of the film, citing the pro-Beijing stances of actors Donnie Yen and Danny Chan and producer Raymond Wong.
Although Ip Man 4 was intended to be the conclusion to Ip Man's story, on 18 May 2023, a new Ip Man movie titled Ip Man 5 was announced by Mandarin Motion Pictures at the Cannes Film Festival.
Box Office Performance
"Ip Man 4: The Finale" achieved significant box office success. It became the highest-grossing Chinese film in Malaysia and Singapore. Additionally, it ranked as the 5th highest-grossing Hong Kong film in Mainland China.
Here's a summary of its box office performance:
| Region | Achievement |
|---|---|
| Malaysia | Highest-grossing Chinese film of all time |
| Singapore | Highest-grossing Chinese film |
| Mainland China | 5th highest-grossing Hong Kong film |
Scott Adkins' Upcoming Projects
Scott likes to stay busy and has several projects coming up. He is about to start on “Accident Man 2”, and from this, people can expect a lot of action, lots of comedy, more crazy, larger-than-life characters, and lots of killing. We look forward to seeing the return of Mike Fallon in “Accident Man 2”!
Accident Man 2
Martial Arts and Life
Martial arts has benefit in all areas of life. It sets you on a path to achieve difficult goals, and emerge on the other side with an indomitable spirit.
"Ip Man 4: The Finale" is in theaters in Hong Kong, and will release in North American theaters on Christmas Day.