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Donnie Yen


Guest vlade2002

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I remember on one of the audio comms he did I think it was for the edited down Tai Seng release of the Fist of Fury TV series where he basically said his co-star Eddie Ko wasn't a martial artist and couldn't fight worth a shit, now I will stack Eddie's filmography up against Donnie Yens any day of the week and Eddie wins hands down, it is this kind of disrespect for his fellow actors which makes it very hard for me to like Donnie.

Hmm, I've listened to that commentary, but it was about 2 years ago. I remember Donnie and another person doing the commentary were saying even though Eddie Ko wasn't a martial artist he pulled off the character of Fok Yuen Gap really well. I do remember him talking about someone who couldn't fight for shit though, which was the guy who played Ying Ming's brother (Sin Ho Ying) in that show. Has my memory gone haywire?

But in any case, in terms of measuring arrogance I think it really depends on what you've faced. I've come across plenty of people way more arrogant that listening to Donnie isn't really arrogant to me at all :cool:

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i love donnie and listening to his interviews and comments, it does seem like he really like to talk about filming and movies etc. and he sounds really confidence in his abilities to me, which can be arrogance to some people.

i think in donnie's case, it's more confidence and i don't mind listening to him at all. it may definitely have something to do with being born and raise in the us.

that is what make donnie different and while it can be tune down just a bit i don't have a problem with it.

as for his comment about the fight in ouatic 2, i didn't thought he was being arrogant about it. i remembered hearing that and going "ahh".

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TheGrimReaper

I think that "respect" should be a right word which addresses any martial artist - anyone can say "I'm better that someone else" or "his action choreography is old fashioned" however every action choreographer, artist, director, stuntman deserves a credit for his job and Respect from anyone involved in this businnes.

In one interview (I think on "Top Fighter" documentary or "Cinema of vengeance") Donnie have said that he got influenced by Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan and some other people to get his own type of martial arts choreography.

I can not say whether he is arrogant or too self confident in his own abilities, the movie characters he plays not always connects with the personality.

It is not good to underestimate the efforts of so many peope before you which have contributed in martial arts industry. If we are to compare or analyze what sort of person is he we have to know the real Donnie Yen and not just judge by some slipped words on interviews or his screen efforts.

But I still think that the key word for maintaining the balance between those involved in the martial arts industry is "respect".

I'm not trying to offend anyone with this post and I'm not standing up for Donnie either - let's assume that I'm neutral in this situation since I like both Donnie and Jet Li and I admire their achievements.

Just pointing out some personal view on this topic :) Afterall a forum is to share opinions isn't it ?

Greetings from sunny Bulgaria

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SlothStyleKungFu

I think he definitely has big ego. He deserves to think highly of his accomplishments, and if being a proactive guy means he inflates them a little, oh well. Better to be overly alpha male ambitious than not at all.

Look, name the HK martial stars who kicked off in the mid-80's and survived the crash of the fight film roughly ten years later? While I think his star power and director/choreography skills were not the greatest, I think, unquestionably, in the past five years or so, he is one of the few who can claim to be one of last men standing.

I say all this as a previous semi-Donnie-hater. I think, while most martial stars have paled, he's actually gotten a bit better as an actor and his recent films show some real forward-thinking and innovation in martial choreography (yeah, Walker Texas Ranger was using MMA/submission moves ten years ago, but Donnie will be able to take some cred for incorporating it into HK films). You can say all you want about him being an asshole or overrated, but you cannot say he's not a survivor.

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The Running Man

I was on youtube and came across clips of Highlander Endgame. I haven't seen the movie in a long time so when I was checking it out again something hit me.

Here's a link to the clip:

(btw how do you embed videos here?)

What hit me was that I was impressed with Adrian Paul. As we all know, Donnie Yen can be quite fast. If you look at the two sections of their fight, Adrian Paul is keeping up with Donnie. It's a shame though that the scenes are so short but just for a brief time, Adrian Paul shows he's got something.

I did a little research on Adrian Paul and I found out that he's studied many forms of martial arts including Hung Gar, Tae-Kwon-Do and Wing Chun. So that explains a lot.

I think it's a shame that he hasn't made any more films with Hong Kong action film makers. Endgame was a rare occasion especially since Donnie Yen was only in charge of the scenes his character was involved in. Highlander has always had atrocious action (as well as atrocious films) and since Adrian Paul has been involved in mostly just the Highlander series in terms of action, I think it's a waste of his skill.

It's a long shot, but I am hoping that one day Adrian Paul somehow gets to work again with someone from Hong Kong, maybe even Donnie Yen once more, to get to be in scenes that show more of what he's about. And ones that are longer too! Those scenes in Highlander are so short.

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The 2-disc DVD edition has two longer cuts; the "producer's cut" (101 min) and the "rough cut" (100 min). The former has a bit during Donnie's first fight where he defends himself against a shotgun, and the latter has the shotgun bit as well as more and alternative takes during the Adrian Paul fight.

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Either way, the Paul-Yen fight was the only good thing about the movie as a whole IMO.

Plus, Donnie had the best line and one of my favorite quotes to use:

"Honor is not in the weapon...it is in the man."

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Either way, the Paul-Yen fight was the only good thing about the movie as a whole IMO.

Plus, Donnie had the best line and one of my favorite quotes to use:

"Honor is not in the weapon...it is in the man."

Yeah that sequence is entirely too short and it really is the best fight sequence in the movie.

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Mark of the Dragon

Never saw Endgame; the other Highlander movies kinda annoyed me to no end. Having said that, this scene was pretty sweet. Not Donnie's best work, but still had its moments. Donnie's signature kick made itself known :D

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The only films I can watch are the original (easily the best, by a long shot) and Endgame, and the latter really only because it was more of a follow up to the series, which was great (the series, that is). The Source was HORRIBLE though... oy...

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Guys,

Here is a video I filmed with Donnie Yen at Shaolin Temple. I hope you like

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Don

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Well done, mate. It must been an awesome experience to train in Shaolin. Donnie Yen seems like a pretty cool guy in person.

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Hey there people,

Please do not jump onto the Donnie Yen Hate Bandwagon just yet.

Donnie Yen did not disrespect Wing Chun at all! It was the interview/news reporter who put/edited words into his mouth!

A new updated news gave us a good enough explaination:

Its in chinese: http://news.xinhuanet.com/ent/2010-05/15/content_13487758.htm

The summary of the article basically mentioned that Donnie Yen's exact words was that the character of "Ip Man" was really well-defined, someone who cares about family, loves his wife, with good character, knows Kungfu... Females will admire him while Males will be envy of him. It does not really matter which martial art Ip Man perform because there is such good script and story production.

He did not even mention himself in that quote or claim any credit. How can he be arrogant and disrepect wing chun?

0.0

As for Donnie Yen's comparison to Jet Li in terms of Skill. Well, Jet Li is a national champion in Wushu, essentially a performing art. Donnie yet knows wushu, but is also a black belt in Taekwondo, trains extensively in American boxing, kickboxing and even Muay Thai. Learning grappling skills such as wrestling, and even brazillian Jiu-Jitsu(the most effective martial arts today), he also studies and watches MMA(UFC and pride) extensively...

I have no idea how can they 2 compare in terms of real skills. =)

Anyway if you guys are interested, there are numberous video out there for Donnie Yen talking about Jet Li, he did not even sound disrespectful at all, i can link you guys. =)

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Hey there people, as i mentioned in another topic...

Please do not jump onto the Donnie Yen Hate Bandwagon just yet.

Donnie Yen did not disrespect Wing Chun at all! It was the interview/news reporter who put/edited words into his mouth!

A new updated news gave us a good enough explaination:

Its in chinese: http://news.xinhuanet.com/ent/2010-05/15/content_13487758.htm

The summary of the article basically mentioned that Donnie Yen's exact words was that the character of "Ip Man" was really well-defined, someone who cares about family, loves his wife, with good character, knows Kungfu... Females will admire him while Males will be envy of him. It does not really matter which martial art Ip Man perform because there is such good script and story production.

He did not even mention himself in that quote or claim any credit. How can he be arrogant and disrepect wing chun?

0.0

Life's like that, once you become famous.. people start to want to create news for bad publicity, it happens to almost every famous star out there.

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Found this funny and had to comment. You pulled a dead thread from over years ago and said don't jump onto the Donnie Yen Hate Bandwagon just yet. That made me laugh. If this was a current topic from say yesterday, alright.

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thehangman

didnt he say something about sammo after Spl that he wasnt that powerful or something,which i thought was abit out of order and made him sound cocky

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dionbrother

I interviewed him in 1996, and he was nice, but extremely arrogant when it came to his work. Despite the fact he had made three admittedly bad movies in a row at the time.

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didnt he say something about sammo after Spl that he wasnt that powerful or something,which i thought was abit out of order and made him sound cocky

No. But he did say something about Sammo's size that prevented Yen from avoiding wirework, even when minimal. There was also a mention of limiting the creativity of choreographing their fight due to Sammo's injuries at the time but that's another story.

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Improvisation

...his shoulder injury prevents him from doing so. According to the interview on SPL DVD, the recurring injury is what prevents him from competing. He watches every event that he can and is in total love with MMA.

http://www.sherdog.net/forums/f44/donnie-yen-loves-ufc-655327/

It's still fun to think about, though. Do you think Donnie Yen would kick ass in the UFC? Would he whip people around as easily as he does on the screen? I personally think that while he is physically smaller than many of the MMA fighters, his speed, aggressiveness, and knowledge of seven different million martial arts would give him some sort of upper hand.

ip_man_donnie_yen.jpg

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Donnie has been training MA in almost his whole life and been through some tough situations (source: http://www.donnieyen.us/dymb/index.php?topic=1405.0), even during his film career. With the skills and knowledge he's gained over these past 40 years, it's very plausible that he could've done well in UFC had he pursued a career in competition fighting instead of making movies.

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masterofoneinchpunch

If he trained more in MMA and had a better wrestling background (or more years with a jujitsu base) that yeah he would do probably well. The big issue is that he would have to do that annoying thing of weight cutting so he doesn't get bullied by strength if he fights his normal weight.

What is Donnie Yen's normal weight and what could he cut to?

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masterofoneinchpunch
He's 5'8 and 154 lbs (http://www.bio27.com/tag/donnie-yen-weight),

though I'm not sure which class that would put him in. To compare, Anderson Silva is 6'2 and 184 lbs and he's a middleweight.

Thanks for the figure.

But Silva doesn't walk around that weight he tends to normally be much higher like between 205 and 215. Which means that if Donnie was to fight he wouldn't fight at lightweight he would cut to featherweight 136 to 145 lb (62 to 66 kg).

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They would not let Donnie in the UFC with no prior MMA experience. They made an exception for James Toney, however.

I love Donnie as a filmmaker and glad to hear he is a fan of MMA. He would get murdered however. Not only is he old, he has never done a competition like that, and the UFC guys are elite level fighters. Also, as far as I know, he has no wrestling experience, and wrestling determines where the fight takes place. You can be the best striker in the world, but it will be useless if you are on your back with a guy on top of you.

He may do well in an MMA fight against someone that is also a beginner and around the same age as him though.

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