History Characters / IpManFilmSeries

* YamatoNadeshiko: She is kind, quiet, and soft-speaking.

* TooDumbToLive: Despite the fact that he was severely injured against Miura, he continued to go on against him and ended up [[spoiler:beaten to death.]]

* CheatersNeverProsper: When Ip Man was gaining the upperhand, Twister and his manager decide to cheat. Changing the rules to help Twister win the fight; however, Ip Man manage to beat him leaving Twister humiliated.

* FateWorseThanDeath: Due to his horrible actions and putting his boxing career on the line, he lost the fight to Ip Man. Ip Man would have killed him; however, he spared his life. Twister's bad behavior and he was cheating during the match, his defeat was well deserved and now his boxing career and repuptation are permentally tarnished.

* LaserGuidedKarma: He was getting away with his horrible behavior and showing no remorse for killing his opponent. During his fight with Ip Man, he was cheating in the match and showing no honor as a fighter. He let his manager to change the rules to rig the match in Twister's favor; however, Ip Man manage to win the fight and gave Twister his open medicine via repeated strikes to the face. Ip Man chose to spare him showing that Ip Man is a better man than him. After losing the match and everyone applauded to Ip Man's victor and wonderful speech, Twister is left humiliated. His boxing career and reputation are now tarnished and he had to return home in disgrace.

* WeakButSkilled: He was able to gain an upper hand on the first half of his fight with Geddes but however due to the latter's greater strength and durabilty he is eventually overwhelmed and sustained injuries.

* BewareTheNiceOnes: When he fights other marital arts masters, his blows are often soft punches and slaps, showing that he still concerns about their wellbeing. But when he is angered, his punches ''hit hard''.

* CombatPragmatism: His Wing Chun gets less sportsmanlike the bigger the threat is, if the time didn't run out he would have kicked Frank in the balls, after having already [[EyeScream poked him in the eyes]]. He also [[spoiler:brutally broke Geddes's arm and stabbed his neck ''after'' doing the same eye poke to the latter earlier in the fight.]]
* CurbStompBattle: Delivers some in every film, constantly proving himself worthy of the title "Master". Only Master Hung, Twister, Frank, Cheung Tin-chi, Master Wan, and Geddes give him a hard time, and even then, Ip Man eventually pulls through.

* HandicappedBadass: He fights Geddes despite being not only aged, but suffering [[spoiler:throat cancer]] and a busted hand. He still takes the guy down.

* HeroicSecondWind: Happens to him in the second and fourth film both against western opponents, where he struggled at first before he then gets up and proceeds to eventually defeat his adversaries.

* InvincibleHero: Ip never loses in all 4 movies, despite his BadassDecay from aging. In the first movie however, he truly seemed invincible.

* PayEvilUntoEvil: He does this all without killing them.

* CurbstompCushion: Is thoroughly defeated by Ip Man, but manages to land four hits on Ip. He is the first character in the entire franchise to land even a single hit on Ip.

* RankScalesWithAsskicking: The highest-ranking soldier of the Japanese occupation and much more of a skilled karateka than his subordinates.

* HandicappedBadass: Is able to fight Ip Man to a standstill in spite of being heavily afflicted with Asthma.

* OldMaster: A middle aged martial arts master with asthma, but still a force to be reckoned with.

** For reference, he would have gotten a solid punch to the face within 5 moves from Ip Man if the latter had not been holding back, gets easily manhandled by Cheung Tin-Chi, and is beaten by Colin Frater with two moves.

* GoodIsNotSoft: He retaliates against a drug dealer burning down his house by burning down said person's drug place.

* OneManArmy: As shown in his spinoff film, he can fight many opponents at once without looking any worse for wear.

* ActionGirl: She's quite the fighter, courtesy of being played by Creator/MichelleYeoh.

* KnowWhenToFoldEm: If the tide of battle turns against him, Davidson will run to fight another day. Unfortunately for him, Sadi is there to make sure he's killed.

* NiceGuy: Apologizes to Cheung Fong when they arrive too late to the restaurant for his birthday and still celebrates it a few days later and when Kwan is chastised by the auction crowd for her history in the crime business, Owen politely thanked her for having the thought for participating in the auction anyway. It turns out to be an act.

* StoneWall: His significant height advantage and very muscular build allow him to shrug off a lot of Tin-Chi's blows. It's only when Tin-Chi starts going for the joints that he gets the upper hand.

* DanceBattler: His fighting style is very graceful and elegant.

* HonorBeforeReason: He refused to back down to Geddes when his daughter Yonah begged him not to.

* StrongerThanTheyLook: Although he looks like an average Chinese male, he is able to knock back a jumping Geddes with one blow but however he is not able to leave any actual damage to him.
* WeakButSkilled: He was able to avoid direct hits of Geddes' attacks mostly but however due to the latter's greater strength and durabilty he is eventually overwhelmed and sustained injuries.

* CombatPragmatist: When Geddes noticed Ip Man's injured wrist, he tries to take advantage of that by making Ip Man defend with that hand. Otherwise subverted, as while he demands a no rules fight, he doesn't actually take advantage of it.

* {{Eagleland}}: A ''very'' overt type 2. In every scene he's in, he doesn't waste time throwing out blatantly racist statements towards the Chinese and other non-Caucasian people.
* EvilVirtues: Villainous or not, Geddes shown in his fight against Wan how surprisingly determined and spirited he is. He's thrown down over and over, actually looking like the underdog there, and still not gives up, until eventally mounting a Rocky-esque comeback that leads to his win.

* {{Foil}}: To General Miura. Both are karate-practising military men and the {{Final Boss}}es of their respective installments, but Miura as a general is the highest authority locally, whereas it is shown that there is a higher officer Hartman can go over Geddes's head to. Miura is also an honourable man who harshly reprimands Sato for killing Master Liu for his failure, while Geddes is a brutal overt racist who encourages Frater's viciousness and, when that fails, attacks the CBA in their headquarters while the masters are still injured and tired from fighting Frater. Finally, while Miura is a comparatively weak opponent that gets larruped quickly by Ip, Geddes turns out to be so strong and dangerous that he almost wins their duel.
* GenderedInsult: Geddes defeats Wan in a one-on-one fight, ending with the latter on his knees. Geddes remarks that his opponent resembles his daughter, Yonah, when they beg.

* HoistByHisOwnPetard: He doesn't enforce any rules during the fight between himself and Ip, yet he doesn't capitalize on it... which becomes his own undoing after he needlessly taunts his downed opponent and receives a rightful ass-kicking in return.

* InsaneTrollLogic: He claims that hating POC individuals for being colored is not the same as hating a cowardly POC for being cowardly colored.

* RankScalesWithAsskicking: As Ip Man's final opponent chronologically, he's one of his toughest fights, even more than the designated karate instructor under him. [[spoiler:Then again, Ip Man also [[DramaPreservingHandicap had an injured wrist and was slowly dying of cancer]] at that point.]]

* HateSink: If there's a character you're guaranteed to hate in the Ip Man series, it's easily Twister. His EstablishingCharacterMoment has him call Hung a "yellow piece of fat", he then proceeds to [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain disrespect and mock Chinese culture]], beat up a martial artist to prove how inferior they are to him, mock them ''again'' when Master Hung asks for him to apologize, [[spoiler:[[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown beat Master Hung while he has an asthma attack]] that he ends up dying]], and not only does he [[LackOfEmpathy show no remorse for it]], but he loudly vows to kill every Chinese martial artist to clear his name. Needless to say, his defeat at the hands of Ip Man is well deserved.

* LackOfEmpathy: Doesn't care he killed a man in a fight.
* LaserGuidedKarma: He was getting away with his horrible behavior and showing no remorse for kiling his opponent. During his fight with Ip Man, he was cheating in the match and showing no honor as a fighter. He let his manager to change the rules to help Twister win the match; however, Ip Man manage to win the fight and gave Twister his open medicine. Ip Man chose to spare him showing that Ip Man is a better man than him. After losing the match and everyone appulded to Ip Man's victor and wonder speech, Twister is humiliated. His boxing career and repuptation are now tarnished and he had to return home in disgraced.

* VillainWithGoodPublicity: Due to his [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections connections,]] the British audience seem to think of him as just a popular, skilled boxer. The British news report about [[spoiler: Hung's death]] spins the truth as him being a noble fighter who was unfortunate to ''accidentally'' [[spoiler: kill a weaker opponent]] while honorably holding back, when the reality is far from it. Given the way the audience cheers for Ip Man's speech at the end, however, this may no longer be the case. Due to cheating and being defeated, his boxing career and reputation are tarnished after the match.

* CondescendingCompassion: During a conference, he gives condolences for Hung's death while saying he was a weak fighter.

* LaserGuidedKarma: Gets arrested for his crimes when Fatso tells the superiors of his actions.

* HateSink: Very deserving of everyone's contempt for all of his racism and overall horrible personality.

!!!'''Dubbed by:''' JeanPierreMichael (European French)

* TheAce: Among China's kung fu masters, he's one of the very best fighters and teachers in the series. And one of his most famous students becomes this too after his tutelage.

* EasilyForgiven: Introduced as the OpposingSportsTeam who basically tried to keep Ip from starting a kung fu school and got Ip arrested for rescuing his prize student. This changes after [[WorthyAdversary they fight to a draw]] and he [[EnemyMine faces off against Twister]].

* BoxingBattler: In contrast with the kung fu the Chinese use, Twister sticks to boxing and manages to [[spoiler: beat Hung Lei-Nang to death]] and hold his own against Ip.

* ActionGirl: She actually puts up a fight with her kung fu training after being attacked by Becky's gang; it's just that she is not experienced enough with the art to avoid being overwhelmed.

* {{Hypocrite}}: For all his racist posturing and disdain for kung fu, his martial art of choice is karate, itself an East Asian style, rather than something traditionally Western like boxing, or at least something like savate that isn't from Asia.

* RichesToRags: He started out a rich man with a BigFancyHouse, then was forced to live in abject poverty when the Japanese occupied Foshan.

* SimpleYetAwesome: The fundaments of his Wing Chun moves.

%%* WarriorPoet

* ChekhovsSkill: Most of the techniques displayed by Ip in the early parts of the series would end up being used in latter fight scenes, bordering on becoming [[SignatureMove Signature Moves]]:

* TookALevelInBadass: [[spoiler:Many, ''many'' levels in the fourth movie, where he's portrayed as an adult and established master in America. It's implied even the arrogant CBA acknowledged his skills prior to their later alliance, because they didn't have a single problem regarding the level of martial arts Lee was teaching - and neither did Ip Man, who said his manual was "well written" - it's the fact he ''was'' teaching them to non-Chinese which irritated them.]]

* CurbStompCushion: Gives a better fight against Jin than most of his fellow masters.

Ip's friend who runs a teashop.

!!!'''Played by:''' Louis Fan

* AuthorityEqualsAsskicking: He turned out to be much more of a skilled martial artist than the other karateka.

* FourStarBadass: A general who's skilled in Karate. He's the only opponent in the entire movie who scores several direct hit on Ip Man, and he almost defeats Ip Man by a ring out.