In the first of a series of interviews, we chat exclusively to Donnie Yen about Ip Man, the sequel, the weight of inevitable comparisons to Bruce Lee, and much much more…
Ip Man was your fourth collaboration in a row with director Wilson Yip (and now you’re both working on the sequel). What keeps pulling you back together?
Well, we had such a good experience on SPL, our first film, that we just kept the winning team together! Seriously, Wilson and I are very different personalities. He is very low-key, never gets angry, you seldom see him at public events… I think it’s a case of opposites attracting. In the case of Ip Man, I could really turn the directing over to him and the action directing to Sammo and just focus on my acting, and I think that really helped my performance. I’m working with him again on Ip Man 2, and I’d work with him any time.
What attracted you to the story of Ip Man? Of all the well-known kung fu masters, why do you think he’s been overlooked for so long?
I think people only knew him as the teacher of Bruce Lee, so you only saw the character in films about him, kind of a supporting character. When you learn more about Ip Man, you realize that he had a really incredible life, and a huge influence on the martial arts world, in his own right. Maybe the right combination of elements didn’t come together until now to tell his story.
How much creative licence did you take with Ip Man’s life story?
Hmmm. Well, I’d say that everything we show has some kind of basis in reality, but of course we have to exaggerate some aspects to make an entertaining film. I mean, Ip Man did fight these challenges matches, he did have to survive in Foshan during the Japanese Occupation and he did move to Hong Kong to establish Wing Chun there. I think we did justice to him, and to his real story. His son, Ip Chun, was one of our advisors, and I know he was really happy with the film.
Film accounts of the legendary kung fu masters seem to be a genre of their own in Hong Kong movies, from hundreds of films inspired by Wong Fei Hung, to accounts of other masters like Huo Yuanjia (Fearless) and San Te (36th Chamber Of Shaolin), and so on. What’s your favourite movie based on a master?
It would still have to Bruce Lee playing Chen Jun in Fist of Fury. I played Chen in a TV series, and this year I’m making a movie about the same character. Also, I remember when the first Once Upon A Time in China film came out, with Jet Li as Wong Fei-hung. That was very impressive.
Wing Chun is a very different to other forms of martial arts. What makes it special? What research and learning did you have to do to bring it to the big screen?
The thing about Wing Chun is that the movements are like a chess game, where you’re countering your opponent’s movements. The techniques aren’t flashy; everything is at close range, but it’s one of the most effective styles of kung fu. I did a lot of research for the film. To be honest, after all these years making kung fu movies, I find it easy to perform any specific style on-screen. The real challenge I had was finding the character of Ip Man.
Your style of fighting on screen has become increasingly realistic looking, particularly since Flashpoint, and less obviously reliant on wires. Is this a deliberate move?
It depends on the project, and also on the setting. My own theory is that, if you’re making a contemporary film, unless its ‘Matrix’ or something like that, you can’t have people flying around. You go back to the era of Ip Man, you can have some more spectacular movements. Then, when you go back to like Crouching Tiger times, you can really have flying and so on. It’s the nature of the film that determines what style you will use. Now, with Ip Man, the setting was pre-war and wartime Foshan, and Ip Man’s style was Wing Chun, which is a very grounded, practical style, so the action had to suite those elements.
Unlike your other films with Wilson Yip, you handed over the reins of action director to Sammo Hung. Why was that, and what was that like?
It was a great benefit to have Sammo on the film. As fans of the genre know, he did several earlier Wing Chun films, Warriors Two, Prodigal Son, so we knew he had a deep understanding of the style. He brought all that to his choreography, and, as I mentioned, I could concentrate on just acting.
Is it true you hadn’t worked with Sammo Hung before S.P.L.? What was it like working with him again?
We were meant to do a film years ago, it was a thriller he was producing, and somehow it didn’t work out. Of course, I had known him for years and always respected him so much. When I worked with Sammo on SPL, I found him very patient and easygoing, and it was the same thing on Ip Man. Actually, we shot a cameo with me and Sammo, a scene that would have been at the start of Ip Man, but we cut it out, and now he’s playing a much larger role in Ip Man 2.
Did you encounter any problems during the shoot of Ip Man?
Honestly, whenever you make a martial arts film, the toughest thing is working with non-martial artists! You don’t want to hurt them and you don’t want to get hurt yourself! On Ip Man, of course Fan Siu-wong and myself have been making action films for years, but Ikeuchi-san, who played the Japanese general, had never really done martial arts before. But he trained very hard and we made him look good! That wasn’t a problem, but it was the biggest challenge of the film.
What scene are you proudest of in the movie?
Honestly, some of the acting scenes, the scenes with my family, after they’ve lost everything. The way Ip Man is forced to bow his head to the Japanese with all their guns. I mean, everyone has seem me do action before, but I never had the chance to play a character with this kind of depth.
It seems no film martial artist can go far in his career without being compared to Bruce Lee. I’m sure that’s happened to you in the past, and now – by playing the man who first taught Lee – that comparison is bound to be made again. Why do you think that is, and how does it feel to be compared to (or even ranked against) your hero? Did it occur to you that might happen when you decided on the project?
I’m sure every martial arts actor is described – especially in America! – as “the new Bruce Lee”. Of course, in my heart, I know no one can come close to Bruce Lee, but it’s an honour even to be mentioned in the same sentence as Bruce Lee. I didn’t really think about it before making ‘Ip Man’, because it was so obvious I was playing Bruce Lee’s teacher. I did before making the Fist Of Fury TV series, and I have been offered various projects over the years where I would have played Bruce Lee. I actually auditioned for Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story!
It’s been a while since you appeared in US movies like Shanghai Knights, Blade 2 and Highlander: Endgame. Have you given up on crossing over to a career in Hollywood to concentrate on your Hong Kong movie career instead? Or will you try again? How did you find the experience, and how different is filmmaking in the US?
No, I just had better opportunities here in Asia. It seems that, in Hollywood, if you’re Asian, you tend to get relegated to certain kinds of role, the sidekick, the villain… It’s the same thing Bruce Lee found when he tried to make it in Hollywood, and he really had to come back to Hong Kong to become a star. Of course, if someone offered me a great role in a great movie, I’d definitely consider it, wherever it was being made.
You’re now working on Ip Man 2, what can we expect from the sequel?
More and better, I hope! More drama, more action… We have Sammo Hung as a rival kung fu master, an expert in the Hung Gar style, so that is going to be new. We also have almost all the characters from the first film returning, so it’s a real sequel. You see the progression of Ip Man as a person, and also get to see Hong Kong during a very interesting era.
Do you have any other projects in the pipeline?
Too many! I already finished Bodyguards and Assassins for Teddy Chen, 14 Blades for Daniel Lee, I’m going to do a movie version of Chen Jun… I really feel blessed that, after the success of Ip Man, I’ve had some great projects offered to me.
Ip Man is released by Cine Asia/Showbox Entertainment as a two-disc DVD (£15.99) and single-disc Blu-ray (£19.99) on 26 October 2009. And we’ll be chatting to director Wilson Yip and action choreographer Sammo Hung over the next few days…
