Word: yuens
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
This week, when the motion Picture Academy announces its Oscar nominations, no official will speak the name Yuen. That's a shame, because the pleasure of Hollywood picture-going in the year 2000 was, in large part, the doings of the Yuens...
Cheung-yan Yuen, the action choreographer for Charlie's Angels, made kung-fu fighters out of Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore and Lucy Liu. Corey Yuen (no relation) put Jet Li through a black-and-blue workout in the box-office hit Romeo Must Die. And who supervised the buoyant action scenes in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon?the pursuit by Michelle Yeoh of Zhang Ziyi across a courtyard and over rooftops; the same antagonists' fierce swordfight; the balletic battle of Zhang and Chow Yun-fat on bamboo treetops?that lifted Ang Lee's Mandarin drama out of the art houses...
Back in Hong Kong, where nearly every movie kicks nonstop butt, there has been a slew of Yuens for a quarter century, thanks to two separate clans. One group comprises graduates of Yu Jim-yuen's China Drama Academy; some (Jackie Chan, Samo Hung) used their own names, while others (Corey Yuen, Yuen Biao, Yuen Wah) took as an honorific the name of their daunting, inspiring teacher...
...film Zhang is extending this ability to create a new form of action scene: rhythmic, poignant and majestic. Yen, whose working relationship with Li goes back a decade, sees that. He's fresh off success in the U.S. where Yuen Wo-ping's 1993 classic Iron Monkey, in which Yen plays a lead, was rereleased by Miramax and made $10 million at the box office. He applauds Zhang's command of a new style: "For a guy who has never directed action, he's got a nuance for certain pauses, certain breaks. He never stops looking at the bigger picture...
...Action directors like Yuen Wo-ping, Corey Yuen and Tony Ching are better than me. At the same time, I have a lot of ideas, which I discuss with directors. What also is important to me is the choreographer. Usually I will sign a contract once I know who that...