I Am What I Am

Gyun’s father is injured in a construction accident and falls into a coma. He eventually wakes at the end of the first film, following the victory of Gyun’s team at the lion dance competition in Guangzhou. Now in Shanghai, Gyun works in a construction company to gather funds for his father’s medical expenses.

Gyun’s friends Mao and Gou come to him with an opportunity to perform an lion dance opening act for an exhibition by Quizhen Martial Art School, where they held mock sparring matches with various martial artists. However the Muy Thai fighter was stuck in traffic, so the gym had no choice but to dress up Gyun for the role. Gyun was promptly defeated by Master Zhang. The exhibition was interrupted by Xiao Zhangyang, the star fighter of Jinxin Fighting Club, who challenges and defeats Zhang with little effort. Due to the public humiliation, the school’s investor pulls out. Zhang’s adopted daughter, Xiaoyu, apologizes to the three boys for not being able to pay them, and gives her contact info to reach out to her once she gets the money.

Gyun is later fired from his job at the construction company after being blamed for theft, then evicted from his apartment for housing Mao and Guo in his one-person apartment. With no options left, Gyun goes to the Quizhen School, a seemingly small generic building overshadowed by the Jinxin Club next door, to get the money he was owed. He finds that Xiaoyu is being harassed by the students of Jinxin demanding compensation for a fake injury in her building. Gyun defends Xiaoyu from the bullies and shows off his raw talent for martial arts. Xiaoyu suggests that Gyun should participate in Shanghai Fight Night, a fighting tournament hosting various martial artists from around the world, on behalf of Quizhen for the chance to win prize money. Despite Zhang’s initial refusal, the school has no choice after they receive a notice of foreclosure and Zhangyang threatening to buy the building. The three boys help Zhang and Xiaoyu pack up their school and later move into their apartment. Because of the lack of space, Zhang trains Gyun at his old martial art school, now an abandoned building overgrown with weeds. While they help Gyun train, they run a food stand to make ends meet.

Some time later, Gyun participates in his first match against Silva, a Brazilian fighter who specializes in taekwondo and capoeira. While Silva initially toys with him, Gyun manages to hold his own thanks to his training and his strong stances from lion dancing. Gyun manages to land a devastating blow to Silva’s ankle, severely crippling his ability to kick. After landing a second hit to the same ankle, Silva was too injured to continue and Gyun won the match by knockout.

Zhang tells the boys how Quizhen fell and Jinxin rose to fame. Jinxin promoted themselves on being modernized martial arts and spread slander on traditional kung fu being a scam. In an effort to protect their reputation, many kung fu master fought Zhangyang, Zhang included. All of them were defeated by Zhangyang mysteriously strong punches and Zhang suffered a permanent injury to his vision because of it. Because of the school’s faltering finances, Xiaoyu came back from studying abroad to help the school’s finances.

Zhang puts all his focus on training Gyun while Mao and Guo run the food stand. Xiaoyu asks around hoping to find an investor. Gyun continues to win matches and move up in the ranks. Zhang tries to employ the help from former masters: masseuse Master Li who specializes in vital point striking art, butcher Master Elbow of Rolling Dragon Elbow, and magician Master Ming of Ying-Yang Hands. All three refuse to help. Xiaoyu finally manages to secure an anonymous investor on the condition that he also meets Gyun. However the investor turns out to be Jin Muyang, the investor of Jinxin Fighting Club and one of the sponsors of the tournament. Jin offers to pay off Quizhen School’s debts, additional costs of renovation, and give Xiaoyu full control on how she wants to run it, on the one condition that the school be renamed as a branch of Jinxin. Xiaoyu rejects the offer and storms off, then goes to a theme park with Gyun. She helps Gyun find confidence in himself and they make a wish at the top of a ferris wheel.

Gyun continues to rise up in the ranks, and makes it to the semi-finals. He faces Yasang, a muy thai fighter from Thailand. While Gyun struggles to fight Yasang, Zhang notices that the timekeeper was bribed. When confronting the timekeeper, he receives a yellow then red card and removed from the ring. Despite taking many blows and hardly landing one, Gyun manages to land one strong kick to Yasang’s jaw, winning the match by knockout.

While celebrating their victory into the finals, the Quizhen school is kicked off the abandoned property by construction workers after Jin buys the property for renovation. Then orchestrated by Jin, Gyun faces public slander when video footage of him fighting off the bullies that were harassing Xiaoyu was framed as him being the aggressor. Their reputation is ruined further as people found out about the school’s financial ruin, Gyun posing as a muy thai fighter in the school exhibition, Gyun being fired from a construction company for theft, then false rumors of Gyun and his friends having a warrant for their arrest. The online backlash escalates to people finding Xiaoyu’s address and phone number.

Gyun is later removed from the tournament and Zhangyang is pronounced the winner by default. Jinxin Fighting Club receives national publicity and expands, now employing the other contestants of the tournament such as Yasang and Silva. Gyun and his friends struggle to find work as everyone thinks they are criminals. With the school now in ruins, Xiaoyu offers her savings to Gyun to pay for his father’s medical bills as she go back to the US to finish college. Gyun’s lion dancing master and his mother hear about what is happening in Shanghai and urge him to come home. While the boys preparing to go back home, they are stopped by a journalist investigating the tournament. The journalist shows images from the tournament, Zhangyang’s handwraps always have cracks in them after each match, which shouldn’t be physically possible. They theorized that Zhangyang must have been cheating by using plaster powder in his wraps which would eventually harden from soaking in his sweat. Zhang now realizes this was how all the kung fu masters lost to his surprisingly strong punches.

As the Jinxin Fighting Club prepares to hold an outdoor public exhibition match to advertise their school, Gyun and his friends intervene and goad Zhangyang to a fight. He agrees despite Jin urging him to walk away. In the fight, Gyun uses the techniques taught to him by the three masters, who have now agreed to train him after learning how Zhangyang cheated. While Zhangyang initially held the advantage, Gyun was actually stalling to allow his plaster to harden. After Gyun struck against his punch with an elbow strike, Zhangyang’s glove shattered, revealing to everyone how he cheated. As the audience, the other fighters, and Jin Muyang rejected him, Zhangyang still continued to find Gyun without rules. However without a referee, gloves, or solid footing since the rain made the ring wet, Zhangyang’s style of fixed-environment kickboxing was unable to keep up with the Gyun’s unrestricted varieties of kung fu styles, and admits defeat.

Impressed by Gyun’s effort to uncover the truth and facing Zhangyang, one of Jinxin’s original investors reaches out to the Quizhen School. They buy back their old building and Gyun manages to pay for his father’s recovery.

Last updated: September 03, 2026 at 01:16

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