Way back during this year’s New York Asian Film Festival, I had a chance to sit down face to face with one of the coolest Chinese action stars and one of the top martial arts stars in the world, Mr. Donnie Yen. As one of the top special guests at this year’s festival and one of the recipients of the Star Asia Award, Donnie Yen also had some new films to promote at the festival, Dragon aka Wu Xia (read my review HERE) and The Lost Bladesman. Below you’ll find my interview with the star focusing on Wu Xia, the actions scenes, Ip Man 3D, finding young Bruce Lee and his favorite fighting styles.
Alex: When I watched Dragon or Wu Xia, one of the main things that stuck out to me was that it wasn’t an action film it was more of a drama and that was my favorite part about it. It ended up being a forensics, CSI type film which transitioned into a drama about a guy trying to escape his past and live a normal life. Was that what drew you to the character?
Donnie: Actually, action films are so common these day right? The audience is so sophisticated that you always have to pick something new and inject new elements into the films. I’ve been doing so many action movies that [inaudible] one of the elements I wanted to deal with was to put action into suspense, a detective story, kind of like Sherlock Holmes, and a little bit of the old Japanese, um, I don’t remember the name, but that was purely the intention with the selection of Peter Chan, we said let’s do something different.
AD: And what was it like working with him?
DY: Great! Big fan of his films. Love his earlier work, though I can’t recall its English name, but yes, it was wonderful working with him.
AD: One of the really cool scenes was after you had your arm chopped off, that whole battle. What was it like fighting with one arm and holding a sword?
DY: Tough man! Because we wanted to pay tribute, and I thought it’d be pretty cool, to re-play the one armed swordsman. Everyone knows about the one armed swordsman, you know the name but actually not a lot of people saw the one armed swordsman, they heard of the one armed swordsman and even those who saw one armed swordsman know it’s such an old movie, it has to have something new to it so I thought we had to do it.
DY: Actually, I’ll share this with you, that was the element I was trying to convince Peter for the longest time. I was like “you know, at the end of this, why not let me chop my arm off?” And he refused that direction saying “you know I don’t want to do one armed swordsman.” And then at the end, we improvised the script as we shot, we were testing different things out to see how the playback looked and then at the end he told me “Donnie, I think maybe it’s cool to chop your arm off” and I said “alright you see, I told you right?”
DY: So fighting was tough because I was fighting with one arm and I had to tie my arm because we didn’t really have money to do all the CGI, so I had to tie my arm behind my back. It was really difficult to move around with one arm, especially rolling around because you’re really not rolling around with one arm but you’re really rolling around with one arm and the other arm behind your back so you can’t get your balance, so it was pretty tough.
AD: Was that the toughest scene in the film to shoot?
DY: It was tough for me to execute my movements, it was pretty tough. And even with the choreography it was tough because you’re only using one arm you know, what can you do with one arm? You can’t alternate between the two arms.
AD: Speaking of going off fighting styles, what is your favorite fighting style?
DY: I like fighting in modern films honestly for me, likes that’s my favorite, films like SLP and Flash Point, I don’t know if you saw those films, but that’s my favorite because I personally like more of the contemporary, modern settings where, when you play the character, you don’t have a burden or structure of moves. Like in a period film you have specific moves, a certain posture, you’re limited, you’re restricted, you can’t move around. You have to walk a certain way, if you’re rolling or whatever or riding horses or you’re playing a historical figure like Lost Bladesman or Ip Man, you have to play certain characters in a certain way, but in a modern film you are creating a brand new character in a modern setting, there’s a lot of body language you can do and the fighting, it kind of goes with it. You’re not restricted to rules, you don’t have to bow before you fight, you kind of just go with the character.
AD: Right, you can simply create your own style.
DY: Right, absolutely. So yes, that’s why I l like it better.
AD: Speaking of IP Man, since the release your popularity has grown tremendously especially here in the west, people have seen Kill Zone and Flash Point but once Ip Man came out a whole new audience emerged and now has an appreciation for you. Now, the last film you shot here in the US was Shanghai Knights with Jackie Chan—do you plan on making another film here in the states anytime soon?
DY: I don’t plan, I pick the project and fortunately I’ve constantly been approached by American companies but unfortunately haven’t found the right role that I want to be in. If I want to be in a film for three, four months, that part of your life goes to those few months, so you know I want to do something that I’m passionate about, unfortunately I just haven’t found the right one.
AD: Ok. And every once in a while you end up directing your own film, do you have any films in the works that you’re thinking about directing anytime soon?
DY: Well I produced a SPL/Flash Point type of film recently, I don’t have the English title, we don’t have that yet.
AD: What’s the Chinese title?
DY: Dut Shu Suh Fun (special identity). It’s tough work man.
{laughs all around]
DY: [inaudible]… especially I try to be better every time, be better in terms of your choreography, you’re acting, just the whole package, right. So I really want to have enough time for each department and if you direct you’re not gonna, especially with the number of films of mine that have come out through the years it’s almost impossible, unless I could totally do one movie, one in two years maybe but I don’t see it happening.
AD: Since we’re talking about directing, you do most of the action choreography for your films, how do you approach each film when you’re trying to choreograph all the fight scenes?
DY: Well I try to think about the character, think about his part and what would he do. How would he pull a sword out, would he pull a sword out? You gotta get down and dirty right? But then what would he do in certain moments, how do you use the action to make this character even better? I don’t think about the general techniques, but I think about the smaller techniques, before and after, like after he kicks a person what would he do, or before he kicks a person what would he do? Those are the things that make the character special.
AD: So I know that you had studied parkour at some point, I practiced it myself, I loved it, it’s a blast, and I do it every once in a while, and I know you specifically used it in Bodyguards and Assassins when you fought with Cung Le.
DY: Right and I used a little bit of it in Flash Point. I’m always trying to bring new things, trendy new things into action movies, that’s the only way you can get the audience to keep coming back. I put a little in Flash Point and thought “oh it was pretty good” so you know let me put the experiment in Bodyguards and, what am I gonna do this time “oh this free running stuff, oh let’s do it” so after that I kind of slowed down a little bit. I put a little bit in the beginning of Fist of Legend but then I decided I wanted to do other stuff for the latest films, like in Wu Xia I went back to the basics.
AD: Ok I have to ask, is Ip Man 3D going to shoot this fall?
DY: Probably not this fall, we’re still working on putting everything together, the plans and Wilson, our director, is still thinking about the script you know.
AD: Have you found the young Bruce Lee yet?
DY: That’s the big one, that’s a very good question? [laughs]
DY: It’s really tough to find him, a young Bruce Lee, because who can play Bruce Lee? You know?
AD: Right
DY: It’s very, very tough. I think if we can find that right Bruce Lee, that person will have it made, you’ll find the next superstar but so far we haven’t found that ideal Bruce yet.
AD: It seems everyone’s got to come out with an Ip Man film or a Bruce Lee film, what are your thoughts on that and why do you think that is?
DY: Business is business right? It’s ok if there other Ip Man films. I actually feel flattered because we started a trend and now people follow it, that’s fine, that’s ok. You know, I wish some of these films were a little bit better made, but you can’t have all these films be great.
AD: As an action star and action director from time to time, you get exposed to a lot of different martial artists, a lot of different young talent out there, is there anyone specific that we should keep an eye on that you’ve seen and that you think could possibly be the next you at some point?
DY: I don’t know, that’s the question everybody’s been asking me, not to me but in the industry as well. You know I think to be a great action actor nowadays you need a combination of everything, not just great martial arts because there are a lot of great martial artists out there, a lot of great fighters, you’ve got the UFC fights, champions you know, but doesn’t mean they can be in a film so martial arts is just one part of the big picture. You have the acting, do you have that connection with the audience, how do you connect with the audience, how do you connect with the public, that’s more important nowadays than the martial arts itself. I mean it’s great to be a great martial arts actor, but you have to put that as an [ode? – inaudible] and put that other stuff first but I believe that’s what it’s going to take to be a great action actor nowadays.
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