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Ip Man 2's release has been brought forward to April 29, 2010. While there were sayings that it was to avoid the World Cup fever that might affect box office, it has been denied by the production.

 

On the other hand, release date for The Legend is Born: Ip Man is being pushed back to end of June. Yip Chun says, "No matter how well-received Ip Man was, there were areas that could have been better. For example, the film was obviously set in Foshan, yet it was not shot on location on the actual place. Neither was the mansion like the original. Hence, we have The Legend is Born: Ip Man shot in Foshan, showing Foshan as it is meant to be."

With a recent flood of Ip Man films on the market, Donnie Yen, who gives himself 120 marks for his performance in Ip Man 2 compared 90 marks for the first, has made up his mind, "After Ip Man 2, I would never ever touch any films related to Ip Man. This will be my final film on the subject. Whenever something becomes a success, everyone would jump on the bandwagon, this is very frightening. Did you know how many Ip Man films are in production? Under such condition, we would not progress, it'd only lead to over-saturation of the subject matter."  Guangzhou Daily, Sina

 

Below is Ip Man 2 shooting diary, which shows a bit of Donnie Yen's duel with Sammo Hung towards the end.

Continue reading "Donnie Yen Has Had Enough of Ip Man"

-- Legend of Chen Zhen --
In an interview with The Bund, Donnie Yen describes the rendition of his role in Legend of Chen Zhen as an enhanced version of Bruce Lee's Chen Zhen, "The Chen Zhen that I'm portraying will carry traces of Bruce Lee's shadows, his sentiments, his deportment. I hope to pay tribute to him. At the same time, I'd also incorporate my own ideals, and fighting styles, you can say that this is Bruce Lee's Chen Zhen completely re-imagined, and elevated.
 
"That I also served as the martial arts director for Legend of Chen Zhen was because I'm more familiar with how Bruce Lee fought. Moreover, personally, I'm partial to Bruce Lee. It's very trying being a martial arts director, I didn't want to do it, but when many producers look for me, all of them want me to action direct, apart from acting.
 
"In today's market, there are only 2, 3 martial arts choreographers with real abilities, but they're all very busy. And, I, having a predilection for innovations, am game to try out bold, new things, it's even harder to look for someone like this. It's double the workload when you also work as the martial arts director, and you don't get a very high pay for it, certainly much less than being an actor, but for the sake of the film's final result, I would still take up the job."
 
Legend of Chen Zhen, starring Donnie Yen, Anthony Wong, Ryu Kohata, Chen Jia Jia, Shi Feng, Shu Qi, Huo Si Yan, has wrapped up filming in early February. Recently, CCTV aired an early preview footage from the film that has been uploaded and posted on Baidu forum.

-- Ip Man 2 --

Lots of Ip Man 2 images of Donnie Yen, Sammo Hung, Fan Siu Wong, Kent Cheng, Darren Shahlavi, To Yu Hang, Jiang Dai Yan, etc. have recently been published on Flickr by its Australian film distributor Dream Movie.

 

Continue reading "Ip Man 2 Stills and Teaser"

Directed by Teddy Chan and co-produced by Peter Chan, Bodyguards and Assassins brings together an awe-inspiring all-star cast for a thrilling retelling of a brief but significant moment in modern Chinese history. Inspired by true events, Bodyguards and Assassins revolves around Sun Yat-sen's visit to Hong Kong in 1906, and the brave bodyguards who protect him from an assassination attempt.

 

Donnie Yen, Leon Lai, Tony Leung Ka Fai, Nicholas Tse, Wang Xueqi, Wang Bo Chieh, NBA basketball player Mengke Bate-er, and Chris Lee portray eight heroes from different walks of life who rise to the occasion in Hong Kong's finest hour. Hu Jun plays the leader of the Qing assassins, while Eric Tsang, Simon Yam, and Fan Bingbing take supporting roles. Zhang Hanyu, Jacky Cheung, and Michelle Reis also make key cameo appearances.

 

Pre-order on YesAsia: Blu-ray / DVD

With True Legend's release date drawing nearer, more and more videos and stills from the film are surfacing. The gala premiere will be held in Beijing on January 31, possibly attended by some Hollywood personages. In addition, True Legend, as well as Little Big Soldier, will get a special screening at 60th Berlin International Film Festival in February.

Continue reading "True Legend: More Images, Footages, and Yet More Yuen Wo Ping Pep Talk"

-- Legend of Chen Zhen --
After watching a sample reel and production stills from Legend of Chen Zhen, the producers, being very happy with the results, are increasing the budget by 20m yuan to 120m yuan, for use mainly in post-production, as they intend to hire Hollywood special effects team to give the film a more polished look.

When conceptualising Legend of Chen Zhen, Gordon Chan hoped to do something that has never been done by Chinese directors, but he felt very pressurised after finishing the script, "After having the script written, I dared not direct by myself, so whom should I work with? Andrew Lau and Donnie Yen came to my mind. Even though during the initial meetings, we had very fierce debates over the script and the nature of the character, but it was precisely because of such a tense atmosphere that we quickly developed a great rapport, fast turning it into a very happy collaboration.

"When I first talked to Donnie Yen on this film, he asked me if there was such a need to take such a risk. For the story and the character are all new, and it's a very audacious move. I told him, if we were not enterprising enough, and simply go about shooting a Huo Yuan Jia or Chen Zhen story that everyone is familiar with, we would just be repeating ourselves, it's not creativity and challenge.

"Everyone's doing a pretty good job on this film, but the biggest surprise to me comes from Donnie Yen. In this film, Donnie Yen has yet elevated himself to another level, whether it is drama or action. He is bound to become a superstar in 2010, and be crowned Best Actor at Hong Kong Film Awards the following year.

   

"This film is more drama oriented. We don't have minor brawls strewn all over the film. We are concentrating on a few more important fight scenes."

 

Producer Zhang Zhao says, "The action in this film is rather unusual, it's like Spider-man, going from top to bottom, or going up from below, something like that."

 

Andrew Lau says that they hare having a great time working together on the set, and both he and Donnie Yen are eager to shoot a sequel.  Sina

Video: This is like Spider-man, say the producers  Sohu

It had long been the wish of Sin Kwok Lam, a longtime martial arts practitioner and shrewd businessman and capitalist who is a major player in Hong Kong financial sector and has even published a controversial book on big corporations swallowing up small firms last year, to bring the account of his grandmaster Yip Man to screen, but he couldn't find any filmmakers willing enough to take the risk as Yip Man was little known. Continue reading "And thus, Ip Man, The Legend, is Born"

 With his rising popularity and big sellouts of his films, Donnie Yen is fast becoming one of the top earners in the industry, commanding up to 20m yuan per film this year, after Jackie Chan (30m yuan), Jet Li (25m yuan) and Chow Yun Fatt (25m yuan). Hailed as the new King of Kung Fu, he is getting even more offers this year, running the gamut from historical epic  on 《关云长》 General Guan Yun Chang by Felix Chong and Alan Mak, through comic book adaptation 《中华英雄》 A Man Called Hero remake, to mythological feature 《大闹天宫》 Monkey King. Continue reading "Donnie Yen Seeks Quantum Leaps for Each Film He Does"

-- 14 Blades --
A newer 14 Blades trailer has been posted 3 weeks back on Youtube, showing the promising action in more coherence and detail.

Also, there's a behind-the-scenes footage of forest battle (non-IMAX version) on Sohu, which shows, based on some elements of the action, Donnie Yen having some input in the choreography by Ku Huen Chiu, and also how he sprained his leg as he grabbed and gyrated to throw off his opponent.

 

And finally, some images of Vicki Zhao in the film from Sina.

 

 

14 Blades' release date has been brought forward by a week to Feb 4, 2010.

 

In the meantime, Bodyguards and Assassins is doing very well in China, having crossed the 200m yuan boundary in 12 days and Peter Chan is planning a TV version of the film, providing more background on the characters.

-- Legend of Chen Zhen --
On December 20, the press got to visit the set of Legend of Chen Zhen, and witnessed the filming of a scene where Donnie Yen, having just returned from abroad, is playing the piano with aplomb at Hundred Joys, sweeping girls off their feet.

 

Donnie Yen, who, in a way, came from a family of musicians in which his mother, who apart from teaching martial arts in Boston, is a soprano and father a violinist, picked up the piano while very young. He was last seen on the piano in Love on The Rocks, and gets to flaunt his piano virtuosity again in Legend of Chen Zhen.

Continue reading "The Legend of Westernised Chen Zhen, The Piano Virtuoso"