Despite Yen's exceptional martial arts talent, he chose the
less travelled path that led to his big-screen directorial debut with
“Legend of the Wolf” in 1997. As apparent in the film and his television
work, Yen's primary goal he says 'is to stir emotion in the hearts of the
audience. Without that, there's nothing.' Many filmmakers can make things
bigger, more complex, and more violent, but Yen wants his films to touch his
audience, for them to take away with them 'tears, romance, and memory.'
Though shot for a lot less than half a million US dollars, because of its
unique style the film earned critical acclaim across Asia, and was
particularly well-received in Japan where Yen became a cult icon among young
film fans. “Legend of the Wolf” (a.k.a. “New Big Boss”) has since been
distributed all over the world. Part twilight zone, part gang tale and all
martial arts, “Legend” serves as an elegy for a time when kung fu movies
reigned supreme. Yen himself stars as Man Hing (also known as Wolf), an aged
former hitman who tries to dissuade potential clients form killing. Events
are glimpsed in a series of flashbacks as a young man who has lost his
memory knows only to wait for his lost love. Experimental camerawork and
energetic rhythm can be glimpsed in this movie as well as his previous TV
series.
“Legend of The Wolf” took 43 working days to shoot, which is quite short
compared to Hollywood films. One of the difficulties of Yen trying to become
a director was that for years he had been recognised as an action actor.
Getting recognition as a director was the dream of a lifetime but he had to
make it happen by himself. So he had to work on a very limited budget and
try to make the best film he could. “Legend of The Wolf” was a low budget
film but Donnie was hoping that when he earned that recognition, then the
investors would invest more money and then he would be able to make
something on a much grander scale.
With "Legend of the Wolf," he was too ambitious. He wanted the whole world.
He wanted to express his anger, his desire, and ambition. He was ambitious
in trying to express himself as an artist and as a fighter. He had done so
many films and if he was going to direct a film and go back to the same
pattern, the same editing style and choreography, he could not compete with
Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung, or Yuen Woo Ping. It wasn't the lack of confidence
or knowledge. It was the simple fact that he didn't have the budget. He had
to find a way to identify himself. He chose to be creative with the editing;
with the way he shot the fighting. He wasn't concentrating as much on the
technique probably because the audience had seen it all. If in a certain
film you throw 3 kicks in the air, what's it going to be next time? That's
why people probably got tired of Van Damme because he is doing the same
thing every time. Donnie had to make a really bold statement with his vision.
Some people thought he was totally crazy with "Legend of the Wolf" with the
cranking up the speed of the fighting. It was fast cut and they couldn't see
it clearly. The conservative people in Hong Kong were very confused. Speed
is basically a feeling. According to Yen, “If you can see it; it's not the
ultimate speed.” A lot of the action directors say that the action has to be
clean in a movie. However, Donnie thinks that his films do not need to be
like instructional tapes. We have seen him doing 30 movements and the whole
kung-fu forms in "Drunken Tai Chi". In “Legend of the Wolf," he just wanted
to take the audience to another level. He wanted to give the viewers the
satisfaction of watching martial arts films. His intention was to have them
walking out of his films still shaking with these images, dreams, and
nightmares. He wanted it to be ‘so damn fast that they would not sleep.’ He
believes that he served his purpose and the martial arts approach. As a
first time director, however, he was overly ambitious. He wanted to tap into
philosophy; he wanted to compete with Tsui Hark; he wanted to prove that
with a limited budget, he was just as good.
Ballistic Kiss
Having shot “Legend Of The Wolf” in what remains of the
Hong Kong countryside, Yen made his next film, “Ballistic Kiss,” on the 24-
hour streets of the city itself. Where his first film had focussed on
martial arts action, “Ballistic Kiss” featured some of the most imaginative
gunplay sequences ever committed to celluloid, accompanied by his signature
kicks and daring editing. The film's score was composed by famed Japanese
composer Yukie Nishimura, who volunteered to work on the project having been
inspired by watching Yen's debut film, “Legend Of The Wolf.” Both films
depict romance caught in the line of fire, and both give free reign to the
unique visual style of one of Hong Kong's most exciting young directors. In
“Kiss” Yen stars as the hitman Cat, who loves from afar. The film was shot
for less than half a million dollars and under enormously difficult
circumstances, yet Yen delivered big bang for the buck in a series of
hyper-kinetic action sequences, along with arty camerawork and romantic
lyricism. The film was not only a success with Hong Kong film critics but
Yen was nominated for the Best Young Director Award at the 1998 Yubari
Fantastic Film Festival in Japan and “Kiss” has been selected for screening
at many other international festivals as well.
This second directorial project was very difficult to film. According to
Yen, there were a lot of problems with that film in terms of the script,
dialogue, acting; but most importantly there was a lack of budget. When he
looks at this film, under those circumstances; the environment and lack of
support, he admits that his willingness to pull it off despite all of that
was surprising. After he made "Legend of the Wolf," they came back to him
and wanted him to shoot more of those hard-core martial arts films; but he
refused to do that. As a director who has a vision and dream, he wanted to
do more modern films. His whole approach was going to be a whole English
dialogue film. The first day he had problems with people speaking English,
so one day he had to stop production entirely to translate into Chinese. It
was a difficult process with all of the slang, the elements, and the
structure since it was based on Western thinking. Switching to that local
flavour was hard.
After a week of reconstructing the film, he realized he was filming in the
middle of the Asian stock crisis. The money that was promised to back up his
film was cut off so he had to invest his own money. That was the biggest
problem. He was dealing with a catch 22 situation. As he was going into
production, he was dealing with a money shortage, dealing with whether he
should stop the whole production and call it off in order to not let it get
any deeper. However, he was concerned that if he stopped production it would
ruin his career as a director and people in the industry would no longer
take him seriously. Everyday he was dealing with that type of situation, and
at that point he was just wondering what he was going to do with "Ballistic
Kiss?" Fortunately, he decided that he should go ahead and use his own
money. He had done some films he did not really like so that he could make
some money and back up his own film. Some scenes could have been shot
better, but the reason he couldn't enhance it was that he didn't have the
money. He tried to close the gap by putting a lot of time into editing
because that really didn't cost much money. When he was editing, he was
trying to cover up the problems with the film. He was very strong,
determined and stubborn. He just wouldn’t have people laugh at him. He was
going to make the best film possible regardless of the material that he
lacked. He didn't have enough shots, enough footage and certain things were
not right. He forced it out. He spent hours trying to make it as smooth as
possible, pulling the right elements of music together. At the end of the
day, he saw the film and he thought, "This is not a bad little film here."
The next thing he knew, a couple of months later, someone from Japan called
him to tell him that he had been nominated. Yen said of the experience,
“Sometimes you have all your expectations in one thing, and they don't come
out the way you want it. Sometimes in the worst situations things turn out
to be a whole lot better than you expect.” Having gone through all these
processes has made him a much better filmmaker. Now he can understand
everyone's perspective: the distributor, investor, actor, producer, and
writer. He knows how to handle all of them.
“Legend Of The Wolf,” “Ballistic Kiss,” Yen's television
work, and his action choreography have earned him the reputation of being a
focused filmmaker who has a vision and can bring it to the screen - but also
as one who can keep within budgetary restraints or reliably work under
pressure when there are bumps in the road. He never storyboards and, like
John Woo, carries the film in his head. A good observer, he says that when
he walks onto the set, he can take in the scene and determine which shots
should go where, what angles, how actors should move. And Yen himself, ever
passionate about his work, is moving on.
Donnie is very happy that the feedback for “Legend of the Wolf” and
“Ballistic Kiss” is so positive because he worked very hard on both of those
movies. He may not be totally satisfied with the films and although he would
like to make them better, he believes that it will come with time. Anyway,
expensive production is not everything. Talent is everything and passion in
the heart of the artist. As Donnie says, “When you watch my films, you're
feeling my heart.”
