Yen was a stuntman in his earliest films, Shaolin Drunkard (1983) and Taoism Drunkard (1984). At the age of 20, he got his first acting role in the 1984 film Drunken Tai Chi'.' After filming Drunken Tai Chi and Tiger Cage (1988), Yen made his breakthrough role as General Nap-lan in Once Upon a Time in China II (1992), which included a fight scene between his character and Wong Fei-hung (played by Jet Li).
Yen had a starring role in the film Iron Monkey in 1993. Yen and Li appeared together again in the 2002 film Hero, where Yen played a spear (or qiang) fighter who fought with Li's character, an unnamed swordsman. The film was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar at the 2003 Academy Awards.
In 1995, Yen starred as Chen Zhen (Cantonese: Chan Zan) in the television series Fist of Fury produced by ATV, which is adapted from the 1972 film of the same title that starred Bruce Lee as Chen Zhen. Yen reprised his role as Chen Zhen in the 2010 film Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen. In 1997, Yen started the production company Bullet Films, and made his directorial debut in Legend of the Wolf (1997) and Ballistic Kiss (1998), in which he played the lead character. Yen went on to choreograph fight scenes and appeared in minor roles in some Hollywood films, such as Highlander: Endgame (2000) and Blade II (2002). In 2003, Yen played the antagonist against Jackie Chan in Shanghai Knights.
Yen choreographed most of the fight animation in the 2004 video game Onimusha 3, which featured actors Takeshi Kaneshiro and Jean Reno. Yen continued to be active in the Hong Kong cinema in the 2000s, starring as Chu Zhaonan in Tsui Hark's wuxia epic film Seven Swords, and as Ma Kwun in Wilson Yip's brutal crime drama film SPL: Sha Po Lang in 2005. Both films were featured at the 2005 Toronto International Film Festival. Later that year, Yen co-starred with Nicholas Tse and Shawn Yue in Wilson Yip's Dragon Tiger Gate, an adaptation of Wong Yuk-long's manhua series Oriental Heroes.
Yen also worked as action choreographer in Stormbreaker, starring Alex Pettyfer. Yen's continued to work with Wilson Yip in Flash Point (2007) in which he starred as the lead character and served as producer and action choreographer for the film. He won the Best Action Choreography at the Golden Horse Film Awards and the Hong Kong Film Awards for his performance in Flash Point.
In 2008, Yen starred in Ip Man, a semi-biographical account of Yip Man, the Wing Chun master of Bruce Lee. Ip Man marked Yen's fourth collaboration with director Wilson Yip, reuniting him with his co-stars in SPL: Sha Po Lang, Sammo Hung and Simon Yam. Ip Man became the biggest box office hit to date which featured Yen in the leading role, grossing HK$25 million in Hong Kong and 100 million yuan in China. In July 2011 it was announced that Yen and Cecilia Cheung would be cast in a Hong Kong remake of Mr. & Mrs. Smith, titled Assassin Couple.
In August 2011, while Yen was on a vacation with his family in the United States, he reportedly received an invitation by producer Avi Lerner to star in The Expendables 2. It was stated that Yen is considering the offer, and has many films at hand, and will not decide until he sees if the script appeals to him or not. In September 2011, Yen revealed that he took two comedy roles in a row, All's Well, Ends Well 2012 and Thunder Cop, and will be working with Sandra Ng in the first film.
Action choreography
Apart from being an acclaimed martial artist and actor, Yen is also a world class action choreographer, and his on-screen choreography has been recognized through the numerous awards he has attained. In recent years, Yen was successful in including mixed martial arts (MMA) into his action choreography in various films, a feat most other action directors have been unsuccessful at accomplishing so far. Flash Point, a film fully choreographed by Yen using MMA was a huge success. Another notable MMA film involving Yen is SPL: Sha Po Lang. In recent years, Yen's work as a choreographer won him "Best Action Choreography" awards at the 27th Hong Kong Film Awards and the 2008 and 2011 Golden Horse Film Awards.
Yen was the fight choreographer for the 2010 film Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen. For this film, Yen mentioned that he included Jeet Kune Do elements as a tribute to Bruce Lee, who played Chen Zhen in the 1972 film Fist of Fury. Furthermore he incorporated many MMA elements in the film, coupled with the utilization of Wing Chun. Yen also stated that the concept behind Bruce Lee's Jeet Kune Do is similar to that of MMA, hence the incorporation of many forms of martial arts is a necessity in this film. Due to his success in action choreography, he is invited to choreograph his upcoming films such as The Lost Bladesman, Wu Xia and The Monkey King.
Personal life
Yen married Cecilia Cissy Wang in Toronto in 2003. Wang was the winner of the 2000 Miss Chinese Toronto Pageant, including the "Miss Vitality" and "Miss Perfect Figure" awards. They have a daughter, Jasmine, born in 2004, and a son, James, born in 2007. In April 2010 his wife reportedly had a miscarriage. Yen has stated that he is a big fan of the MMA organization Ultimate Fighting Championship, and has watched almost every UFC event available.
Martial arts history, style and philosophy
Yen describes himself as a mixed martial artist, and this is evident from his style. He learned wushu from a young age, under his mother's tutelage. He then went on to learn taekwondo in his teenage years, and currently holds a 6th degree black belt in taekwondo. When he was a teenager, he obtained a medal in a wushu competition held in the United States, known as Boston Combat Zone. At the time, the Beijing wushu team had a scout in the United States, and invited Yen over to Beijing, China, where he began training at the Beijing Sports Institute, the same facility where champion-turned actor Jet Li trained; this is where the two of them crossed paths for the first time. Yen later went on to discover and to seek knowledge on other martial arts style, he would later obtain belts from judo and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, and went on to study the art of parkour, wrestling, Muay Thai, kickboxing and boxing under various trainers.
His exposure of mixed martial arts (MMA) was heightened when he went back to the United States from 2000 to 2003, while making his Hollywood debut, he also took time off to learn the various martial arts form. The progress was evident when he returned back to Asia, where he implemented his new found knowledge of MMA showcased in films such as SPL: Sha Po Lang (2005) and Flash Point (2007).
Near the end of 2007, Yen added a new martial arts system to his arsenal. He was offered the role of Wing Chun grandmaster and Bruce Lee's mentor, Ip Man, in a 2008 film named after the grandmaster. He worked hard and studied Wing Chun under Ip Man's eldest son, Ip Chun for 9 months before tackling the role. Ip Chun has since praised Yen for his effort, and complimented that Yen is a great martial artist and a fast learner, and has managed to grasp the full concept of Wing Chun much faster than anyone he has taught. Yen believes in practical combat, and in his opinion, MMA is the most authentic type of practical combat.
He has particular interest in the art of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and has obtained a purple belt. He has mentioned that he would have entered the Octagon, joining the Ultimate Fighting Championship if he did not have a recurring shoulder injury. Yen believes that combining many martial arts together will produce the most effective and harmonious style. Yen has said, "When you watch my films, you're feeling my heart."
An Action Star Moves to the Lead
Over the past 26 years, the actor Donnie Yen has developed a dedicated following in Asia for his impressive martial arts skills, and a cult status internationally for his roles in popular action movies, including “Once Upon a Time in China II,” “Hero,” “Shanghai Knights” and “Seven Swords.” But until recently, he had, he said, “never tasted what it meant to be a superstar.” Instead, in big-budget movies, he often played in the shadow of established Asian stars like Jet Li and Jackie Chan.
But with “Painted Skin” and “Ip Man,” two Asian-box-office successes in 2008, Mr. Yen’s star is finally rising. “He’s been around as along as the two Js,” said Daniel Yun, managing director of MediaCorp Raintree Pictures, referring to Mr. Li and Mr. Chan. “For a long time he was the third choice; but with his films making big money at the box office, he’s become the leading man to watch.” “Painted Skin,” which was co-produced by Raintree Pictures, grossed 230 million yuan, or about $33 million, at the Chinese box office last year, making it the second most successful film of the year there, behind John Woo’s “Red Cliff.”
“Donnie is the ‘it’ action person right now,” said the producer and director Peter Ho-Sun Chan, who cast Mr. Yen, 46, in “Bodyguards & Assassins,” a big-budget period action film directed by Teddy Chen that is set for release in Asia in December, and about six months later in Europe and North America. “He has built himself into a bona fide leading man, who happens to be an action star.”
Mr. Yen seems to approach his newfound success with healthy skepticism. In a recent interview in Shanghai, where he was filming his final scene for “Bodyguards & Assassins,” the actor commented that he had “a lot of new friends” now — whereas in the late ’90s he couldn’t find anybody to help finance “Ballistic Kiss,” his second film as a director and producer.
“Now all the producers are calling me and I’m having films lining up all the way to 2012,” he said. “It’s beginning to sink in that after 26 years in the industry I’m finally having my break.”
In addition to completing “Bodyguards & Assassins,” in which he plays a gambler who agrees to protect the Chinese revolutionary Sun Yat-Sen during his brief 1905 visit to Hong Kong, Mr. Yen also recently finished work on Daniel Lee’s “14 Blades.” In the $20 million Ming-era martial arts movie, to be released in February in Asia, he plays Green Dragon, a sword-fighting special agent.
Mr. Yen acknowledges that he has tended to avoid expanding his acting abilities. “I came in to the industry by total accident,” he said. At 19, he was spotted in Hong Kong by the director Yuen Woo-ping while traveling from Beijing — where he had been studying martial arts — back to the United States, where his family had been living since he was 11. Mr. Yuen was looking for a new kung fu movie hero and, impressed by Mr. Yen’s skills, offered him the part.
“Even though I was learning all the dramatic techniques, it never sunk in that at the end of the day I should be an actor,” Mr. Yen said. He also believes that directors had never really encouraged him to act. “It was more ‘come in, fight, look cool, show your muscles,”’ he said, laughing.
That is changing, however, and Mr. Yen said his confidence has grown. “It’s only in the last three years I started to concentrate on acting,” he said. He added that it wasn’t until the 2008 martial arts epic “An Empress and the Warriors” that he felt he “was the character.” “When I made people cry on the set I thought ‘I must have done something right,”’ he said.