HONG KONG: There is no doubt that Donnie Yen Ji-Dan is one of the most popular Hong Kong actors worldwide. He made his film debut in 1984 and his martial arts skills should have made him popular back then, but it took him almost 25 years to get to where he is, helped by the Ip Man films in the 2000s.
In 2012, Grady Hendrix said that in the 1990s, the actor was fated to play villains in big films and good guys in small films. The risk of casting Yen as a leading man was not taken by producers. As reported this week by the South China Morning Post, Yen will direct and star in a stand-alone spin-off feature based on his character Caine from the Hollywood action franchise John Wick. Here are some of the films Yen starred at the start of his career.
1. Drunken Tai Chi (1984)
On his way home to Boston after finishing his studies at the Beijing Wushu Institute, Yen stopped over in Hong Kong and auditioned for master martial arts choreographer Yuen Woo Ping. Yen told the Post that Yuen asked him to go to a casting call and was offered a contract for two films: Drunken Tai Chi, which was well-received, and Mismatched Couple, which didn’t do well and jeopardised his career.
Drunken Tai Chi is one of the best showcases of Yen’s martial arts skills to date. It’s a typical Yuen kung fu comedy with acrobatic martial arts scenes and stunts that Yen performed himself.
Yen’s character accidentally kills a rich man’s son. As a result, his father and brother are killed, so Yen takes refuge with an ageing tai chi master, where he learns martial arts skills to take revenge. The film displays tai chi’s “soft” styles of martial arts that use techniques which can turn the power of an attacker against them.
The title of the film is an attempt to cash in on Yuen’s 1970s mega-hit Drunken Master, although drunken kung fu does not actually take place.
In 1985, Yen acted in Mismatched Couples, where he played a dancer who learns Peking opera in the slapstick comedy. He starred in a supporting role in the kung fu cop film In the Line of Duty 4 (1989), playing a San Francisco detective.
2. Tiger Cage 2 (1990)
In 1988’s Tiger Cage, Yen received applause for his supporting role, but his character was killed off halfway through the film. Yen took the leading role in the sequel and the nonstop action showcased his skills —samurai sword fights, kung fu, stunt work, and gun action.
Yen played an ex-cop who is framed for a murder together with Rosamund Kwan Chi-lam’s lawyer character. As the duo try to clear their names, the set-up morphs into a frantic search for some laundered money. Rick Baker said that the final sword duel is masterfully planned, leading to a fantastic encounter in which Yen, with his hands bound together, faces up against a massive adversary (Michael Woods).
3. Crystal Hunt (1991)
This action movie from Yuen Woo-ping from the early 1990s begins as a crime movie before changing into a Thai adventure movie in the vein of Magnificent Warriors. The movie is one where Yen shares the limelight and fights well enough. While co-stars Sibelle Hu Hui-chung and Carrie Ng Ka-lai portrayed their roles convincingly, the strong cast was undermined by a weak script and slack direction.
In an Indiana Jones-style scenario, Yen is tangled up in the search for a kidnapped professor while at the mercy of a gang which wants him to find a magic crystal.
4. The Holy Virgin vs the Evil Dead (1991)
In the early 1990s, mainstream performers were glad to perform in adults-only Category III films as it was lucrative for them. Yen decided to try this genre in this purported shocker. However, despite some gratuitous female nudity, it is neither erotic nor gory; rather, it is reminiscent of the horror films of the 1980s that centred on Southeast Asia as a region with enigmatic, primitive death cults.
The actor plays a professor who is accused of murder as his students were killed by a ghostly spirit at a party. He teams up with the cops to investigate the case and goes to Laos to find the cult behind the deaths and stop them with supernatural rituals. Some pitched battles in the jungle happen as a Southeast Asian drug warlord makes his way into the story.
5. Cheetah on Fire (1992)
The cheap budget of this poorly thought-out movie is evident in every aspect, particularly the simple set design. The movie is directed by Thomas Yip Shing-hong who is not really known.
Yen is joined by big stars such as Eddy Ko Hung – portraying a crime boss who has a computer chip that makes the owners win wars, and gangsters at the Golden Triangle want it.
Yen is a US agent who teams up with the CIA and Hong Kong police to recover the chip. Carrie Ng stars as a Hong Kong cop while Sharla Cheung Man is a CIA officer.
The movie moves to Thailand to become a full-scale war film that draws on John Woo’s Bullet in the Head although it starts off as a typical crime thriller. Gordon Liu Chia-hui, a famous martial artist, gets rid of his bald monk persona for curly hair and plays a gang boss who confronts Yen in Thailand. The Muay Thai kicking battle ends abruptly and it was not meant to be.
