Word: yuen
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...second group is the spawn of actor and martial arts instructor Yuen Siu-tin, also known as Simon Yuen. Five sons of Siu-tin have carved notable, knockabout careers in movie action: Wo-ping, Cheung-yan, Chun-yeung (a.k.a. Brandy), Sun-yi (Sunny) and Yat-choh. Among them, these two extended families have won 13 of the 18 Hong Kong Film Awards for best action choreography. Wo-ping got one for the epochal grudge matches between Donnie Yen and Jet Li in Tsui Hark's Once Upon a Time in China...
...Yuen Wo-ping is known to international audiences as the man behind The Matrix, for which he devised the vertiginous virtual hand combat and flying feats that made the movie a gut as well as a head experience. He has won further acclaim for Crouching Tiger, and he was the one person who could say no to the world-class director making his first action film, which happened on more than one occasion. No wonder: the script would read, "They fight," leaving the overall conception to Lee and the hard work of realizing it to Yuen. "When I'm working...
...Yuen knows what works; he has been supervising action scenes since 1971, and directing since 1978. He has helmed two dozen films, including some of the most exciting in Hong Kong history. "Wo-ping has directed more movies than I have," says Lee. "And better ones." In some of these films you will find sensational exploits that are echoed in Crouching Tiger. The vision of a lady thief flying over rooftops is a highlight of Yuen's 1994 Fire Dragon. And the up-a-tree skirmish? Catch the three warriors perched on flaming poles in the 1993 Iron Monkey. This...
...quite a workout for the stars. But Yuen is revered as the deviser of artful torture for Asia's top actor-athletes: Jackie Chan (the 1978 Drunken Master), Samo Hung (The Magnificent Butcher, 1979), Jet Li (The Tai Chi Master, 1993) and Yeoh (Wing Chun, 1994). Yeoh's glorious balancing act with a plate of tofu is rightly famed: she never lets it touch the ground while successfully fending off an arrogant bruiser. But just as impressive is a scene with Wo-ping himself, in the 1983 Shaolin Drunkard, where he and brother Yat-choh quaff a hundred cups...
Like Jackie, Yuen never saw a prop he couldn't use to enhance a fight. His heroes and villains have used chopsticks, pigtails, calligraphy brushes, umbrellas, trash can lids and robe sleeves as impromptu weapons. Another Yuen rule: if it slithers, hops or scoots, hire it! Snakes in 1980's The Buddhist Fist; a man-size toad in the phantasmagorical Miracle Fighters of 1982; rats in Shaolin Drunkard. In the 1977 Broken Oath (the last movie Yuen action-choreographed before he turned director with the Jackie Chan Snake in Eagle's Claw), lovely, severe Angela Mao plays with scorpions...