Due to popular films like Ip Man and movie legend Bruce Lee, Wing Chun kung fu had been popularized and have drawn more attention to the general public in the past few years. However, it’s because of these film there’s a lot of misconception and understanding of the art form. For an non-Wing Chun practitioner, it is really hard for them to differentiate between the reality of Wing Chun and the Wing Chun that is for entertainment only. So to make things easier, I’ll just list some of the misconceptions of Wing Chun in films.
1) Hand positions on body level.
In the movie of Ip Man, you’ll often see the pre-fighting position of the actors in chest or body level, which is one of the major mistake in the Wing Chun system. It isn’t logical or practical for someone to have their guards down, as the head is one of the primary targets during a real-life confrontation. You have to remember actors and actresses get paid millions of dollars so the audience could see their faces. I don’t think the producers will like it if they are paying actors to have their faces covered in their film and movie posters.
2) Wing Chun vs Multiple opponents at the same time.
As awesome as it is in film, it is not really realistic or practical even for a highly trained master to go against multiple opponents, especially if there’s more than 3 or more people. Of course it depends in who you’re going up against (their skill level and experience) which is something you don’t know.
But for me I always tell my students that there are two things to consider in a real-life confrontation, a) if there’s people in numbers or b) if the person has a weapon. These are very crucial things to consider, sometimes a situation may consists of both a) and b) at the same time.
Just because you’re trained in martial arts, doesn’t make you indestructible. A good martial artist isn’t just good with their hand techniques but also a wise-thinker. Does it mean you shouldn’t do anything if you’re against multiple attacker? No, I’m not implying not to do anything, but only if there’s no other option available and depending on the matter of life or death
3) Wing Chun have fast punches
People have the misconception that Wing Chun punches are fast. In fact it isn’t fast at all, it only appears fast. The reason why our punches look fast because we don’t draw back our punches, we go from point A to point B in one straight-line.