27-2-09: TRANSPORTED BY COREY YUEN

Meeting a bona fide martial arts movie maestro.

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When I first became a fan of Asian action cinema, there was a vast amount of disinformation written about the genre. One enterprising journalist seized on the prevalence of ‘Yuens’ in the Hong Kong movie industry to craft a magazine article stating that everyone bearing that name was a son (or daughter!) of the late Yuen Siu-tien (the eponymous ‘Drunken Master’ in the Jackie Chan classic.) Yuen Biao, Yuen Wah, Yuen Tak, Ng See- yuen… That ol’ fella sure got around! In fact, Yuen Siu-tien did have nine children, including director Yuen Woo-ping, but most of the others in the misguided writers list were former Opera players who had adopted the stage name ‘Yuen’, in honour of their teacher, Yu Jim- yuen. These alumni include the man I was reunited with today, Yuen Kuei AKA Yuen Foy AKA Corey Yuen…

Like Jackie Chan (AKA Yuen Lo) and Sammo Hung (AKA Yuen Lung), Corey began his stage career at Master Yu’s Opera school, and was part of the Seven Little Fortunes performance troupe. Like his cohorts, he graduated from the school to find the Opera was being superseded as popular entertainment by kung fu movies, and so began applying his acrobatic skills as a a martial arts stuntman. Corey plays one of the Japanese karateka that Bruce Lee beats up when he storms the dojo in Fist of Fury. He graduated to featured roles, most memorably in Yuen Woo-ping’s official sequel to Drunken Master, Dance of the Drunken Mantis. That film’s producer, Ng See-Yuen, gave Yuen (Kuei) his first chance to direct with 1982’s Ninja In The Dragon’s Den. The pair later brought prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /Hong Kong style action to an English language project when, inspired by the American popularity of Bruce Lee and The Karate Kid, they melded the two into No Retreat, No Surrender.

I’d been trying to track Corey down to shoot a video interview with him for our forthcoming Dragon Dynasty re-releases of the Jet Li classics Fong Sai-yuk 1 & 2, and Bodyguard from Beijing. (When we were preparing our re-issue of The Enforcer, Yuen was at his second home in Seattle, and we couldn’t get hold of him in time.) Given that Jet Li himself has so far declined to do on-camera interviews discussing his older films, I knew Corey would be the best person to give the fans some insight into the star’s character and working methods. They collaborated as director and leading man on the above mentioned Hong Kong productions, and for such international releases as The One, War and Kiss of the Dragon. Thanks to the help of Corey’s aide-de-camp Julia Chu, we arranged to meet one Friday afternoon at a hotel in Tsim Sha Tsui

I first met Corey many moons ago, on the set of the film King Of The Kickboxers, which was shot in Thailand. This was the latest in the series of Seasonal Films’ English language actioners that had followed No Retreat, No Surrender. That movie had brought the world Jean-Claude Van Damme, and this one was giving them, um, Loren Avedon… Okay, it did have Billy Blank as the bad guy, and Billy did go on to create Tae-bo (Tae-bo!), and the film also featured Japanese-American Wu Shu champion Keith Cooke, who should have become a star! (When is someone going to release those ‘China O’Brien’ films on DVD?)

By this stage in the series, a lesser-known helmer, Lucas Lo, was directing, and Corey was just choreographing specific action sequences. It was my honour to be at hand when Yuen and his team crafted an amazing introductory scene for Keith’s character.

Since then, I’d met Yuen at the press con for Bodyguard from Beijing, on the set of his films Enter the Eagles and, en passant, out and about in Hong Kong. He had also directed DOA, which our company released, and, lest we forget, the ‘Transporter’ series. This interview was a great opportunity to catch up with one of the greatest talents to emerge from the Hong Kong action cinema.

Though, in person, low-key and self-deprecating, director Yuen did not disappoint in the least. He offered some fascinating insights on the casting and production challenges of the films. Hong Kong film-makers can seem less willing than their Hollywood counterparts to tell tales, but Yuen has numerous anecdotes about his experiences in Jet’s flight path. Besides the formal on camera Q-and-A, it was also fun to catch up with Corey and hear about his upcoming projects.

All these years on, its still a thrill to meet the idols I used to read about in England, back when we believed all the Yuens were sons of the Drunken Master….

(Finally, my thanks to Elizabeth ‘The Queen’ Yang for giving my brain and Corey’s ears a break, and conducting this Cantonese language interview with aplomb.)