Below is a video of the making of Tony Jaa's Ong Bak. You can see they found an old warehouse and practiced alll the stunts before actually filming it for real.
Personally I'm not a big Tony Jaa fan. I'm probably biased because I'm not too familiar with Muay Thai. It seemed like every single move Tony made in Ong Bak was somehow purposely designed to use his elbow or knee. I know that knees and elbows are Muay Thai specialities. But some of the action sequences didn't seem 'realistic' in that why would you throw an elbow when you are obviously in punching distance? Somehow I prefer Yuen Woo-ping style of choreography better. The moves are more intricate and real and are actually a blessing to watch in slow motion. By the same token, although I love Bruce Lee as a fighter, the fight sequences in his movies I actually find boring exactly because of his simple style of fight choreography.
Nonetheless, Tony Jaa is exciting to watch, especially for his youth, strength and flexibility. Jet, Jackie and Donnie are really getting up there. Lesser known is Wu Jing, a wushu champion out of China, a la Jet Li. He has focused his career mainly in China. But for those who have seen SPL, he is definitely a treat to watch too.
ZeroGravity is without a doubt the best online group of amateur action film makers and choreographers. They are a small group based in the California Bay Area who make low budget action films. They specialize in fight choreography and filming. They haven't made it to the big leagues yet, but they are well recognized in the martial arts choreography community. Given the budget and resources they have to work with, the action sequences they produce are comparable to professional Hong Kong choreography quality. Be sure to check out their films.
Unfortunately, ZeroGravity has pretty much been defunct over the past couple of years. A lot of their films were in the middle of production but were sadly never completed. Surprisingly, there seems to be hints of a comeback of sorts on the ZeroGravity forum. From the looks of it, they are looking over some storyboards. I'll definitely keep you posted as more concrete details come in.
Below is one of their demo videos from a while back.
With Chinese actions stars Jackie Chan and Jet Li more or less successfully establishing a foothold in Hollywood, why has Donnie Yen not done the same? Even newcomer Tony Jaa from Thailand has started to gain some publicity in North America. Donnie's only big screen North American release is Iron Monkey, a previously released film. He has yet to do a film specifically targeted for the North American market. Nonetheless, he has appeared in Hollywood movies such as Shanghai Knights and Blade 2. But he has yet to star in any Hollywood films. He will be playing a part alongside George Clooney in the remake of the Japanse classic, The Seven Samurai. But George will probably still be the main lead in that movie.
Perhaps he prefers to work behind the scenes as an action director. Stormbreaker, an upcoming Summer Hollywood blockbuster, has action scenes designed by Donnie. He was also the action director for Blade 2.
If you are thirsty for some Donnie Yen action, be sure to check out SPL, an action packed police thriller in which Donnie directs and kicks butt. Dragon Tiger Gate is Donnie's newest upcoming film to be released this Summer in Asia. The trailers definitely look good!
With the caliber of films Donnie is starring in these days, why doesn't he consider Hollywood more seriously?
