Donnie Yen - In a scene from the award winning 'Ip Man'

Who is Donnie Yen?

Donnie Yen is everyone’s favourite Go To guy!

Need a villain or a martial artist to help sell your movie? Donnie Yens your man!

Always a bridesmaid, never the bride; until recently Donnie Yen had never really made his name on the international scene in a movie in which he played the main star.

Whilst he may be known to international audiences for his roles in Hero and Shanghai Knights (need more), these movies focused more on Jet Li and Jackie Chan respectively, and therefore Donnie Yen was never really the key driver in these movies and only had small supporting roles. The same can be said about his role in Blade II (where he plays Snowman).

The common factor in all of these popular international movies is that Donnie Yen was criminally under used … but why?

For many true Martial Arts fans, Donnie Yen completes the holy trinity (Jackie Chan, Jet Li and Donnie Yen).

The Holy Martial Arts Trinity - Jackie Chan, Donnie Yen and Jet Li

A Lesson in History – The Early Years

Donnie Yen was born in Canton, China on 27^th July 1963. His mother is the famous Wushu Master and twice winner of Inside Kung Fu’s ‘Woman of the Year’ Award; Bow Sim Mark. Bow helped found the Chinese Wushu Research Institute in Boston, and to this day she still trains and teaches (including teaching Chris Yen – Donnie’s sister – A rising martial arts actor, Chris can be seen in the recent movie ‘Adventures of Johnny Tao’ and Yuen Woo Pings sister).

At the age of 4 Donnie began learning martial arts. In the early years he studied many martial arts before finally settling with Wushu under the guidance of his mother. Donnie continued his training until he was 11 when his family moved to Boston.

Donnie Yen Practising Wushu with his mother Bow Sim Mark

Once again Donnie took back up Martial Arts and once again he experimented; taking in many different forms of martial arts and fighting styles including boxing and Taekwondo. Due to his interest in martial arts his mother sent him back to China to study in Beijing.

Donnie was sent to take part in the prestigious Beijing Wushu Team training programme, here he was taught by Master Wu Bin, known for also being the head instructor for Jet Li, whilst back in China, he made many trips to Hong Kong and it was on one of these trips where he met fight choreographer Yuen Woo-Ping.

MasterWu Bin - giving instructions to another future Wushu star

Under the Wing of Yuen Woo Ping

The Legendary Yuen Woo Ping behind the camera

As with Jackie Chan (also discovered by Ping), Ping liked what he saw in Donnie and started him off as a stuntman on the movies Shaolin Drunkard and Taoism Drunkard (also known as Drunken Wu Tang).

Donnie Yens first major starting role was in the Yuen Woo Ping Martial Arts Comedy – Drunken Tai Chi, whilst not a huge success, the movie still went some way to showcasing Donnie Yens skills.

Donnie’s next movie was another comedy. In Mismatched Couple, Donnie played a break dancing Martial artist but it seemed Donnie was tired of the comedy roles and quickly moved onto more senior roles in  the Raymond Lee film ‘The Last Conflict’. Here Yen played alongside Stephen Chow and Francis Ng. Donnie would later team up with Raymond Lee again in the excellent ‘Dragon Inn’.

Pink is in! - a young Donnie Yen in a scene from 'Mismatched Couple'

Very much in the same way as Jackie Chan wanted to create movies different from Bruce Lee. It seemed Donnie Yen was tired of doing comedies and in particular Martial Arts comedies (a market already dominated by Jackie Chan at the time), and wanted to differentiate himself from Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung and Jet Li.

Somehow Donnie needed to bring his old style to the table if he was ever going to be a success. Very soon he got a chance to really showcase his true style when Yuen Woo Ping once again called on him. But rather than creating a martial arts epic, Ping was instead casting for a dark gritty Hong Kong cop actioner, very much in the same mould as a typical Johnnie To movie. Donnie was cast in the role of Terry, alongside future Hong Kong greats Simon Yam and Jacky Cheung in the crime classic Tiger Cage.

Not only was Donnie allowed to showcase his martial arts skills but this time Donnie was playing a serious role and for a much wider audience than before.

Donnie Yen - Tiger Cage 2

Whilst his role in Tiger Cage was not his breakthrough role, you could argue that it was in fact his most important. As it was this movie that seemingly helped mould Donnie Yens future onscreen action style as well as provide the backbone he needed for future roles in SPL and High Tension.

In fact, so well received was Donnie’s supporting role in the original Tiger Cage, that Ping once again cast Donnie, but this time as the lead in the unrelated sequel Tiger Cage 2. More famous for its fight scenes than its story or script, Tiger Cage 2 features an explosive final half hour which many believe help it to surpass the original.

Yuen Woo Ping and the Tiger Cage movies firmly helped create the onscreen martial arts style Donnie would further enhance for future roles. Whilst the Tiger Cage series of movies are Donnie’s most important roles in regard to his style, the next film he was to appear in was probably his real breakthrough role…

Part 2 Coming Soon