The Star, 6 Jul 2010

Martial arts thriller proves to be a hit with the crowd

STAR TWO and The Daily Chilli made close to 390 readers very happy last week by treating them to a special screening of The Legend is Born: Ip Man, ahead of its release date in the cinemas.

Despite the congested traffic to the road leading to Tropicana City Mall, eager fans swarmed to Golden Screen Cinemas at the mall and formed two long queues to get free passes for the movie from as early as 7pm.

Happy: A reader of Daily Chilli showing the free tickets she redeemed from the news portal counter at GSC Tropicana City Mall

These included Daily Chilli readers who won the passes through a contest organised earlier, as well as Star Two readers who redeemed the passes with cut-out coupons from the paper.

The latest Ip Man flick, directed by Herman Yau, chronicles the younger days of the Wing Chun master and is widely viewed as prequel to Ip Man and Ip Man 2.

Many were eager to see whether rising action star Dennis To who starred as the protagonist in this film lived up to the standard set by Donnie Yen in the brilliantly made Ip Man and Ip Man 2.

Big group: Daily Chilli readers receiving free passes to watch The Legend is Born: Ip Man

"This one should be interesting, as Ip Man's son, Ip Chun, stars in it," said Julianna Looi, 25, before the screening.

It was not just the Chinese viewers who anticipated the new kung fu flick.

"I heard the other two Ip Man films were brilliant and that's why I'm here," said Citiey, a 27-year-old Malay girl who works in the oil and gas industry.

Meanwhile, Pa Arul Malar Palaniveloo, 26, planned to watch Ip Man and Ip Man 2 after watching The Legend is Born: Ip Man.

"Many of my friends are gung ho about Ip Man and they have been telling me how great the films are!" she said.

Looi, Arul and another reader Jason Yee, who are regular readers of Daily Chilli, also expressed their opinions on the online portal.

Looi thinks that it is "an interesting website with bizarre news that you can't find in the newspapers".

Arul hopes to read more stories on paranormal events on the website.

Yee, 25, on the other hand said: "Sometimes the comments are more interesting than the story itself."