Yuen Woo-ping
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- This is a Chinese name; the family name is Yuen.
| Yuen Woo-Ping | ||||||||||||||
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| Chinese name | 袁和平 | |||||||||||||
| Pinyin | Yuán Hépíng (Mandarin) | |||||||||||||
| Jyutping | Jyun4 Wo4ping4 (Cantonese) | |||||||||||||
| Born | 1945 (age 63–64) Guangzhou, Republic of China |
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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 enshrined as one of the inductees on the Avenue of Stars in Hong Kong.
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[edit] Works
In 1978 he achieved his first directing credit on the seminal Snake in the Eagle's Shadow, starring Jackie Chan, then quickly followed with the similar 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.
He went on to work with such figures as Sammo Hung in Magnificent Butcher (1979), Yuen Biao in Dreadnaught (1981), Donnie Yen in several films including Iron Monkey (1993), and Jet Li and Michelle Yeoh in several films including Tai Chi Master (1993) and Wing Chun (1994).
His work, particularly his action choreography on Fist of Legend (1994), attracted the attention of the Wachowski brothers, who hired him as the kung-fu 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 his long time friend Jet Li.
He 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 is set to become stunt coordinator for the Tamil Nadu cinema epic Endhiran directed by S. Shankar released in 2010.
In late 2008, Woo-Ping began working on his first film as director since 1996, True Legend, starring Vincent Zhao and Jay Chou.
[edit] Filmography
[edit] 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)
- Dreadnought (1981) (Mandarin title: Yong zhe wu ju)
- Exciting Dragon (1981) (Long fa wei)
- Miracle Fighters (1982) (Qi men dun jia)
- Oriental Voodoo (1982)
- 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 (UK)
- 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 Heroes Among Heroes
- Iron Monkey (1993)
- Tai Chi Master (1993)
- Wing Chun (1994)
- Huo yun chuan qi (1994)
- aka Fire Dragon
- Hu meng wei long (1995)
- aka The Red Wolf
- Jie tou sha shou (1996) (as Jua Lu-Jiang)
- aka Iron Monkey 2
- 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 (Woking title)
[edit] Selected filmography as action choreographer/fight advisor
- The Bloody Fists (1972)
- Fist of Legend (1994)
- 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)
- Endhiran (Tamil film) (2010)
[edit] Popular Culture
In the Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game World of Warcraft, the Weapon Master that resides in the Alliance Human major city of Stormwind is named Woo Ping, after the choreographer himself.[citation needed]
[edit] External links
- Yuen Woo Ping at the Internet Movie Database
- Associated Press article about Yuen including quotes from Ronny Yu and Jet Li
