Martial arts' Mr. Cool

Jay Stone
The Ottawa Citizen

Tuesday, August 24, 2004

Donnie Yen, 41, is a movie martial arts icon with an unusual past. He was born in China, went to Hong Kong at the age of one, and, at 10, moved to Boston where his mother, Bow Sim-Mark, a famous martial arts teacher, trained him in fighting. He returned to Asia and was discovered by Yeun Wo Ping, later the action choreographer for such movies as The Matrix and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

Yuen introduced Donnie to film, making such classics as Once Upon A Time In China II (1992), with Jet Li, and Iron Monkey (1993). Donnie has since become a director as well, although he is probably best known to North American audiences for roles in Shanghai Knights and Blade II, for which he was also the action director.

Donnie reunites with Jet Li in Hero, an epic directed by Zhang Yimou (Raise The Red Lantern) in which Jet plays a fighting master who vanquishes three assassins -- one of them, named Sky, played by Donnie -- who are out to kill the king. The movie, which opens in Ottawa on Friday, is getting rave reviews and being compared to Crouching Tiger in its scale and poetic action sequences.

Donnie recently spent a day in Toronto talking to the press; he did 17 interviews, and he said it was tougher than making the movie. Here is his edited conversation with Jay Stone:

Q: Sky is a character you often play in movies, isn't he?

A: Yes. The warrior, cool, that kind of stuff. But the director brought more depth to the character than I normally play. We should all have an identity in the industry, and my identity is, 'Martial arts star.' And I don't have a problem with that.

Q: Are you aiming toward a Hollywood career like other Asian action stars?

A: I don't identify a project as a Hong Kong project or a Hollywood project or whatever. The world's getting closer and closer. Who would think that Crouching Tiger would win an Oscar as Best Foreign Film? If the film is a good film, it will be seen by the world. I don't know where my home is. If it requires me to do a production in Europe, I go to Europe. If it's in Asian countries, I'll be in Asian countries.

Q: What's the appeal of martial arts movies?

A: Martial arts is a form of physical expression. This type of physical expression is beyond culture, history, religions. It's an international language. People can relate to that. Look at a ballerina, you look at a gymnast. You can relate to that, it doesn't matter what race they are.

Q: If you and Jet Li got into a real fight, who would win?

A: Ten years ago we did a film called Once Upon A Time In China, Part II, and it raised the bar of martial arts standard and I was nominated as best supporting actor. Hero was a 10-year reunion for us. So we came in as a kind of expectation from the fans. The difference between the two times is the first time we had a rivalry going because I guess we were younger and it was our first time working with each other. But this time was more of a collaboration. We wanted just to make the best action sequence ever. To answer your question -- I'm trying to avoid it, as you can tell -- I don't want to take anything away from Jet because he is my friend and he's done a lot for martial arts films.

But I have to believe in myself to be the ultimate icon of martial arts. The audience should judge it themselves when they watch our films.

Q: There is a lot of wire work in Hero of the kind that was introduced to audiences in Crouching Tiger, but you're not a fan of it.

A: The truest classic martial arts scenes need to stay true to the origins of the martial arts themselves. These are the classics. You can never get sick of watching Bruce Lee films. Why? Because they are true martial arts. ... After all, they're going to come back to the basics and appreciate what the classics have to offer.

Q: When Jackie Chan got married, he kept his marriage secret because he was worried his female fans would be distraught. But you are open about being married and having a seven-month-old daughter.

A: We grew up in different eras. He's a little bit older. Number two, he grew up in Asia, I grew up in Boston; we have different mentalities. I think to be married is a great thing. I think having a relationship is something to be proud of. Being in love is something to be proud of. Maybe back in the older days, Jackie Chan didn't think so. He's coming out with his son and his wife now. I think he realized that era changed.

Q: Do you still take part in martial arts competitions?

A: No, there's no point in competing. We must have a goal in anything we do. To compete, are you trying to do something that will satisfy a sense of self-contentment? Who is to judge whether you are a champion or not? I think the biggest challenge in life is yourself.

Q: You sound like the characters in Hero.

A: Maybe that's why I was cast.

Q: The themes in Hero go beyond fighting. The movie is about self-sacrifice. Isn't that unusual in a martial arts movie?

A: A good martial arts film is like that. The Chinese believe that the ultimate martial artist takes a martial arts attitude: integrity, and all those very important things in life. But sometimes martial arts is exploited in films and stereotyped for the fighting aspect of it. It takes films like Hero and Crouching Tiger to remind people that martial arts is deeper than that, is deeper than just a physical acceleration. It's an art form. It's a history.

Q: Is this a message you try to get across in the films you direct?

A: It depends on what kind of film. I've always got to remember the nature of filmmaking. It is business. If I'm directing a comedy, I'm not going to get too philosophical about it. I want to make people laugh.

Interview with Jay Stone

Source::
The Ottawa Citizen