Won Jin

[Guest Chinatown Kid]

Thanks for the link to that clip portly, the action looks great. From what I understand, this film and Vindictive Venom were both made for tv Korean movies. I'll have to track them down....

[AlbertV]

 

 

When Lau Kar-Leung's Operation Scorpio was released in 1992, the film performed modestly at the box office. While it had the likes of the legendary Lau himself and Chin Kar-Lok, the film's breakout star was a Korean martial arts ace named Kim Won Jin, created as Yuen Jan in Cantonese. 

 

Like many superkickers, Kim is skilled in Taekwondo but also trained in wushu, which would explain his graceful motions when doing acrobatics. He started out in Korean martial arts films then was cast in the role of Sunny Wang in Operation Scorpio (released in some territories as Scorpion King, not to be confused with the Mummy-spinoff). He would appear in a few more Hong Kong films, including a small but exciting role as the superkicking waiter Lee in China Strike Force before returning to Korea, where he was action director for the My Wife is a Gangster trilogy and other films while making the occasional fight role in front of the screens (2013's The Suspect)

 

Go to 1:15 on this clip to see Kim in action in The Suspect against lead actor Yoo Gong. The film had somewhat of a Bourne-esque style of action but you an clearly see it's our boy Kim!

 

 

 

 

 

[One Armed Boxer]

I realized the interview I did with Won Jin from back in 2015 was lost during the infamous Kung Fu Fandom blackout, so re-posting it here for anyone that missed it at the time - 

http://cityonfire.com/exclusive-interview-with-won-jin-the-scorpion-king-operation-scorpio-korean-martial-artist-kicker-interview/

[sym8]

Great interview thanks for reposting.For me kicking was why I started watching Kung fu movies.I was just amazed by it all and when you have someone like this doing it it just blows me away I did tae kwon do for 18 years but I could only dream when it came to doing the stuff that he and Hwang jang lee at co do👍👍👍

[One Armed Boxer]

24 minutes ago, sym8 said:

Great interview thanks for reposting.

Glad you enjoyed it!  Even at 53, he's still got it, here's a clip from his latest movie 'Kwon Bob: Chinatown' (also from '15 and what we discuss in the interview) - 

 

[J.J. Hayden]

Hello all, this is my first post.

 

I've been away from Martial Arts and MAmovies for years and getting back into it. I'm a big fan of Won Jin "The Scorpion King" and have tried to get as much of his movies as possible, I have most of the movies I know of, but have seen clips from possibly three movies I wonder if anyone has any information on: 2 Cops & A Boy ; Taekwondo Boys From The Island ; Vindictive Venom Part 2.

If anyone has any info on these or other Won Jin movies please let me know.

Cheers

[J.J. Hayden]

I know this is a few YEARS out of date and the linked video is unavailible. But it seems that the vid was of a korean MA film from 1991 (just before going to HK to film The Scorpion King for David Lai) it's real english name is Korean Boy, but has been known as Kickboxing Kid or the DVD I have called Thunder Ninja Kids : Little Kickboxer. He is only in one short fight, but you can also see Kwon Seong-yeong who was his first real opponent in The Scorpion King.

Edited December 1, 2022 by J.J. Hayden

[Omni Dragon]

Welcome @Dredderick_Tatum.

[One Armed Boxer]

On ‎5‎/‎24‎/‎2020 at 9:27 PM, Dredderick_Tatum said:

I've been away from Martial Arts and MAmovies for years and getting back into it. I'm a big fan of Won Jin "The Scorpion King" and have tried to get as much of his movies as possible, I have most of the movies I know of, but have seen clips from possibly three movies I wonder if anyone has any information on: 2 Cops & A Boy ; Taekwondo Boys From The Island ; Vindictive Venom Part 2.

If anyone has any info on these or other Won Jin movies please let me know.

You can find Won Jin's full filmography over at the Korean Movie Database, nowadays he tends to work behind the scenes in his native Korea -

https://www.kmdb.or.kr/eng/db/per/00000428/filmo#divFilmo

[J.J. Hayden]

On 5/26/2020 at 6:51 AM, One Armed Boxer said:

You can find Won Jin's full filmography over at the Korean Movie Database, nowadays he tends to work behind the scenes in his native Korea -

https://www.kmdb.or.kr/eng/db/per/00000428/filmo#divFilmo

Cheers but I already know about KMDB and altough it has been very useful, it's not completely acurate.

 

BTW to anyone interested, the footage I saw labled Taekwondo Boys From The Island, is actually from the begining of the movie A Boy & 2 Cops - Kids Sold To The Island.

Edited March 30, 2021 by Dredderick_Tatum

[J.J. Hayden]

I wonder if any Won Jin fans can help me out. I've hit a bit of a dead end where it comes to To Catch A Thief. In the commentary for The Scorpion King, Bey Logan says you can see Won Jin fight Moon Lee. I have a copy of it and his chinese name is in the end credits but never saw him fight. 

I'm sure that a while ago I saw a clip of the fight, but now can't find any trace of it. From what I remember Moon Lee was in the outfit she has at the end of the movie, I think it was outside with some greenery about and maybe a van or truck, and Won Jin had short hair, wearing white and had one pair of nunchaku.

If anyone has info on this I would be very greatful.

Cheers

[rdenn]

Won Jin in a deleted fight scene from To Catch  Thief 1991 fighting Moon Lee

 

[J.J. Hayden]

16 hours ago, rdenn said:

Won Jin in a deleted fight scene from To Catch  Thief 1991 fighting Moon Lee

 

Cheers for posting this scene, I've been searching for ages to find it. Where'd you find it? I've seen several versions of the fil but never found it. If you have any more rare Won Jin stuff, please let me know. There's at least one other Won Jin film I've seen a clip from but don't own, there was a clip on YT calling it Vindictive Venom 2, the clip is no longer there.

[rdenn]

20 hours ago, Dredderick_Tatum said:

Cheers for posting this scene, I've been searching for ages to find it. Where'd you find it?

was sent to me from a freind it was of a korean showcase on won jin this must be from the korean version of the movie

Edited September 1, 2020 by rdenn

[J.J. Hayden]

28 minutes ago, rdenn said:

was sent to me from a freind it was of a korean showcase on won jin this must be from the korean version of the movie

Awesome, would it be possible for you to post the showcase please? You can probably tell from my profile pic, I'm a big fan. I wonder why it was cut from the versions I've seen, it's not as if the movie is very long. Cheers for sharing.

[rdenn]

4 hours ago, Dredderick_Tatum said:

Awesome, would it be possible for you to post the showcase please

http://blog.daum.net/kamunion/14894757?fbclid=IwAR0IAfu5yLxoloBEzXBIXEuNoKag58pI3VrelWbyFahVy5g4164__vxqtPE

[J.J. Hayden]

20 hours ago, rdenn said:

http://blog.daum.net/kamunion/14894757?fbclid=IwAR0IAfu5yLxoloBEzXBIXEuNoKag58pI3VrelWbyFahVy5g4164__vxqtPE

Cheers. I found that page myself too eventually, but thanks anyway.

I also managed to find the whole film on a Korean blog, unfortunately I can only view it, I can't download it.

Won Jin actually has another decent fight scene that they cut out for whatever dumb reason. If only he could've had a fight with Cho Wing, that would've been awesome.

[rdenn]

20 hours ago, Dredderick_Tatum said:

I also managed to find the whole film on a Korean blog, unfortunately I can only view it, I can't download it.

do you have the korean title for that version ?

[J.J. Hayden]

17 hours ago, rdenn said:

do you have the korean title for that version ?

No probs, I got it from the showcase you shared. It's 비약강호.

[rdenn]

On 9/4/2020 at 12:35 AM, Dredderick_Tatum said:

No probs, I got it from the showcase you shared. It's 비약강호.

thanks

[rdenn]

another deleted fight with won jin

 

[J.J. Hayden]

2 hours ago, rdenn said:

another deleted fight with won jin

 

So you did manage to get it in the end. Congrats. My Won Jin collection is almost complete.

[J.J. Hayden]

Won Jin 원진 元振 Bio

 

Early Life

 

Born Kim Won-jin in Seoul, South Korea on 08 December1962. His father and older brother both studied TKD. In fact, his father would break rocks with his fists and had appeared on TV. His father found Won Jin's demeanour girly and thought he had a small and weak body. Fearing his son would be bullied he sent him to TKD classes at about age 7.

 

Won Jin became a huge fan of Bruce Lee and found him to be his biggest inspiration in Martial Arts and action cinema, also creating his obsession with nunchaku. He was also a fan of Jackie Chan, especially the fight with the three spear-men from 1978's Snake & Crane Arts Of Shaolin, he'd go on to love the collaboration films of Chan, Hung and Biao particularly Project A and Wheels On Meals. Won Jin was also a fan of fellow Korean martial artists Hwang Jeong-ri and Hwang In-shik that had went on to success in Hong Kong movies.

 

He would often train alone for ages to perfect his techniques. He created his own moves to overcome his size and to challenge himself, it was also a way for him to take his mind off his boring home life. He trained hard and apparently won awards for being part of a demo team in 1972.

 

 

 

Beginning Of Film career

 

In the late 70's he was training at the YMCA Mechanical Gymnastics Club alongside Jeong Jin-hwa (aka Elton Chong). At around this time he would start work as a stuntman and would be a founding member of the Ottugi Martial Arts Group. Apparently his father passed away around this time and it pushed him harder towards succeeding in the film industry.

 

KMDB lists his debut as Inchon in 1979 (released in 1981), however, he recalls his first film being The 18 Amazones in 1979 where he was doubling for women with breast padding in his shirt. One of the films stars, Jang Il-do (aka Bruce Lai) would become his manager in the early stages of his career.

 

Won Jin would get the chance to have a short fight scene with one of his heroes Hwang Jeong-ri in Hitman In The Hand Of Buddha in 1980. He would work with Hwang again while playing some side characters in the films of director Richard Park Woo-sang during the early 80's. Throughout the 80's he appeared in minor roles in various action/comedies and can even be seen as part of a live martial arts/comedy performance recorded in 1987, but never really got a good chance to show his skills until he got his first starring role in Brave Trio.

 

In 1988's Brave Trio, Won Jin plays Yong, the eldest of three martial arts students from the country, who travel to the city and wind up fighting some gangsters. The film is an action/comedy aimed at kids but features some very entertaining fight sequences. Although not to the same standards as many Hong Kong action films, there is plenty of great action from Won Jin and other cast members. Won Jin steals the show with his amazing kicking and acrobatic style which was cutting edge for it's time and has many current day imitators such as Tony Jaa and Scott Adkins.

 

In the years following Brave Trio, he worked on a few other kids action/comedies as an action director and a few appearances in smaller roles. It was during this time he became aware of a casting call by Hong Kong director David Lai, who was looking for a tall handsome Korean martial artist who specialised in side kicks, for an old-school kung fu movie. Won Jin said he didn't consider himself to fit the description but sent in his demo tape anyway. Lai was so impressed that he went to Korea to interview Won Jin in person and cast him in his most famous role to date, Sonny Wong “The Scorpion King”.

 

 

 

The Hong Kong years

 

Won Jin moved to Hong Kong in 1991 to star as the title character in David Lai's “The Scorpion King” (aka Operation Scorpio). Lai changed the character specifically to suit Won Jin and worked with him to come up with a scorpion kung fu style. Lai had seen plenty of other animal styles but

not much scorpion and knew that with Won Jin's style they could create something special.

 

Chin Kar-lok (who plays the films protagonist) was shown Won Jin's demo tapes and said they looked “vicious”, he'd not seen anything quite like them. He said Won Jin's style was so alien and he spent so much time in the air, he was dubbed “Flying saucer from Korea”. Chin enjoyed working with Won Jin, their timing gelled well and he became good friends with him. He said Won Jin wasn't arrogant and would often help others on the set too. Won Jin spent some time off set with Chin but was often taken out for fancy meals and drinks by Lai and the man who played Mr. Wong (Victor Hon Kwan). On the set of The Scorpion King he got to meet some of his heroes such as Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao. Won Jin was also given the Chinese name of Yuen Jan, which caused some to believe he was the brother of Biao, probably due to their acrobatic styles.

 

Won Jin gave the production his all and did almost all of his own stunts, the notable exception is the moment when his character gets kicked out of a window, the stuntman (Derek Cheung Chi-chuen) was seriously injured. Although he's not credited as an action director on the film Won Jin worked on the action with Liu Chia-liang, Corey Yuen Kwai and Yuen Tak and they would often use his demo tapes for reference.

 

Even though Won Jin has stated his respect for Liu Chia-liang, apparently things didn't always go smoothly between the two. Liu was said to not be too keen on Won Jin's style asking why he's jumping around so much. But things can't have been too bad as Won Jin has said Liu asked him to come work on Teenage Ninja Mutant Turtles 3, but he couldn't get the required USA visa.

 

While working on The Scorpion King, he had brief appearances in the Saviour Of The Soul II for David Lai and To Catch A Thief, where his scenes are missing from most prints for some reason. When The Scorpion King was finished in early 1992 the Hong Kong release was actually delayed until November and had several alternate titles including: Scorpion Warriors and Pallet.

 

Won Jin only featured in two more Hong Kong films during his stay, in 1993 he was in Women On The Run (which has some decent action) and Hero From Beyond The Boundary Of Time, neither of which were a great use of his talents, especially with what might have been. Won Jin was actually contacted by none other than Jackie Chan, who saw him in The Scorpion King and wanted him for Police Story 3 : Supercop. But unfortunately, Won Jin was filming Women On The Run for David Lai, so out of loyalty had to turn it down. He was also asked to be in a Jet Li/Corey Yuen Kwai movie, but again had to say no due to other commitments.

 

Around his time Won Jin was beginning to suffer both physically and emotionally. He didn't have too many friends in Hong Kong and spent a lot of time training alone, he began to feel a bit lonely and homesick. Worse still was that the diet he had in Hong Kong was taking a toll on his physical well being, to the point he had to be hospitalised with liver issues. Eventually he decided to return to Korea. Following his departure, there were rumours that he had suffered from more severe illness' or even died, but he has stated that he simply returned for his heath but mainly for family reasons.

 

 

 

Back In Korea

 

Upon returning to Korea, Won Jin found that the Martial arts movie scene there had all but dried up, it was difficult to even find one film per year, but he did manage to find work behind the camera as an action director, which he has made a great career out of since, becoming one of Korea's top action directors.

 

He has made the occasional appearance in front of the camera, most notably was in the 1997 movie The Expert (aka Gosu) which featured several other Korean martial arts actors such as Lee In-seob and Kim Chun-shik (who was also the director). Won Jin steals the show with his trademark kicking and acrobatic style, although uncredited as an action director you can recognise his input.

 

In 2000 a mutual friend of Won Jin and Stanley Tong Gwai-lai recommended he be cast in Tong's new action movie, China Strike Force. Won Jin was excited to be working with Ken Lo Wai-kwong, but he (and a lot of fans) weren't too happy with the movie, especially how little he gets to do and how his character meets his end. While in Hong Kong he apparently worked on the action for Gen-Y Cops and Born Wild (although he's not credited) which featured Korean stuntmen and he was also seen on the set of The Accidental Spy.

 

In 2001 Won Jin would complete work on his most famous project (outside of The Scorpion King), the first My Wife Is A Gangster movie. It was a fairly big budget Korean action comedy with plenty of stylised martial art action provided by Won Jin. Not only did he direct the action, he featured in most of it, doubling extensively for the film's star (Shin Eun-gyung), which he would also do in the rest of the series. It features a lot of his signature moves and is almost like watching him in one of his staring roles. The film was a success and cemented Won Jin's position as the action director of choice for stylised martial arts action in Korea.

 

From this point on, Won Jin stuck to working behind the camera, as an action director on many big Korean movies and TV series', he has made a good career that way. But on occasion he has come on screen to show off some of his skills as favours to friends.

 

In 2002 Won Jin was asked by Chin Kar-lok to appear in his action/comedy movie No Problem 2, Chin had stayed in touch since working together on The Scorpion King. Won Jin was happy working on the film for a week, they had fun parodying Jackie Chan's Police Story and even his own “Scorpion Stance”. But the highlight of the film was a good fight with his hero, Yuen Biao. Biao was a fan of Won Jin's work and they got on well together.

 

In 2006 Won Jin was hired as the action director for Almost Love, but the director (Lee Han) was a fan so wrote a small scene for him to showcase some skills. Then a similar situation occurred with 2013's The Suspect. The film's director (Won Shin-yoon) was a fan, so wrote the part of the agent SA1 specially for Won Jin and had him assist in the movie's action direction.

 

In 2014 Won Jin worked on Martial Cop : Chinatown to help out his “little brothers” with their low budget martial arts movie. It's probably his most notable on screen role since 1997, he plays the lead villain and gets several opportunities to show that even though he's been gone a long time, he's not lost his skills. Although uncredited he contributed extensively to the film's action scenes. The film itself was filmed in just 15 days, with his first action scene filmed in 8 hours and the final fight in only 7. The film was released in 2015 and is well worth checking out.

 

 

Apart from his work in Korean film and TV, Won Jin has other credentials to his name:

 

Advisor of the International Police Martial Arts Federation

Adviser of martial arts director of the Korean Myeongin Association

University Convergence Education Entertainers

Representative of China CIPP (Hwamun Consulting) Action Supervision Channel

Representative of China Gazaban Action Team

 

 

 

2020 and beyond

 

Although Won Jin unfortunately is relatively unknown except to die-hard martial arts fans he has had an influence on modern martial arts movies such as the films of Scott Adkins and Panna Rittikrai, but also other media including video games (notably the Tekken series, the character Lei Wu-long even performs some of The Scorpion King's moves, such as the “Heaven's Knife Whirlwind Kick”).

 

Won Jin spends a lot of his spare time training, but to really relax he enjoys fishing. He still states his favourite fight scene was his final fight with Chin Kar-lok in The Scorpion King. He still desires to do a sequel, with the possibility of Sonny Wong being reformed and becoming the hero. David Lai would have liked to do a sequel but couldn't get the finances.

 

Bruce Lee is still his biggest hero and inspiration but he still enjoys looking at the movies of his peers too. He likes anything by Donnie Yen and would love to do a fight scene with him. He also likes Ong-Bak and noticed Tony Jaa incorporating some of his classic moves into his own style.

 

At the time of writing this (2020) Won Jin is in great shape and currently filming a new movie featuring Wang Ho (aka Casanova Wong) called Tiger's Trigger. He also won the 시마프 (Simapeu) Action Movie Achievement Award at The 2nd Chungju International Martial Arts Action Film Festival.

 

Cheers

 

This has been put together to the best of my knowledge and ability. It took a lot of time to research, cross referencing interviews, blogs, movie databases etc. in several languages too. There is more data but I couldn't cross check it well enough, with that being said, I can't guarantee that this is completely accurate, but I'm fairly confident in it.

 

Thanks to “Paul Bramhall” who has done interviews with the great man himself, the were very interesting and helped a lot towards this bio.

 

If anybody has any further info to add, I'm happy to hear it, I know there's at least one other Won Jin movie out there. Hopefully one day I'll find more.

 

I hope people find this useful.

Cheers

Edited February 13, 2023 by J.J. Hayden

[CT KID]

Very interesting and informative read, thanks for the effort!

[One Armed Boxer]

1 hour ago, Dredderick_Tatum said:

Thanks to “Paul Bramhall” who has done interviews with the great man himself, the were very interesting and helped a lot towards this bio.

You're welcome.