Action icon Donnie Yen exploded onto the Hong Kong movie scene when he was cast in the lead role of director Yuen Woo-ping’s ‘Drunken Tai Chi’. Yen, the son of Boston based kung fu instructor Bow Sim-mark, was tailor-made for the jade screen, having trained in martial arts since early childhood.
With a solid foundation in his mother’s Wushu style, the teenaged Donnie had gone on to study a wide variety of different fighting arts, including karate and Western boxing. His debut film immediately established him as a viable leading man, and Yen has remained a major figure in Chinese action cinema to this day.
Born in Canton but raised in Boston, Yen has always been unique among martial arts stars in that his persona balances both the martial virtues of his mother and the scholarly and musical ones of his father, Klysler. Aside from his training in the various combative systems, Yen is also a gifted pianist, and critics have noted the musical phrasing and tempo of his performances and action set pieces.
In his younger days, Yen was also a skilled street dancer, and showed off his moves, as well as his general athleticism, in his second starring role, ‘Mismatched Couples’, produced by Hong Kong’s prestigious Cinema City studio.
Donnie was subsequently signed by the newly formed D&B Films, and cast in the hit cop actioner ‘Tiger Cage’. In this movie, and his follow-up features for the company (‘In the Line of Duty 4’, ‘Tiger Cage 2’), Yen showed off his own unique form of contemporary screen combat, a form that included elements of rapid fire kicking, Western boxing and grappling moves.
Having established a worldwide fan base, Yen moved on to star in a string of independent action features before director Tsui Hark tapped him to co-star in ‘Once Upon A Time In China 2’. The film brought Yen his first real attention as a thespian; he was nominated in the Best Supporting Actor category at that year’s Hong Kong Film Awards.
Tsui went on to produce a remake of King Hu’s ‘Dragon Inn’, which providing another showcase role for Donnie, and also ‘Iron Monkey’, a film which brought Yen’s acting and action skills both into focus.
In ‘Iron Monkey’, Yen played the father of kung fu legend Wong Fei-hung, and its success prefigured that which he would later enjoy as another pugilistic patriarch in ‘Ip Man’.
‘Iron Monkey’ was all the more remarkable in that, years after its Asian release, it was acquired by the American studio Miramax, re-cut, re-scored and given a wide release in US theatres. The film enjoyed great acclaim from the American critics, and even won a prize at that year’s Taurus Awards, an event held to celebrate action in cinema.
Donnie’s skills behind the camera were also developing. He had been very much involved with the action choreography of all his previous films, but received his first full action directing credit on the Michelle Yeoh, kung fu drama ‘Wing Chun’ (in which he also starred).
Yen also enjoyed huge success on the small screen when he accepted a lucrative offer from Hong Kong’s ATV to film a series based on the Bruce Lee classic ‘Fist of Fury’. The show was the top-rated action drama show around the region, and was subsequently re-edited for international distribution.
Donnie went on to make his directorial debut with ‘Legend of the Wolf’, a stylish period actioner that even attracted the attention of legendary American film-maker Francis Coppola. The film, about an amnesiac warrior returning to his home village, has become a bona fide cult classic.
As director, Donnie followed ‘Legend of the Wolf’ with a very different venture, ‘Ballistic Kiss’, an urban thriller that took home awards at several events, including the Japanese Yubari International Action Film Festival.
It was after Yen had helmed his first two Chinese features that Hollywood made its first serious bid for his services. He was signed to co-star in and action direct ‘Highlander: Endgame’, the latest in a series of fantasy actioners. The film, which starred Adrian Paul and Christopher Lambert, was produced by the US studio Dimension, and enjoyed a successful worldwide theatrical release.
Having relocated to Los Angeles, Yen paid his dues by directing action scenes for the Dimension action thriller ‘Stormbreaker’ and providing the fight sequences for the German TV series ‘The Puma’.
Donnie agreed to both action direct and cameo in the major New Line action franchise entry ‘Blade 2’, starring Wesley Snipes. The film, directed by Guillermo del Toro, was a huge hit, earning almost twice the box office of the original ‘Blade’.
Yen then returned East by way of the West when Jackie Chan requested that Donnie play his nemesis in the hit ‘Shanghai Knights’, a shoot that took the star from Prague to London.
Donnie returned to China to co-star in director Zhang Yimou’s epic wu xia master work ‘Hero’. Yen’s duel with Jet Li brought his skills to the emerging Mainland Chinese theatrical audience, and paved the way for Donnie to become the country’s biggest action star. The film received a wide US theatrical release from Miramax, and remains one of the most successful foreign language titles ever distributed in the America market.
Yen still had a major contribution to make behind the camera, returning to Hong Kong to co-direct the SFX action adventure ‘The Twins Effect’. The film, which starred two of China’s top pop idols, told the tale of young vampire hunters with well-honed martial arts skills. A huge hit for Emperor, the film earned Yen his first Best Action Director prize at the Hong Kong Film Awards.
Away from the cameras, Yen entered into the most rewarding partnership of his life when he married former beauty queen, Cissy Wang. The couple now has two children, a girl and boy, Jasmine and James.
Starting with the cop actioner ‘SPL’, Donnie teamed with helmer Wilson Yip for a series of very different films that he would star in and action choreograph and Yip would direct.
In ‘SPL’, Yen brought the dynamic moves of American Mixed Martial Arts to the movies, and his final reel duel with bad guy Sammo Hung is now regarded as a classic of the genre. (The film won Donnie his second Best Action Choreography prize at the Hong Kong Film Awards.)
Yen and Yip subsequently teamed to create the comic book inspired fantasy actioner ‘Dragon Tiger Gate’ and the gritty police thriller ‘Flashpoint’, in which Donnie created what fans feel is the definitive on-screen MMA action scene. (The latter also won Donnie his third Best Action Choreography prize at the Hong Kong Film Awards, as well as a prize for Best Action in a Foreign Language Film at the Taurus Awards.)
Donnie was also in demand as a leading man in a series of prestigious period actioners produced for the Chinese market. ‘Seven Swords’ premiered at the Venice Film Festival, and proved a hit with worldwide audiences. Yen also attracted rave reviews when he played an honorable general in ‘An Empress and her Warriors’ and an offbeat ghost-buster in Gordon Chan’s ‘Painted Skin’.
Yen took his career to a new level when he accepted producer Raymond Wong’s suggestion that he play Bruce Lee’s teacher, ‘Ip Man’, in an eponymous film relating the life of the great master. The film was a huge success in Hong Kong and China, and ‘Ip Man’ went on to find favor with audiences worldwide. Donnie also received a Best Actor nomination at the Hong Kong Film Awards.
‘Ip Man’ confirmed Donnie’s position as China’s greatest action hero, and he was immediately signed to lead a strong ensemble cast for Teddy Chen’s ‘Bodyguards and Assassins’, produced by Peter Chan. The movie went on to sweep the board at the Hong Kong Film Awards winning Best Film, among many other prizes. Yen himself was nominated for Best Actor at the Chinese Hundred Flower awards.
Yen followed this with ‘Ip Man 2’, a rare example of a sequel that proved a match for its predecessor. The film followed Ip to Hong Kong, where he faces both rival kung fu masters and a brutal foreign boxer. ‘Ip Man 2’ was the biggest local hit of the year in China, and has since enjoyed a limited theatrical release in the US.
The film’s success led to Donnie being cast as a number of legendary Chinese heroes: General Qin-long in Daniel Lee’s ‘14 Blades’, Guan Yu in ‘The Lost Bladesman’ and Chen Zhen in Andrew Lau’s ‘Legend of the Fist’. He also plays The Monkey King in the forthcoming ‘Havoc in Heaven’. Each of these projects further Yen’s reputation at home and abroad, with his film’s getting increasingly high profile international releases.
Yen was cast opposite Tang Wei and Takeshi Kaneshiro in director Peter Chan’s ‘WuXia’ (aka ‘Dragon’), a dark, elegant period martial arts murder mystery. The film premiered to great acclaim at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival.
Blending Eastern experience with Western innovation and musical grace with martial impact, Donnie is set to entertain worldwide audiences with the range and depth of his talents.