> it was weird to see my countrymen as the cartoon baddies

I really enjoyed IP Man 2 for the one dimensional portrayal of the British antagonists. Disclaimer: I’m from the colonies.

Are the "Ip Man" films supposed to be based on this guy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ip_Man ?

The few clips I have seen seem to have no relation to the life of the historical figure whatsoever. It is so disappointing when they make a film with a real historical figure and then distort their story out of all recognition (e.g. "Dragon" for Bruce Lee and "Imitation game" for Alan Turing).

Yes.

The films are mostly entertainment only - only the facts have been changed.

The movies are hilariously sinocentric, but enjoyable for what they are. Much the same as plenty of US movies being sickeningly rah-rah the USA.

Random digression. In wake of recent demise of the Queen, good curious how much do British see the colonion past as glorious and how much as a dark legacy?

When I went to schools (40 years ago) history was all about the saxons, romans and vikings. Plus a bit about WWI and the Russian revolution. I don't remember doing anything much about the British Empire. But it was always tacitly assumed that the British Empire was "a good thing".

I think most educated British people now know there is quite a lot that was "problematic" about the empire. Interestingly there is a very good new British podcast called "Empire" which talks in a lot of detail about what the British did in India and it is not comfortable listening.

I would say the British Empire wasn't as cruel as the Spanish, Portugese or Belgian empires. But that is a very low bar.

Unless you were a baron or a lord, I doubt many British people got any benefit. Britain and most of its old colonies are pretty multi-cultural now (more so than any other countries colonies) I think that and standard english are probably the only real benefits we can see today.

I expect a lot of the resources from the colonies were used to finance the Royal Navy.

Thanks for having the awareness of the atrocities committed by the British. While British characters in the movie may look like "cartoon baddies", the kind of atrocities the British did on their colonies is no cartoon material. They really did many unspeakable things and committed genocide of millions in the subcontinent alone.

The British Empire certainly did some awful stuff. Anyone who thinks the British Empire took over other countries purely for the benefit of the locals must be a bit dim. But I'm not sure 'genocide' is a fair accusation. Certainly large numbers of Indians (and Irish and others) died due to their callous policies (e.g. Bengal and Irish famines), but I'm not sure that classifies as genocide.