Yuen Woo-ping

Yuen Woo-ping (Chinese: 袁和平; pinyin: Yuán Hépíng; born 1945 in Guangzhou, China) is a Chinese martial arts choreographer and film director, renowned as one of the most successful and influential figures in the world of Hong Kong action cinema. He is one of the inductees on the Avenue of Stars in Hong Kong. Yuen is also a son of Yuen Siu-tien, a renowned martial arts film actor.

Career

Yuen achieved his first directing credit in 1978 on the seminal Snake in the Eagle's Shadow, starring Jackie Chan, followed quickly by Drunken Master. The films were smash-hits, launching Jackie Chan as a major film-star, turning Seasonal Films into a major independent production company, and starting a trend towards comedy in martial arts films that continues to the present day.

Yuen went on to work with such figures as Sammo Hung in Magnificent Butcher (1979), Yuen Biao in Dreadnaught (1981), Donnie Yen in Iron Monkey (1993), and Jet Li and Michelle Yeoh in Tai Chi Master (1993) and Wing Chun (1994).

Yuen's works, particularly his action choreography on Fist of Legend (1994), attracted the attention of the Wachowski brothers, who hired him as the martial arts choreographer on The Matrix (1999). The success of this collaboration, plus his action choreography on the following year's hit Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, made him a highly sought after figure in Hollywood. He went on to work on the Matrix sequels and Kill Bill (2003).

More recent action choreography duties in Hong Kong cinema have included Kung Fu Hustle (2004), starring Stephen Chow, and Fearless (2006), starring Jet Li.

Yuen also choreographed the action sequences in The Forbidden Kingdom (2008), a Hollywood martial arts-adventure film. It is the first film to star together two of the best-known names in the martial arts film genre, Jackie Chan and Jet Li. He worked as a stunt coordinator for his first Indian film, Enthiran, directed by S. Shankar, which released in 2010.

In late 2010, Yuen released his first film as director since 1996, True Legend, starring Vincent Zhao and Jay Chou. He has recently worked as a fight choreography consultant on Ninja Assassin (2009).

Filmography

As director

• Snake in the Eagle's Shadow (1978) (Cantonese title: Se ying diu sau)
• Drunken Master (1978) (Cantonese title: Jui kuen)
• Dance of the Drunk Mantis (1979) (Mandarin title: Nan bei zui quan)
• Magnificent Butcher (1979) (Mandarin title: Lin shi rong)
• The Buddhist Fist (1980) (Mandarin title: Fo Zhang luo han quan)
• Dreadnaught (1981) (Mandarin title: Yong zhe wu ju)
• Miracle Fighters (1982) (Qi men dun jia)
• Legend of a Fighter (1982) (Huo Yuan-Jia)
• Shaolin Drunkard (1983) (Tian shi zhuang xie)
• Drunken Tai Chi (1984) (Xiao tai ji)
• Mismatched Couples (1985) (Qing feng di shou)
• Dragon Vs. Vampire (aka The Close Encounters of Vampire) (1986) (Jiang shi pa pa)
• Tiger Cage (1988) (Te jing tu long)
• Huang jia shi jie zhi IV: Zhi ji zheng ren (1989)

aka In the Line of Duty

aka In the Line of Duty IV

aka Yes, Madam 4

• Xi hei qian (1990)

aka Tiger Cage 2

• Leng mian ju ji shou (1991)

aka Tiger Cage 3

• Last Hero in China (1993)
• Su qi er (1993)

aka Fist of the Red Dragon (USA: video title)

aka Hero Among Heroes

• Iron Monkey (1993)
• Tai Chi Master (1993)
• Wing Chun (1994)
• Huo yun chuan qi (1994)

aka Fire Dragon

• Jie tou sha shou (1995) (as Jua Lu-jiang)

aka Iron Monkey 2

• Hu meng wei long (1995)

aka Red Wolf

• Tai ji quan (1996)

aka Tai Chi Boxer (Hong Kong: English title) (UK: literal English title)

aka Tai Chi 2

• True Legend (2010)

aka True Legend of Beggar Su (Working title)

Selected filmography as action choreographer/fight advisor

• The Bloody Fists (1972)
• Born Invincible (1978)
• Fist of Legend (1994)
• The Water Margin (1998)
• The Matrix (1999)
• Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)
• The Matrix Reloaded (2003)
• The Matrix Revolutions (2003)
• Kill Bill Vol. 1 (2003)
• Kill Bill Vol. 2 (2004)
• Kung Fu Hustle (2004)
• Danny the Dog (a.k.a. Unleashed) (2005)
• House of Fury (2005)
• Fearless (2006)
• The Forbidden Kingdom (2008)
• Enthiran (2010)
• The Grandmaster (2012)

Awards and nominations

References

External links

• Yuen Woo Ping at the Internet Movie Database
• Associated Press article about Yuen including quotes from Ronny Yu and Jet Li