Donnie Yen in 2016. To mark the Hong Kong kung fu icon’s 60th birthday, we look at his work before the successful Ip Man film series. Photo: Getty Images
As Donnie Yen turns 60, a look at some of the Ip Man actor’s early roles before he was famous, and how many times he’s fought Jackie Chan on screen
Donnie Yen Ji-dan may be best known for his Ip Man films, but he started acting in the 1980s, debuting in Drunken Tai Chi and appearing opposite Stephen Chow
To mark his 60th birthday, we look back at some of the Hong Kong star’s early roles, the time he had money troubles, and why we know he can dance
July 27, 2023 marks the 60th birthday of Hong Kong kung fu actor Donnie Yen Ji-dan.
He is best known for injecting mixed martial arts into Asian cinematography and popularising the self-defence fighting style of wing chun kung fu through his Ip Man movies (2008-2019).
But Yen began acting in films and on television long before that. We look back at his early career, and dig up some less well known facts about the actor.
It all started with Drunken Tai Chi
Although the actor had his breakthrough success in the 2000s with Ip Man, his acting debut came in Drunken Tai Chi (1984). Yen plays Chan Chuen-chung, who learns tai chi to defeat the assassin who killed his family.
This was one of more than 40 movies in which he appeared in the two decades before Ip Man was released.
“Drunken Tai Chi” in 1984 saw Yen’s acting debut.
He starred in a movie with Stephen Chow Sing-chi
Four years into his acting career, Yen was cast in Raymond Lee Wai-man’s 1988 film The Last Conflict, a TV crime thriller produced for Hong Kong broadcaster TVB. He plays Dick Kwan, an Interpol officer who is recruited to help Chow – who plays Lau Ting Kin – and the Hong Kong police investigate a gang.
It wasn’t the first time the pair had acted together. Earlier the same year Yen and Chow appeared in TVB drama series File Noir.
He can dance
The second movie of Yen’s career was the 1985 breakdancing movie Mismatched Couples. In the role of Eddie, who starts a dance-off competition with his love rival, Yen skilfully blends dance with kung fu.
Yen in a still from “Ip Man 3”.
He has shown off his dance skills in other films, such as Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen, in which he dances the rumba, and Ip Man 3, in which he does the cha cha. Yen also performed a breakdancing sequence in his debut film, Drunken Tai Chi.
It wasn’t always easy for him
Yen almost went bankrupt when he was 34. Movies made by his production company Bullet Films – including his 1997 directorial debut Legend of the Wolf and 1998’s Ballistic Kiss – didn’t do well at the box office.
He was forced to borrow money from loan sharks and triads to get by, according to an interview he did with GQ magazine.
The cover of a DVD of “Legend of the Wolf”, Yen’s directorial debut, which didn’t fare well at the box office.
Yen and Jackie Chan have clashed twice on film
The two martial arts actors faced off on the big screen in 2003 and again the following year. In the first case, in American martial arts action comedy Shanghai Knights, Yen plays the role of villain Wu Chow, the illegitimate brother of the emperor of China sent to assassinate the royal family and steal the imperial seal.
Chan plays Chon Wang, a sheriff tasked with avenging his father’s murder and foiling Chow’s assassination plot.
Yen (left) and Chan in a still from “Shanghai Knights”.
In 2004, Yen and Chan went head to head again in the Hong Kong action film TheTwins Effect II. Yen’s General Lone, a warrior trying to free the mythical kingdom of Huadu from tyranny, meets his final opponent in Chan’s Lord of Armour.
