Donnie Yen is a famed martial artist, director, fight choreographer and Hong Kong movie hero and is no stranger to on-screen fighting. This Boston native has wielded his fists of fury in such Asian action films as "Iron Monkey", "SPL", "Flashpoint", and many more. Yen’s unique style of fighting is quite unpredictable as he effortlessly shifts gears of motion. One moment the audience is magnetized by his liquid motion, as his movements and form are hypnotically fluid and dance-like. And within moments, Donnie's fighting style has been transformed to a state of unparalleled speed and raw power without sacrificing proper technique.
Donnie Yen has the education and experience to transcend boundaries between Hollywood, East and West. Fluent in English, Cantonese and Mandarin; born on the Mainland but grew up in Hong Kong and later in Boston; spent his recent years in Hong Kong, and is now based between L.A. and New York, he gives new meaning to the phrase “man of the world.” His movies reflect his personal intensity and drive as well as the life of the world he observes around him. Filmmaking for Yen is pace and flow, the flow of images, the flow of music, and the flow of communication between the art and the audience.
In a photoshoot he did for Esquire, he was asked about his on-screen violence against the backdrop of a serious social issue: the effects of violent films on the youth. In what the magazine describes as a coup, it obtained a letter written in Yen's own hand urging young people to take the road of peace.
Here is the translation of the letter, written by hand, by Donnie Yen:
"dear friend:
Your departure fills me with deep sadness and remorse. As someone with a true love of Chinese kung fu, I am acutely aware that violence can mislead people to savage and desperate actions, and how fascination with violence has led untold numbers of young people to pay a heavy price, or even lose their lives. But some situations have no need for a violent resolution; kindness and humanity is altogether possible. In many cases, the use of violence will not only fail to solve a problem, it will make it even worse. And once it is used, there is no taking it back. Violence begets more violence rather than bringing justice.
The highest level of Chinese martial arts is harmony among all things. It stresses both inward
and outward cultivation and possesses a wealth of meaning and profound implications. It is the power of spirit and of faith. Violence belongs to a novice's misunderstanding of martial arts and advocates a competition of reckless force; there is no way for it to ascend to a contest on a spiritual level. The true way to solve a problem is through an attitude of tolerance, patience, magnanimity, and humility, and above all by using a spirit of harmony to resolve discord.Looking through the pages of human history, we see far too many people who have shed their blood or lost their lives due to war and aggression. They believed in violent martial arts and hoped to use its great power to win victory over others, thereby achieving vainglory and satiation. But ultimately they discovered that this is a fearsome snare permeated with all of our greed, desire, bigotry, and inhumanity, a glittering enticement that pulls humanity into an inescapable pit. Many are those who have succumbed to it through violence.
Chinese martial arts have a long history, so we should understand all the more what real power truly is, and what our stance should be when trouble nears.
Using this opportunity given me by Esquire, I hope that your friends, those young, violent movie lovers, will take this bitter lesson to heart, and will find better fortune along their road in the future."
Donnie Yen
2008.09.02
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