Donnie Yen
News
Shanghai Knights: Fann Wong with one foot in Hollywood (Interview)
Fann Wong: Shanghai Knights' a break for her (Interview)
Jackie Chan: Shanghai Knights Diary And His Birthday Video
Shanghai Knights: 13 more On-Set Pictures (Official Jackie Chan Site)
Shanghai Knights: Status Report
Jackie Chan: More Jackie Chan's Diary (Official Jackie Chan Site)
Shanghai Knights: Jackie Chan Kicking High
Donnie Yen: Will Re-Remake Fist of Fury And Reboot The Green Hornet
31 May 2002
Donnie Yen: Will Re-Remake
Fist of Fury And Reboot The Green Hornet
Donnie Ye has made a five-project deal with Hong Kong's Emperor Multimedia Group and one of them is another remake of
Bruce Lee's FIST OF FURY, under the working title KUNG FU MASTER. He will take the role of Chen Zhen who has been played by Bruce Lee, Jet Li and himself (in the TV series) and will be the action director. Gordan Chan who just finished HIGHBINDERS with director. He will also be the action director for another four movies.
While being interviewed by Taiwan's Mun Sang Poh on location of SHANGHAI KNIGHTS, Donnie Yen mentioned may planned to launch THE GREEN HORNET the movie with Donnie Yen as Gato. The franchise has never left the ground after Jet Li turned down the role of Gato.
Donnie Yen has signed up for three movies with Miramax. Though not going to play in all of them, he will take the role of action
director and director in some of them. In addition, he has been asked to direct the Japanese version of CHARLIE'S ANGELS and
return as the action director of the sequel of SHURAYUKI-HIME (PRINCESS BLADE). Donnie Yen was the action director of
SHURAYUKI-HIME. And he may even get a contract with a German studio.
Meanwhile Miramax has brought the North American distribution rights of all his movies made in Hong Kong and is ready to chop
them up. Beware, once the Miramax version is out, it is illegal to sell and buy any imported original VCD and DVD.
23 May 2002
Donnie Yen's Fist of Fury: DVD Review - 7/10
Western
audiences finally get a taste of what Donnie Yen was cooking on Hong Kong
television in the mid '90's. Unfortunately, its only a sample platter and
not everything will please the palette, but the plethora of tasty side
dishes should sate the most demanding appetites.
Putting not-so-cleaver culinary analogies aside, Donnie Yen's Fist of Fury television series gets the treatment from Tai Seng in this two hour movie which edits down the second 15 episodes from the series. As you may have guessed, this is a television series adapted from Bruce Lee's 1972 production of Fist of Fury.
Yen
was offered the opportunity to star in and choreograph a 30 episode series
chronicling the life of the fictional Chen Jun created by Lo Wei and
portrayed by Bruce Lee. This character was the imaginary student of real
life kung fu master Fok Yuen Gaap who founded the Jin Wu school of martial
arts and who really died at the hands of Japanese after attempting to
unite the Chinese in opposition.
The
real shame about both this Tai Seng edition is that the story should have
taken center stage. Here was an opportunity to portray not only the events
leading to the Japanese invasion, but also the relevance of martial arts
philosophy and Chinese nationalism. By cramming 15 hours into 2, you get
nothing more than a scattered collage of mediocre drama and bad
choreography. The bottom line is that there are few people in the world
with the combination of intensity, martial skill, tenacity and deadly
looks that Bruce Lee had. With all due respect to Donnie
Yen and Jet Li who stepped into Lee's shoes for Fist
of Legend, the man cannot and should not be duplicated.
As
a whole, this version of Fist of Fury
is more of a treat for Donnie Yen fans than anything else. This series was
a real labor of love for Donnie and despite its flaws, it has merit on the
basis that it expands on the original story by filling in the history and
motivations of the main characters. Even in this cropped edition, you get
a better understanding of the events surrounding central story of Chen
Jun's search for justice. The action scenes are hit and miss, showcasing
both Donnie's strengths as an innovator and the show's limited resources.
Although Donnie defended his use of under-cranking, I found it to be
distracting. Lastly, the extras add value for hardcore genre fans while
general audiences will likely have little interest in this release.
by Mark Pollard (Kung Fu Cinema) and Hincheuk (Hollywood Gossips)
Hero: Donnie Yen on Set Photos
Donnie
Yen played Long Sky or Donnie Yen played Long Sky or
Silver Spear, one of the king's loyal
bodyguard, who had a big fight with Wu Yan (Silencer) played by Jet Li.
27 Mar 2002
DONNIE
YEN TALKS ABOUT 'HERO' AGAIN (Hollywood
Gossips Exclusive)
About.com's Action-Adventure section has posted an interview of Donnie Yen,
who recently appeared and choreographed the Wesley Snipes film Blade II.
Donnie Talked a bit about Hero and his next assignment with Jackie Chan,
which you can read it here
21
Mar 2002
Interview: Zhang Yimou reveals Hero to Merchant Times
Last year, before sealing his mouth during the last interview, Zhang Yimou promised Merchant Times (Shi Dai Shang Bao) that should he open his mouth about Hero, readers of Merchant Times would be the first to learn of it. Yesterday, Zhang Yimou finally fulfilled his promise... Here for the full Interview.
14 Mar 2002 (Upbeat Exclusive)
In
this interview conducted by Upbeat, Donnie Yen talked about his involvement in
BLADE II and HERO.
Click here for the full interview
14 Mar 2002 (KungFuCinema Exclusive)
In
this interview conducted by Jean Lukitsh from KungFuCinema.com, Donnie Yen
talked exclusively about his involvement in BLADE II
Click here for the full interview
8 Mar 2002
Ching
Siu-tung says HERO
Will Be More Aesthetic And Romantic Than CTHD
Action director Ching Siu-tung has spoken out about HERO for the first time..Watching the actions in HERO you can feel the actors are dancing in the air. It will be more aesthetic and romantic than CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON." While talking about how to deal with actors with no martial art trainings, he said, "we tried to conceal their physical limitations and let them bring out their best. Maggie Cheung and Zhang Ziyi are pretty good dancers. Based on their figures, the moves I designed for them do not have too much strength but can let them show their bodies and postures. Leung Chiu-wai never received any martial art training and his ability of doing actions is not very good. But he can show very rich facial expressions and and bring out a man's emotions during a fight. Therefore we just shot his moves from different Angles consisted with his facial expressions to help him do his action scenes. For different actors and characters, I designed different styles and moves for them."
Ching said director Zhang Yimou is very good at showing people's relations and creating characters. While working on HERO, he tried to learn from Zhang Yimou on how to design plots and how to handle dramatic scenes. Ching said HERO is a different kind of martial art film with very unique storytelling style, visuals and color presents. He said he had done his best. Because the post-production including CG effects has yet started, he did not know what the final print really looks like, but he said it will be better than CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON. (monkeypeaches)
