Films of Fury: The Kung Fu Movie Book (41 page)

Donnie continued to work with Yuen in
Hero
Among Heroes
(1993) and
Wing Chun
(1994), but he also continued studying film, and looking for opportunities to produce and direct his own projects. That desire led to some critical drubbings. “
Iron Monkey
II
was a big mistake,” he admitted, “but I needed the money. Unfortunately I did a number of pictures I’m not proud of simply because I needed the paycheck. In Hong Kong, I had a reputation for turning down films, but when I needed the paycheck, I had to sell my soul. But I still think that I have done less poor films than many others, so that makes me feel a little better.”

His fans also felt much better when he turned to good television rather than bad films like
Circus Kids
(1994),
Satan Returns
(1996),
High Voltage
(1997), and
Black Rose 2
(1997). “I didn’t want to do TV because I didn’t expect to have the kind of freedom in terms of choreography and production support that I had in films. But when they told me I would be working with my good friend Benny Chan
, the director of
The Big Bullet
, I agreed to talk about it. So I did
The Kungfu Master
and the ratings went straight up. So they asked me to do another series. And I said, if I’m going to do another one I’m going to have more control. Let’s do a Bruce Lee
series, because he’s my idol.

“Everybody was affected by Bruce Lee
. At first I just watched his films, but stayed away from his style in real life. Then, as my martial art skill matured, I came back to his philosophy. So I worked on the
Fist of Fury
TV series for seven months, even though I was only being paid for three months’ work. I wanted to revolutionize TV action fighting editing. I had total control on the action editing, and was very proud of it, because the
Fist of Fury
series had the highest rating ever, and made the most money of any series ever telecast on the ATV channel.”

Donnie wanted to keep that feeling of freedom going, so he directed and choreographed his next three personal projects:
Legend of the Wolf
(1997),
Ballistic Kiss
(1998) and
Shanghai Affairs
(1998). “I’m very proud of
Legend of the Wolf
and
Ballistic Kiss
, because both were made for less than $HK4,000,000, and, pound for pound, they look far more expensive in terms of production value.
Once Upon a Time in China II
cost $40,000,000! There were a lot of problems getting them made and distributed, so I was quite proud to get them out. I only made
Shanghai Affairs
because I needed the money for
Ballistic Kiss
!”

By then it seemed that Donnie had done everything he wanted in Hong Kong, so he broadened his horizons … with a little help from his friends. “Michelle Yeoh
is a great friend and, indeed, the best female martial artist actress in the world. She’s a workaholic — very tough and daring. A complete woman — sincere and down to earth. She told everybody in Hollywood about me.” And they responded by giving Donnie parts in
Highlander
: Endgame
(2000),
Blade
II
(2002), and
Shanghai Knights
(2003) with Jackie Chan
. But Yen quickly discovered that if working in Hong Kong was a rocky field, working in Hollywood was a fur-lined prison. The freedom to experiment and create was just not tinseltown’s way.

Thankfully by then, Zhang Yimou
had come calling, and Donnie was to add his small, but integral piece to
Hero
. “Obviously it was pretty clear that they wanted the most anticipated action scene between Jet and I since
Once Upon a Time in China II
,” he told me. “So we had a lot of discussion on how best to do that scene. We actually spent twenty-two days shooting that. Normally, especially in Asian films, the time and budget is always constrained. But when we were there, the producer would come in and say ‘Take your time. We don’t want the best scene … we want the best of the best scene!’

“So, with every shot, both Jet and myself would really work at doing the absolute best possible and decide the right way to do it. Because we knew we not only have to top ourselves in
Once Upon a Time in China II
, but we also, half-jokingly, half-seriously, wanted to top the Michelle Yeoh
/Zhang Ziyi
fight scene in
Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon
. So a lot of times Jet and I would joke around, saying, hey, no offense to the women, but we can’t lose it to Michelle and Zhang! So we really took our time to really nail every shot.”

It paid off, but, ironically, it required the filmmakers to lessen Donnie’s contribution to a previous scene, so as not to lessen the power of his sequence with Jet. “They cut down the sequence between me and the seven Qin warriors,” Donnie recalled. “At first, after I defeated all of them, I went to the blind musician, gave him some money and asked him to play another song. Only after that did I start to walk out, and then stop when I hear Jet calling me. But when I saw the film, I knew something was missing.”

Hero
’s international success gave Donnie’s career even more credibility, which he had already taken advantage of by choreographing both a Japanese film (2001’s
The Princess Blade
) and a German TV show (2000’s
Code Name: The Puma
). As much as he enjoyed the experiences in Europe and America, there was no place like home, so Donnie returned to South China with renewed vigor and intent. His work began to pay off with
The Twins Effect
(2003) — a film originally designed just to exploit the fame of a popular singing duo (Charlene Choi
and Gillian Chung
).

“I really put in a lot of effort to train and mold the girls there — trying to really bring up the level of Hong Kong-style action films. Now, I’ve shot a lot of action involving women before, but
Twins Effect
was something else. They’d never shot any action films before, not to mention they’re very new at this. It was a big challenge, because I really wanted them to look convincing. You know, a lot of Hong Kong films are known to be able to shoot anybody doing a kung fu scene and make them look half-decent, but I didn’t want to do that. I really wanted them to shine and make them unique. I really wanted to bring out the best in them and challenge myself.”

The same was true with co-star Ekin Cheng
. “He’s done a lot of action movies, but I didn’t want him to look like he was just doing another one, I wanted him to look new and refreshed and different. Then, there was the pressure of action-directing Jackie Chan
’s cameo sequence. You know, either he’s choreographed himself or by Sammo Hung
, so there’s a certain expectation and standard there. So I wanted to shoot Jackie so I could retain his style while blending it into my own vision. Well, shooting Jackie and Ekin and the Twins was a great challenge, which I’m very pleased with. The Twins are known as little, petite, fragile girls. But they really kick butt.”

The newly anointed action stars took Donnie’s lessons to heart in their subsequent film,
House of Fury
(2005), co-starring and directed by Jackie Chan
protégé Stephen Fung
, and choreographed by Yuen Wo-ping
. Donnie, meanwhile, made a career-defining alliance with director Wilson Yip
Wai-shun. Yip, who had been known for his eclectic career of horror, erotic, and comedy, collaborated with Donnie on a crime thriller that bore an odd and awkward name:
Sha Po Lang
(aka
Kill Zone
, 2005) — words that represent three stars in Chinese astrology: the “Seven Killings” power star, the “Army Breaker” ruinous star, and the “Greedy Wolf” flirting star.

Originally the film, aka
SPL
, was going to be a straight thriller, but once Sammo Hung
was cast as a family-loving mob boss, Wu Jing
as a mainland Chinese hitman, and Donnie was also on board as choreographer, superlative kung fu was added in the form of three remarkable fight scenes. The first occurs a full half-hour into the film and seems to spark off like a small physical explosion when Sammo and Donnie suddenly go at it. Having been intrigued by the possibilities of mixed martial arts being integrated into modern movies, Donnie took the opportunity to incorporate superlative ground fighting into his arsenal.

Great ground fighting returned in the climatic rematch between Donnie and Sammo, but possibly the film’s best fight occurs just prior to that, as Donnie takes on the knife-wielding hitman with only a short police baton (but, tellingly, a short baton that was still longer than a knife — in most evenly matched kung fu fights, the longer weapon wins). Donnie and Wu Jing
, having both been classically trained, were beautifully matched, and meticulously slaved to create the best fight of its kind. In a season of tepid, unimaginative films,
SPL
stood out like the flash on a blade. Although Donnie took some time to co-star in Tsui Hark
’s disappointing
Seven Swords
(2005), he quickly reunited with Wilson Yip
for a string of increasingly successful efforts.

First out of the gate was, fittingly,
Dragon
Tiger Gate
(2006), an attempt to have Chinese manhua (comic books) take their place alongside the likes of
Batman
Begins
(2005) and
Spider-Man
(2002). The
Dragon Tiger Gate
comic is as successful in China as
Superman
was in the U.S., and Donnie did a great job training Nicholas Tse as Tiger Wong — ostensibly the star of the story — but Yen’s powerful presence shifted the film’s focus onto his character, Dragon Wong, which threw off the story’s balance. And, despite some exceptional on-screen action, Dragon’s unparalleled kung fu superiority over everything and everyone on screen also served to diminish the effectiveness of the villain.

No matter. Wilson and Donnie next tackled
Flash Point
(2007), which looked and played like a prequel to
Sha Po Lang
, although the filmmakers deny any connection. Even so, it once again featured Donnie as a superlative kung fu cop, this time taking on three vicious criminals led by Collin Chou
. Chou, a Taiwan-born actor, made a sizeable impression as the villain in Jet Li
’s
Bodyguard
from Beijing
(aka
The Defender
) under the name Ngai Sing
, then wound up playing the part offered to Jet in
The Matrix
sequels, as well as portraying Jet’s father in
Fearless
. As such, he was well-matched with Donnie, and their face-off in the film’s final third is worth the price of admission to the otherwise familiar thriller. Taking the opportunity to further explore ground fighting’s place in kung fu action, Donnie designed a literally knock-down, drag-out, Hong Kong Film Award-winning fight that left audiences exhausted and exhilarated.

But the best was still to come. Gratified by the hard-won respect the burgeoning Chinese film industry was showing him, Donnie took some time to co-star in Ching Siu-tung
’s familiar war epic
An Empress and the Warriors
(2008) and Gordon Chan
’s uninspired historical horror fantasy
Painted Skin
(2008) before returning to the Wilson Yip
fold for, quite possibly, the most important film of his transformed career.

Many of the people who Bruce Lee
most influenced and inspired were saddened that the icon never got the opportunity to fully mature. Many true kung fu sifus recognize the classic pattern: youthful aggression (wanting to win everything), adult denial (straining your body in an attempt to ignore age), middle-aged acceptance (inward exploration to fully develop your chi), and mature wisdom (using your ever-developing balance to attain ultimate ability). Given that Bruce died at the height of his aggression, his followers continue to pay homage to that version of him … including Donnie. But then art-filmmaker extraordinaire Wong Kar-wei
announced that he intended to make a movie about Bruce Lee
’s wing chun
teacher, Yip Man
.