Articles

Donnie Yen Talks about SPL
 

Watching Movies, November 2005
Xiao Fei

 
The exchanges between Sammo Hung, Wu Jing and you are billed as "freestyle", according to the handout. How were those filmed?
Donnie Yen: Actually, I only have two main fights with them, and these are the most essential fights in the film.

So, how close to real fights are the freestyle sparring?
Donnie Yen: Actually, it wasn't completely freestyle sparring, it's not quite possible to actually implement it. What I meant was that, since the outset, I hoped to put the most realistic elements of fighting in the action scenes. I felt that the movies we, the Chinese, produced, used to influence the whole world - but it was all a thing of the past. Except for a few major period productions which have gained worldwide recognitions, there are no contemporary movies in the past 10 years that we can be proud of compared to many action movies from Japan, Korea, US, and most recently Thailand's Ong Bak, that are worthy enough to stand up against them. So, I hope that through SPL, we could show the world that we are still capable of being the forerunners in kungfu movies, in the art of combat.