The transcript below is from the video “Ip Man | How Donnie Yen lives and what he spends his millions on” by MixShow Star News.
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Donnie Yen is a Chinese-born actor, fight and stunt coordinator, director, and producer. He became an idol for Asian action fans all over the world and achieved success in Hollywood. We will tell you how he did it in this video.
Ip Man – How Donnie Yen lives and what he spends his millions on.
The actor’s real name is Yen Ji-dan, and he was born on July 27, 1963, in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou, also known as Canton. In the Beijing dialect, his surname is pronounced “Zhen”, and “Yen” is the Cantonese pronunciation. The father of the family, Klyster Yen, was a violinist, and his mother, Bow-sim Mark, was a vocalist in the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra. There they met, but two years after the birth of their son, the family split up. The father and the child emigrated to Hong Kong, but the authorities did not allow Mark to move. Only at the age of 9, the boy managed to see his mother again, and the family was finally reunited with the birth of his younger sister Chris.
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During the separation, Mark mastered martial arts and dreamed of opening her own school in Hong Kong, but she ran into the local mafia there, the market was already divided. Mark also taught her children martial arts. Therefore, it’s not surprising that Chris is also a master of martial arts. And in the 00s she tried herself in the cinema. The parents also cultivated a love of music in their children. Donnie plays the piano and several other instruments very well. But his main passion remained martial arts. The boy studied specialized books and repeated everything, regardless of style.
When he was 11 years old, the Yen family moved to the United States, settling in the suburbs of Boston. Across the ocean, Donnie’s father worked as an editor of a Chinese-language newspaper, and Mark finally managed to realize her dream and founded the Chinese Wushu Research Institute. The school quickly became popular, and Donnie became one of the best students. He closely watched movies with his favorite actor-fighters Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan and repeated their tricks. But he treated Chuck Norris with disdain because he could easily distinguish which films show real Chinese martial arts, and which are fake.
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As a teenager, Donnie began practicing Japanese Karate, Korean Taekwondo, and Western Boxing, as well as hip-hop and breakdancing. He started skipping school and spent time in the infamous Combat Zone, the criminal district of Boston. The teenager participated in underground MMA fights, started leading a nightlife and even joined a gang. To protect her son from gang life, Donnie’s mom sent him to Beijing on a 4-year training program with the Beijing Wushu Team.
In 1983, Yen decided to return to the United States, intending to establish his own martial arts school in Hollywood. But before leaving, he stopped by Hong Kong so that a friend of his mother, at her own request, would evaluate Donnie’s fighting abilities. This friend was the director Yuen Woo-ping, who immediately invited the young man to audition for his new comedy thriller Drunken Tai Chi, also known as Drunken Tai Chi Master.
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In just five minutes, Yen impressed the crew and was approved for the lead role. The film was released in 1984, but Donnie didn’t like the filming process. He was annoyed by the director, who explained almost nothing but would yell if he didn’t like something.
At that time, Yen didn’t think for a minute that he could stay in the cinema for a long time, nevertheless, the collaboration with Yuen Woo-ping continued. A year later, the film Mismatched Couples was released, on the set of which the actor suffered a severe injury to his right shoulder. It still bothers him to this day. This was followed by two parts of the film Tiger Cage and the action movie In The Line of Duty 4 Witness, also directed by Yuen Woo-ping.
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The master revealed to Donnie the specifics of staging combat scenes in movies, and over the years of cooperation, the actor has worked out his own style of on-screen combat. Then Donnie began to work with other directors and starred in the films Holy Virgin vs. the Evil Dead, Crystal Hunt, New Dragon Gate Inn, Cheetah on Fire, Butterfly and Sword. But the role in the action movie Once Upon a Time in China II, where he starred with Jet Li in 1992, became a landmark for Yen. This work earned Donnie a nomination for the Hong Kong Film Award in the category Best Supporting Actor.
In 1993, the actor reunited with Woo-ping on the set of the action movie Iron Monkey. The film turned out to be a success and was remembered for the fight scene with Shaolin monks, which Donnie directed. Ironically, this particular fragment was largely the result of film editing and flying on cables, but almost all other scenes were painstakingly choreographed. Iron Monkey was all the more remarkable because a few years after its release in Asia, it was acquired by the Miramax film studio, reworked, re-recorded, and shown in US cinemas. After the premiere in New York and Los Angeles, the film received critical acclaim from American critics and a prize at the Taurus Awards ceremony, the annual award of the World Academy of Stuntmen for the best stunts in cinema.
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In November of the same 1993, Donnie Yen married model Leung Zing-ci, but their family life lasted less than a year. After the breakup, Leung found out that she was pregnant, and in 1995 their son Man-Zeok Yen was born. During this time, the actor starred in the films Hero Among Heroes, Butterfly and Sword, Wing Chun (where he also acted as a composer, writing the soundtrack), as well as High Voltage. In the latter, he made his debut as a co-director, and in 1996 the sequel to Iron Monkey was released. Next, the audience saw the action films Ballistic Kiss, Shanghai Affairs, and Legend of the Wolf. All three were directed by Yen himself. The latter is also known as The New Big Boss and has become a true cult classic.
After his divorce from his first wife, Donnie began dating an actress and fashion model from Hong Kong named Joey Meng. Their relationship ended in 2000, but one episode that happened in the late ’90s stands out a lot. The young people went to relax in one of the nightclubs in Hong Kong, and when Donnie went to make an order, 8 heavily drunk men showed unwelcome interest in Joey. They were not stopped by the presence of the boyfriend, nor his warning to move away. When the couple left the club, the company continued to chase them on the street and attacked Yen. It was a big mistake because in the end, all 8 men ended up in the hospital with fractures, abrasions, concussions, and bruises. Donnie himself only suffered a minor bruise and was arrested the next day, but was released almost immediately when the police found out it was self-defense.
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In 2000, the fantasy-action film Highlander: Endgame with Adrian Paul and Christopher Lambert in the lead roles was released. It was the first American film in which Donnie Yen was cast. He played the immortal Jin Ke and choreographed the fight scenes. The next film, Blade 2, was also an American production, and then Donnie returned to his homeland and starred with Jet Li in the fantasy action movie Hero. The movie made Yen popular among the public of mainland China, and when released in wide theaters in the United States, it became one of the most successful foreign language films ever distributed in the American market. Yen’s next work was the 2003 American-Hong Kong action comedy Shanghai Knights with his favorite actor Jackie Chan.
At the same time, the actor’s second marriage took place. He married Cecilia Wang. She was previously a model and won the Miss China beauty pageant in Toronto in 2000. They met through mutual friends at one of the parties. Their friends thought it was funny that People magazine called Yen the diamond of fighting movies, and Cecilia’s parents were engaged in the jewelry business. They turned out to have a lot in common. Both grew up in the West and the East, into musicians’ families, and besides, they have the same tastes and views on life. Cecilia didn’t watch films starring Yen, but she was impressed by his sense of humor and excellent manners.
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A few months later, the couple got engaged. Donnie was very anxious about the acquaintance with her father, because he had quite strict rules, and the age difference between the bride and groom was almost 20 years. But after talking privately for a while, Wang Senior calmly asked when the wedding date was. Yen said that he was ready to burst into tears with happiness when he heard this. The wedding took place on August 30, 2003, in Canada, on the shores of Lake Ontario in Toronto. A year later, they had a daughter, Jasmine, and then a son, James. Donnie often arranges romantic surprises for his wife, gives flowers for every holiday, and on the first anniversary, he sang a serenade of his own composition to his beloved. On the 10th anniversary, he got a tattoo on the lower back with one of the hieroglyphs of her name meaning “poetry”. The actor admits that his wife is not just a beloved woman for him, but also a friend, assistant, and business partner. A romantic in life, Yen continued to star in the action films The Twins Effect II, Seven Swords, SPL: Sha Po Lang and Dragon Tiger Gate. However, in 2004, he also appeared in one romcom, Love on the Rocks.
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In 2007, Donnie played the main role in the film Flash Point and received an award from the Hong Kong Film Award for choreographing the fights in it. The actor worked so hard on the set that he had to go to the doctors every two days to recover physically. A year later, the films Painted Skin, An Empress and the Warriors were released, but the main hit was the action movie Ip Man about the invincible Wing Chun master, who opened his own martial arts school and became known as Bruce Lee’s teacher.
The plot of the film was close to the original biography of Ip Man with added fiction. In terms of combat choreography and biographical data, the crew was advised by the son of master Ip Chun. Donnie Yen himself visited the city of Foshan, where the master lived, and spent a lot of time with his sons, listening to stories about their father, family life, and martial arts. Before the premiere of Ip Man Donnie’s fees were somewhere at the level of a million dollars per film, but after that, the figure increased three and a half times.
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In 2009, the actor appeared in a documentary about Bruce Lee, the action movie Bodyguards and Assassins, and the historical drama The Founding of a Republic. This film was released to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the foundation of the People’s Republic of China and many Chinese actors were eager to star in it, albeit in a cameo role and for free. Donnie Yen played one of the members of the Communist Party, thereby showing his loyalty to mainland China, not Hong Kong. By the way, he was repeatedly criticized for this position and ignoring the ongoing protests in Hong Kong. To one of these comments reproaching him for fighting for justice only on screen, Donnie replied that he was fighting for the Chinese people. It is worth noting that the most profitable fan base of Yen lives in mainland China.
After the success of the first film about Ip Man, filming of the sequel began almost immediately. It was released in 2010. There was even less truth about the main character in it, but the story was generously flavored with action scenes and the fees exceeded the first part almost twice. Filming turned out to be difficult for Donnie. He fainted twice from overwork. And if in the previous film the creators collaborated with the master’s son, this time he criticized Donnie Yen, calling him ungrateful. And the fact is that, according to the actor, the success of the films has nothing to do with the martial art of Wing Chun. Other representatives of the martial arts world and Donnie’s colleagues joined the criticism. All in all, the actor is known for regularly quarreling with directors, calling them “incompetent people”, “tyrants” and “pushovers”. He is unashamedly expressive, even towards the eminent masters.
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In the next few years, the actor starred in China and Hong Kong in such films as 14 Blades, Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen, The Lost Bladesman, Dragon, as well as two comedies All’s Well, Ends Well 2011 and 2012. This was followed by the release of Special ID, Together, The Monkey King, Iceman, Kung Fu Jungle, An Inspector Calls, and in December 2015, the premiere of Ip Man 3 took place.
Donnie explained the long break between the second and third parts by saying that many other film and TV projects about the character were coming out, and the market was somewhat oversaturated. This time the plot virtually doesn’t overlap with the real biography of the great master, but the formula for success with a large number of battle scenes worked again, and the film grossed $157 million with a budget of $36 million. Donnie’s wife was very worried about her husband because he had to fight Mike Tyson on the set. But her fears were unfounded. On the contrary, Yen broke the famous boxer’s finger.
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Back in 2015, the actor established the Yen’s Honour Protection Fund in order to enable celebrities to defend themselves from slander. Donnie won the money with which the organization was founded in court against director Tan Bin. He accused Yen of refusing to work on his project, and he hired bots to threaten the actor’s family.
In 2016, the actor played the main role in the Netflix adventure thriller Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny, and in the epic space opera Rogue One. Donnie doubted whether to accept the invitation to play in the latter because he needed to be away from his family for a long time to film it, but his children literally forced him. They were so excited that their dad was going to be in a movie with lightsabers and spaceships that he couldn’t resist.
There, in the US, Yen replaced Jet Li, who left the project for unknown reasons, and the action-adventure film XXX: Return of Xander Cage. The premiere took place in early 2017, and soon the actor returned to his homeland to star in the crime drama Chasing the Dragon and the comedy thriller Big Brother.
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At the end of 2019, Ip Man 4: The Finale premiered. Despite Donnie Yen’s statement that he didn’t want to return to this series again. It is reported that his fee amounted to $12.8 million. In January 2020, the actor played a policeman who constantly gets into ridiculous situations in the comedy project Enter the Fat Dragon, and in March the world saw him in the Disney movie Mulan. The actor got the role of Commander Tung, the mentor of the main character.
In 2021, Donnie Yen appeared in the movie Raging Fire, in 2022 he starred in the fantasy New Kung Fu Cult Master 1 and in the adventure thriller Come Back Home. The release of the action movie The Father and the film adaptation of the popular video game Sleeping Dogs is also expected, but most fans are waiting for the fourth part of the story about John Wick with Keanu Reeves. The project is at the post-production stage, that is, filming has already ended. And the main director of the combat scenes in this film doesn’t hide the fact that he giggled like a boy while working with his childhood idol.
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Jet Li, Jackie Chan and Michelle Yeoh consider Donnie Yen the best fighter in modern Asian cinema. He has a 6th-degree black belt in Taekwondo, a black belt in Judo, a purple belt in Brazilian Jiu-jitsu and continues to master new techniques. He also introduces Mixed Martial Arts into Asian cinema. On his social media, the actor shows great athleticism but understands that with age his capabilities become more and more limited. He is not afraid that one day he won’t be able to do what he is capable of doing now, and gradually switches to directing, producing, and other work on the other side of the camera.
Donnie Yen can also speak several languages. He can speak Cantonese, Mandarin, and English fluently. During the filming of one of the films, he mastered Korean, and he can also understand the Shanghai dialect spoken by his wife’s family.
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Donnie Yen’s fortune is estimated at $40 million. He is considered one of the highest-paid actors in Asia. Movie shooting fees are usually $7-8 million, but in addition, Yen has his own clothing brand DY Edition and a brand of sunglasses DonniEye. Besides, according to media reports, one commercial featuring an actor costs companies approximately one million dollars. So, he advertised a remedy for back pain, Hublot watches, BMW cars, the Nike sports brand, several video games, and together with his wife they were the faces of the brand of orthopedic mattresses and pillows SINOMAX.
Yen is also involved in social projects. For example, he called for the abandonment of plastic and appeared in an advertisement for the rescue services of Hong Kong. The actor is actively engaged in charity work and in 2012, together with his wife, founded an online platform encouraging people to help others. He is an ambassador of the international organization Save the Children, in 2015 he visited refugee camps in Thailand, and in 2020 he donated 130 thousand dollars to medical workers in Wuhan.
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Yen has at least six properties in Hong Kong, each of which, except one, was bought for about 1.5 million US dollars. The exception is a house in a prestigious area of Hong Kong, which cost 17 million. The media called this mansion the most stylish fortress, with a gym and living room with a grand piano standing out in particular. It is reported that this property is 80% owned by Donnie’s wife, and he owns only 20%.
In the garage, the actor has several Lamborghinis, Bentley Continental GT, and Toyota Alphard for family trips, and his closet contains very expensive accessories. He wears a $14,000 Rolex and an Audemars Piguet worth about $70,000. And back in 2016, Donnie bought a horse named Bad Boy, who participated in horse racing. The actor himself often attends horse races.
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