Let’s travel to the Orient real quick, shall we. When I interviewed MMA fighter/actor Cung Le back in September, we briefly discussed his upcoming movie BODYGUARDS AND ASSASSINS in which he had the privilege of working with the highest paid actor in Asia, the legendary Donny Yen. Kungfucinema reported that the action flick has opened in theaters across China and parts of Oceania this week… The story is about “a band of kung fu fighters band together to protect revolutionary Dr. Sun Yat-sen from an elaborate assassination attempt in the heart of Hong Kong at the turn of the 20th century”.
What’s awesome about this is there’s an intense epic fight scene between Cung Le and Donny Yen. I remember Le told me that they were unhappy about the scene they shot the first time so a couple of months later the two collaborated again to reshoot that same scene with different choreography but it had to be done super fast before Le had to return to the U.S. to promote Pandorum…
We actually wrapped our scene and I was really unhappy, I told Donny and Donny felt the same way. Two months later I came back, they brought me back, Donny and I collaborated to shoot that scene that we did.. in 4 days. We shot and the last day Donny was ‘hey Cung, we can do a lot better but we need you a couple of more days’ but I already needed to fulfill the agreement I had with Overture Films to be at Comic-Con to promote PANDORUM and Comic-Con is a big stage to promote PANDORUM and I said ‘I can’t do it bro, what we’re going to have to do is shoot straight’ so Donny and I both shot for 24 hours straight to get the final shot and what we did in 15-16 days with that other fight coordinator, between Donny and I and his expertise cause I never wanna step on Donny’s foot, we did what we had to do to get it done in 4 days, amazing.
Donny Yen praised Cung Le for being a worthy opponent..
“It [was] like fighting a bull. Cung Le is the strongest opponent I have ever encountered in shooting action scenes, and because of his excellent martial arts skills and weight, I [had] to be extra careful.”
The following vibrant video will show you Donny Yen Vs. Cung Le, part footage from the movie, part from behind-the-scenes. Some old school stuntwork awesomeness, none of that CG 3D additions. I hope BODYGUARDS AND ASSASSINS open in U.S. theaters, if it doesn’t, then I’ll still be the first in line to rent it.
