The Legend of Westernised Chen Zhen, The Piano Virtuoso

For the better or worse, in this complete overhaul and new twist on Chen Zhen, who just returns from Europe and speaks French, is dressed in Western suit rather than Zhongshan Zhuang, and sports a moustache and hairdo that look like William Clark Gable, "I hope everyone would change their opinions of action stars, their thinking in the past was all wrong, I'd be performing Chopin in Legend of Chen Zhen."

Donnie Yen, who's choreographing the action himself, says that he'd be fighting throughout the film, right from beginning to the very end. Recently, he got ill after shooting a fight scene in the rain amidst such a cold winter. Donnie Yen says that he's going after something new with the action, crafting a unique kungfu for Chen Zhen, hoping to bring about another kungfu trend, create yet another classic that is very different, "I'm coming up with many new forms of martial arts, there are some very lethal moves, very exciting. But I would spend more time on acting, hoping to have breakthrough in this area, I have confidence in becoming a true-blue actor."

Yet the film might not be hiring professional fighters like in Bodyguards and Assassins to be his opponents (but it remains to be seen if there are other martial arts film stars onboard this film), "It's not real fight, so it's not that important to have martial arts exponents. I hope to advance with each film I do, if I have to rely on martial arts sequences to leave an impression, I would feel rueful."

With his rise in popularity, Donnie Yen is receiving countless offers, with lineup up to 2011, most of which are big productions. Donnie Yen intends to do a comedy next year or the year after, he reveals that Raymond Wong had thought of casting him in All's Well, Ends Well Too 2010, but due to his tight schedule, with only two weeks to spare, he had to give up the role.

Apart from a Westernised background, Chen Zhen doubles as an agent, engaging spies from various countries in battles of brains and brawn. Andrew Lau says, "Donnie Yen has been fighting so much in his previous films, the audience might be bored already. And Chen Zhen story has been done to death, insofar as the audience could memorise it already.

"So, Gordon Chan and I were discussing how to change. We noticed that the period after Chen Zhen left Jing Wu Men gives plenty of room for story development. And against the backdrop of 1925 Shanghai, we thought that Chen Zhen should be like this. It would shock everyone initially, yet after watching the whole film, you would feel that this Chen Zhen is very real, very compelling. Chen Zhen has little ties left with Jing Wu Men, he appears like this by day, and like that by night, very mysterious."

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