Donnie Yen Is Grateful for the Impact of “Ip Man” on His Career
Martial art superstar Donnie Yen (甄子丹) has been in the entertainment industry for nearly 40 years and appeared in countless projects. While Donnie played many iconic roles, it was his appearance in 2018’s film Ip Man <葉問>that helped him become a household name. Reflecting how the movie changed his career, the star replied, “I am very very grateful!”
Looking back, Donnie revealed that filming Ip Man did not go perfectly because Hong Kong director Wong Kar Wai (王家衛) announced he was working with Tony Leung (梁朝偉) on The Grandmaster <一代宗師> that was also based on life of Ip Man and the director spent years to prepare to for the movie. Donnie admitted that he didn’t think about it at that time but he felt the pressure afterward, “Many people asked why we were both making a movie about Ip Man. We didn’t put the burden of filming on our shoulders and so we continued to film.”
Fortunately, Donnie’s fear subsided as Ip Man was a box office success and set the stage for the star’s rising international fame. Due to the movie’s popularity, Donnie continued to film three sequels and successfully introduced one of Hong Kong’s greatest Wing Chun masters to the world.
Donnie is also thankful that his wife Cissy Wang’s (汪詩詩) was by his side as they navigate the star’s sky-high popularity. The couple got married in 2003 after a short three-months of courtship and they soon gave birth to their daughter Jasmine. While the couple has an 18-years age gap, Donnie praised his wife for being mature and confessed that he didn’t know her age before he proposed, “She didn’t tell me and I didn’t tell my age either. I only found out later that she was so young.”
As Donnie’s career skyrocketed after his marriage, the star believed that his wife was his lucky star, “My good luck was all thanks to my wife. After we got married, my career progressed well, my daughter was born, I won my first Best Actor award, and my son was born. I was winning awards every year so my friends all said that my luck came from my wife.”
Source: World Journal
This article is written by Sammi for JayneStars.com
To be honest, Donnie Yen’s IP man is really very very good. I love Tony Leung but as he had said himself…he only started martial arts training afew months before filming Grandmaster. It is clear to many Kung Fu fans his Kung Fu techniques cannot be compared to Donnie’s.
I still remember many of the moves Donnie made in IP Man trilogy. IP Man really put him on the map as a great martial artist/actor…
Plus Donnie has done way more martial arts films then Tony. Tony is well a more rounded actor and has touched many types of roles. That’s why Tony was chosen by Marvel! But it’ll be interesting to see how Donnie is when the latest JW movies come out. Although once again Donnie is being type casted as the martial artists in the movie…