Martial Arts

Profile: Donnie Yen

The martial arts expert on playing Bruce Lee's mentor

16 Oct 2009

Name Donnie Yen Born 27 July 1963, Canton, China Background Born to a newspaper editor and a martial arts master, Yen began practising tai chi and wushu at the age of four. At 16 he was sent to the Beijing Wushu Academy, where he studied under…

Sa-Choom

Sensory Korean overload

7 Aug 2008

They call it a dance musical but Sa-Choom is more like a happy assault vehicle. Big beats mix with big smiles in a rolling collision of breakdancing, martial arts, techno, hip hop and glossy pop. It’s all about feeling good, and with the verve and…

Jade Warrior

22 May 2008

MYTH/ROMANCE (12) 100min (Yume) This potentially fascinating attempt to combine two mythologies: ancient Chinese martial arts with Finnish legend, The Kalevala is, as the blurb tell us, ‘the first ever Finnish martial arts film’. May it also be the…

The City of Violence

(18) 90min (Premier Asia DVD retail/rental)

23 Aug 2007

Deeply indebted to a host of Western classics, this dazzling flick by Korean director Ryoo Seung-wan smoothly blends all of its influences into a fast-paced, gorgeous-looking whole. With shades of Get Carter, the hard-bitten (and just plain hard…

Dragon Tiger Gate

DVD

16 Jul 2007

MARTIAL ARTS DRAGON TIGER GATE (15) 86mins (Showbox DVD retail/rental) Based on the popular Manga Oriental Hero and directed by veteran Hong Kong action director Wilson Yip alongside Hong Kong actor and stunt choreographer Donnie Yen…

Curse Of The Golden Flower

(15) 114min

11 Apr 2007

EPIC DRAMA/WAR Zhang Yimou’s third martial arthouse adventure is less action oriented than the co-writer and director’s last, House of Flying Daggers, but even more ravishing in visual terms than his first stab at the genre, Hero. At heart Curse of…

New Police Story

(15) 123min

2 Oct 2006

MARTIAL ARTS THRILLER The fifth instalment of the Police Story series sees Jackie Chan playing an older, less mobile and jagged cop. A gang of hoodlums using hi-tech methods based on a warped computer game are rampaging through Hong Kong, stealing…