User:FrostFairBlade/sandbox/Yuen Woo-ping

Yuen Woo-ping (alias: Yuen Wo-ping; born 1945) is a Hong Kong martial arts choreographer and film director who worked in Hong Kong action cinema and later Hollywood films. He is one of the inductees on the Avenue of Stars in Hong Kong. Yuen is also a son of Yuen Siu-tien, a martial arts film actor.

Early life

 * Yuen was born in 1945 in Guangzhou
 * Yuen's father was Yuen Siu-tien, a Northern Shaolin kung fu practitioner and Peking opera actor who became one of the most influential martial arts directors in the Hong Kong film industry
 * Yuen is one of ten children
 * His siblings include Yuen Cheung-yan, Yuen Shun-yi, Yuen Yat-chor, Brandy Yuen Chun-yeung , and Yuen Lung-kui
 * Around the age of 11, Yuen and his siblings began to receive intensive training in Peking opera by their father, learning how to fight and use weapons at a young age
 * He also trained for a year under Yu Jim-yuen at the latter's opera school
 * It was around this time that Yuen began making appearances in Peking opera

Early career and breakthrough

 * Yuen was introduced to the film industry when he was a teenager via his father, who would give his son bit parts as an extra or a stuntman
 * He went into the industry along with six other brothers
 * During the early 1970s, Yuen performed stunts at Shaw Brothers, working in films like The Chinese Boxer (1970)
 * It was at Shaw Brothers that Woo-ping befriended Ng See-yuen, then an assistant
 * He was first credited as a fight choreographer on Lo Chen and Ng's film The Mad Killer (1971), where he shared choreographing duties with his brother Cheung-yan
 * Yuen would go on to choreograph many of Ng's films, such as The Bloody Fists (1972) and Secret Rivals 2 (1977)
 * During this time, he spent time designing the choreography for films like Shaw Brothers mainstay Chor Yuen's Lizard (1972) and Bastard (1973)
 * After seeing other action choreographers begin to direct films, Yuen followed suit
 * Snake in the Eagle's Shadow (1978)
 * Yuen got his directorial start with Snake in the Eagle's Shadow (1978), a comedy martial arts film starring a young Jackie Chan
 * Yuen created a unique fighting style that would be taught to the protagonist, instead of using the popular Hung Ga martial arts form
 * A retrospective review by The Austin Chronicle highlights the film as a noteworthy entry in Hong Kong cinema, noting that "Yuen Woo-ping and company do manage to pull off a number of thrilling fight scenes and memorable moments of physical comedy, and it is for these reasons that the picture is so fondly remembered by fans."
 * Drunken Master (1978)
 * Yuen then followed with Drunken Master (1978), a similar movie starring largely the same cast
 * Yuen: "Drunken Master is even more innovative, as no one had thought of doing kung fu while drunk. So many new moves had to be created—the moves I made for the Eight Immortals, for instance, took me a month and a half to develop."
 * Variety: "This is the trendmaker in current local kung-fu films. [...] Lead star Jackie Chan (contract player of Lo Wei Prod.) has found fame at last by freelancing outside where his talents were properly utilized."

Ventures into modern Hong Kong action films

 * Yuen's career had stagnated a bit during the 1980s, as he retread similar ground with Shaolin Drunkard (1983) and Drunken Tai Chi (1984)
 * Yuen was introduced to Donnie Yen through Yen's mother Bow-sim Mark, who had taught martial arts to Yuen's eldest sister
 * After inviting him to audition, Yuen signed Yen to a three-year contract acting in multiple movies
 * Drunken Tai Chi (1984)
 * Yuen's next film, Drunken Tai Chi (1984), was Yen's feature film debut

International recognition

 * A producer on The Matrix reached out to Shaw Brothers to ask if Yuen would be interested in choreographing the film; initially Yuen did not want to go, but was informed by Shaw Brothers that the producer was offering a free ticket to Los Angeles to hear them out, and that hearing them out would be the polite thing to do
 * Yuen, on agreeing to choreographing The Matrix: "I was interested, of course, but not really until I saw the script. I really thought this film could be a new trend in filmmaking."
 * Yuen agreed to work with the Wachowskis on The Matrix, but only if the cast would go through a training regime to learn kung fu and how to perform wirework stunts
 * Yuen and his stunt team trained the cast for four months in a Burbank training facility during the autumn of 1997
 * In 2001, he was asked by Quentin Tarantino to choreograph the fight scenes for Kill Bill: Volume 1 (2003) and Kill Bill: Volume 2 (2004)
 * This included a fight scene inside a two-level nightclub that, like The Matrix, required actors Uma Thurman and Chiaki Kuriyama to train with Yuen for several months
 * True Legend (2010)
 * Fourteen years after Tai Chi Boxer, Yuen returned to directing with True Legend (2010), a reinterpretation of the folk hero So Chan
 * For this film, Yuen wanted to give So Chan, who had been historically portrayed in film as a supporting character, a more prominent role; he also wanted to pay tribute to his father, who played the character in Drunken Master
 * The movie received mixed reviews from critics, who believed it suffered from poor pacing and a thin plot
 * Rating it two stars, Peter Bradshaw enjoyed the action scenes, but said the film is otherwise "a slightly plodding account of Chinese myth and legend."
 * It had originally been reported in November 2012 that Yuen would direct his first Western film with Vigilantes – The Lost Order, a Chinese-Canadian co-production about a female assassin who exposes a financial conspiracy while avenging her father's murder
 * Yuen had been attached to direct a couple of films following The Sword of Destiny: a kung-fu comedy film called Hand Over Fist in 2016,  and an adaptation of a television action series called Invisible Guard the following year
 * The Thousand Faces of Dunjia (2017)
 * Yuen's next film was The Thousand Faces of Dunjia (2017), a fantasy wuxia film
 * This movie was based on one of Yuen's earlier directorial works, The Miracle Fighters (1982)
 * Master Z: Ip Man Legacy (2018)
 * Yuen directed a spin-off film of the Ip Man franchise called Master Z: Ip Man Legacy (2018); this starred Zhang Jin in a continuation of his role, Cheung Tin-chi, from Ip Man 3 (2015)
 * The film also co-stars Liu Yan, Michelle Yeoh, and Dave Bautista.
 * Yuen directed a story set in the 1990s for the anthology film Septet: The Story of Hong Kong (2020)
 * The segment, called "Homecoming", featured Yuen Wah as a traditionalist grandfather who bonds with his granddaughter (Ashley Lam) when she returns to Hong Kong from her studies overseas

Filmmaking style

 * Yuen, on what his peers thought of his fight choreography before he started directing: "I was celebrated to the point that my peers called me the number one action choreographer under heaven."
 * Yuen is known for his fusion of Eastern and Western culture in his films
 * Yuen often collaborates with his brothers as they act and choreograph fight sequences; collectively, they are known in the Hong Kong film industry as the "Yuen Clan"
 * When designing a fight, Yuen creates choreography based on the plot, a character's personality, and the actor's abilities
 * Described by The Austin Chronicle as having an "endlessly imaginative, outrageously entertaining flair for gravity-challenged historical mayhem"
 * He has used a variety of unique and unconventional props in his fight sequences, such as chopsticks and calligraphy brushes
 * Donnie Yen said that Yuen "is totally into precision and authenticity in movement. No matter what style of martial art he put in his films, a performer couldn't survive his production unless his basic movements were like steel that could be forged in any way. Yuen forced me to get to the essence of my martial abilities."
 * Yuen likes to shoot with one camera rather than use multiple cameras to get adequate coverage, as he feels that only one camera is necessary once he decides on a particular angle
 * He prefers fight scenes with just a few people, in order for the fight choreography to be detailed and interesting
 * Yuen dislikes overly violent and bloody films like the ones directed by Chang Cheh, which influences him to try something different in his choreography
 * In the early 2000s, Yuen shied away from using computer-generated imagery (CGI) in his works:
 * Speaking with the Los Angeles Times in 2000, he said that CGI "never looks quite right" compared to using actors and wirework
 * He outright denied using CGI in an interview with The Guardian the same year
 * However, in more recent interviews, Yuen says he has used CGI to enhance the fight choreography in his works, which he says is inspired by his time working with the Wachowskis

Recognition

 * Dubbed by David Edelstein in The New York Times as "Hong Kong's greatest action choreographer"
 * Marc Savlov in The Austin Chronicle writes that Yuen "must be credited with imbuing low-to-no-budget martial arts films with priceless artistry."
 * Yuen's fluid fight choreography in The Matrix had a major influence on future American action films, as they took direct inspiration from his wire stunts
 * Stuntman Chad Stahelski noted that the film sparked a change in Hollywood to design action scenes around fights instead of chase sequences
 * Yuen has been praised by many of his peers:
 * Ang Lee: "Yuen Wo-Ping has been an idol of mine for many years. He's been directing films since I was in high school, and he even directed Jackie Chan's breakthrough films [...] He therefore has the experience; he's a better action director than I am, although I think I'm a better dramatic director!"
 * Explains in an interview with The Austin Chronicle that he thinks Yuen has made "fantastic films" for years, spurred by the choreographer's love for classical martial arts forms while also being dedicated to improving his craft
 * Quentin Tarantino: "I love Hong Kong movies, and Yuen Wo Ping is my favourite director of them."
 * Donnie Yen: Refers to Woo-ping as "[his] mentor"
 * Keanu Reeves: "When you watch Wo-ping's fight scenes, you can see such joy in his work."

Awards and honours

 * For his contributions to Asian cinema, Yuen was honoured with a lifetime achievement award at the sixth annual Fantastic Fest in 2010
 * Yuen received New York Asian Film Festival's lifetime achievement award on 1 July 2019
 * He also won a lifetime achievement award at the Jackie Chan Action Movie Awards the same month and year