![]() He also made the move to Hollywood, in a manner of speaking, by choreographing the fight scenes in Highlander: Endgame and in the upcoming Blade 2. Donnie Yen has been patiently waiting in the shadows, practicing his martial skills and earning rave reviews playing secondary characters and evil villains in some of the most popular Hong Kong-produced kung fu epics of the last decade. Without hesitation, Yen gravitates toward the couch, opting for comfort over practicality. We pause briefly to open the door and once inside the room we're immediately confronted with the choice of sitting at a table or on the couch. By the time we reach his suite our conversation has switched to the subject of Iron Monkey, which after all, is the reason Yen is in San Francisco. He makes me want to see this film all the more. He concedes that Woo got a lot of flack for this unrealistic approach to weaponry, but Yen stresses that he wanted to throw the rules out the window, so to speak, and create an over-the-top bullet riddled ballet. Yen opted for the John Woo continuous shooting sans stopping and reloading approach. He says a lot of the criticism comes from the way he portrays the shoot-outs. He then comments on how the film, which is a bullet-saturated action film (as opposed to the more martial arts-oriented action of his directing debut The Legend of the Wolf), tends to get mixed reactions from people who are more accustomed to his martial arts work. He looks at me quizzically and states that I should be able to get it online or at one of the numerous video stores in Chinatown. On the elevator ride up to his suite I tell him that I'm still trying to locate a copy of Ballistic Kiss, his critically lauded sophomore directing debut. I immediately remember that old adage that real bad boys move in silence. This comes about not only in the way he is dressed – black slacks, black leather coat, but also in his mannerisms and speech patterns. He's on the short side in terms of height, but he's got an casually intense aura about him. Donnie Yen in Iron Monkey"> In person Donnie Yen is almost unassuming.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |