Donnie Yen

I have to admit that I have been away from my blog for awhile. The main reason is because for the last two weeks in October I wrote pieces for my brother's website focusing on the top horror film for the Halloween season. They turned into okay pieces, but it left little time for my personal blog. For those interested, they can be found at www.joeltalksmovies.com.

Moving on with this blog, today's update is going to focus on Donnie Yen. More specifically, my experiences with Donnie Yen films and what I thought of his latest film, "Wu Xia."

I began watching Donnie Yen films unknowingly around 2001. "Highlander: Endgame" was premiering on Showtime and since I had seen and loved the first film, I decided to give this one a chance. It was a mistake, as "Endgame" proved to be another film in the franchise that failed to deliver. Within the film, apparently for a brief time because I certainly can't remember seeing him, was Hong Kong action great Donnie Yen. At that point in my life, I couldn't tell you who he was. I hadn't watched too many films from Hong Kong, and I certainly had not begun memorizing the actors except for major American players (Jet Li, Jackie Chan...etc. etc).

About a year later I was reading an article in Fangoria about "Blade II." Donnie Yen's name came up in the article and I made note of it for some reason. This article is where I learned that he was actually in "Highlander: Endgame," that he was in the upcoming "Blade" sequel, and that Miramax/Dimension had purchased the rights to a number of his earlier films (though, I only recall them releasing one). Here is the next Jet Li or Jackie Chan I thought to myself. Now was the time to get on board with Donnie Yen.

I ended up seeing "Blade II" the next year as well as "Iron Monkey," which was the only film I recall Dimension Films releasing from his catalog. After that, I began viewing whatever films he was in that I could get my hands on. This included "Hero," "Seven Swords," "Flash Point," "Kill Zone (AKA SPL)," and a majority of his older films that were surprisingly difficult to access. These were all in my high school and college days.

Lately, Donnie Yen's output has been fairly disappointing to me. I haven't been crazy about the "Ip Man" movies, "The Lost Bladesman" left a lot to be desired, and "14 Blades" and "Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen" were entertaining at best. They all just began to feel uninspired. Which is why, as with most of these films, I was excited and hesitant to watch "Wu Xia."

"Wu Xia" is directed by Peter Chan and, along with Yen, stars Takeshi Kaneshiro. While I've never seen a film directed by Peter Chan, I am a huge fan of Takeshi Kaneshiro. He's a fantastic actor who western audiences would probably recognize, but not quite remember where from. The film begins in 1917 with Liu Jin-Xi (Yen) living his everyday life. He makes paper for a living, has a wife and two kids, and there is absolutely nothing out of the ordinary about him. That is, until two ruffians attempt to rob the local shop that Jin-Xi happens to be in. Jin-Xi struggles to fight the two away and ends up killing them in the process, which leads to a police investigation by Xu Bai-Jiu (Kaneshiro). As Bai-Jiu investigates, he begins to get a better idea of who Jin-Xi actually is.

As you can already tell, this is not a traditional Donnie Yen film by any means. Rather than focusing entirely on spectacular fight sequences, this film asks a lot of questions about the human condition. How are ideals formed? Is there any way that ideals can form, or is everything just instinctual? Can formed ideals be bent or transformed in any way? Are humans capable of change? It's almost too much to take in, but it's balanced well with a healthy dose of fighting.

While it may not be my absolute favorite Donnie Yen film, it certainly ranks up there and comes highly recommended.