From Bruce Lee to Ip Man and The Monkey King, Donnie Yen on martial arts movies and nearly 40 years of acting

Donnie Yen had his share of failures and false starts before becoming a hit in Hong Kong in 2005’s SPL and an international star in Ip Man in 2008

Excerpts from interviews he has had with the Post touch on his idol Bruce Lee, the film that nearly ruined his reputation and the make-up for The Monkey King

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Donnie Yen in a still from Ip Man 4: The Finale. Yen talks to the Post about respecting Bruce Lee and the film that “almost jeopardised my career”. Photo: Mandarin Motion Pictures

Published: 5:15am, 27 Feb 2022

As Post interviews with Donnie Yen Ji-dan spanning 25 years attest, he was hardly an overnight success as a martial arts actor.

Having appeared in his first movie in 1984, Yen had his share of failures, disappointments and false starts before becoming a hit with Hong Kong cinema-goers in 2005 film SPL (released in the United States as Kill Zone) and an international star with Ip Man in 2008.

“While many people were wondering who would be the successor to Jackie Chan and Jet Li Lianjie, it never occurred to them that he was right in front of them all along, and his name was Donnie Yen,” wrote the organisers of the New York Asian Film Festival in 2012.

Yen began learning martial arts from his mother, who taught in Boston in the US where he grew up, at the age of nine.

“I was rebellious. Both my parents were working. I lacked attention,” he told the Post in 1995. He went to China to study kung fu when the authorities were combining martial arts into the non-combat style of wushu.

A stopover in Hong Kong in 1984 led to an encounter with famed choreographer Yuen Woo-ping, who launched Yen’s career in films.