Outdoors of his “Rogue One” look, Hong Kong motion star Donnie Yen is finest identified for main the “Ip Man” franchise, the place he performs an exaggerated model of the titular Wing Chun grandmaster. The films have been sufficiently big to transcend their Hong Kong roots and turn out to be widespread globally, with bombastic struggle scenes that made a degree of going past normal fight choreography to play up the real-life Ip Man’s legacy as a Chinese language nationwide hero — inflicting some controversy within the course of.
The collection had Yen’s Ip Man dealing with off towards everybody from ‘Iron’ Mike Tyson to British stunt performer extraordinaire Scott Adkins — who performed a US Marines Corps gunnery sergeant in “Ip Man 4: The Finale.” Now, Yen and Adkins will seem collectively within the upcoming “John Wick: Chapter 4,” which appears to be like set to push the Hong Kong motion star even additional than the “Ip Man” franchise ever did. In any case, Mike Tyson is one factor, however Baba Yaga is the person who killed three males in a bar with pencil…
For John Wick’s subsequent orgy of violence, star Keanu Reeves and collection director Chad Stahelski have been making a giant factor of how a lot they “took it to a different degree” this time. Which is an bold purpose for a collection that mainly invented its personal high-octane type of motion choreography, thanks largely to Stahelski’s background as a stunt performer and Reeves’ bewildering dedication to doing his personal fight and stunt work. With John Wick having to as soon as once more battle his method by means of seemingly endless waves of thugs and employed assassins, the collection does look to have stepped issues up this time. And that goes particularly for the inevitable face-off between Wick and Donnie Yen’s Caine, a blind murderer who sits on the council of crime lords generally known as the Excessive Desk.
Making an attempt one thing new
Donnie Yen displayed his martial arts experience all through his “Ip Man” run. However with “John Wick,” he’ll be totally immersed within the collection’ distinctive type of gun-fu. The fashion, pioneered by legendary Hong Kong filmmaker John Woo, options closely all through the “John Wick” collection, and includes gunfights interspersed with blended martial arts. However Chad Stahelski and his 87Eleven Motion Design firm have pushed gun-fu to a degree even Woo most likely by no means envisioned.
Now, it is Yen’s flip to have a go on the super-charged gun-fu of the “John Wick” saga, in a highly-anticipated face-off with Keanu Reeves’ hitman that is been closely teased within the “John Wick: Chapter 4” trailer. And as Stahelski defined to Collider, the conflict of two motion film titans required him to as soon as once more step issues up:
“I can do the Donnie Yen triple kick. I can do all this, however you additionally wish to do one thing completely different. So, you begin sitting, you come at it from character, and you’ve got quite a lot of discussions with the blokes going, ‘Okay, Donnie is superb at this. Keanu is superb at this. They’re each nice actors, so let’s lean onto that, and let’s do one thing we’ve not seen earlier than.'”
That “one thing” mainly amounted to giving Yen a sword and a pistol, whereas Reeves used a samurai sword and a few handguns for the large showdown. Past that, Stahelski defined how he pushed issues additional by throwing in, “an AR-15 and a glass mirror room with Japanese artifacts,” alongside, “a few canine.” All of which ought to mix to make a suitably spectacular set piece that pulls on the gun-fu fashion of the franchise whereas mixing issues up with the addition of the swords.
A protracted-awaited battle
In “John Wick: Chapter 4,” Donnie Yen’s Caine stands united with what appears to be like to be the movie’s central antagonist, Invoice Skarsgård’s Marquis de Gramont. Wick is seemingly on the trail to a full-on showdown with the Marquis, however it’s simply his struggle with Yen that is most anticipated. Reeves and Yen are a number of the most dedicated martial arts and stunt performers within the trade, each with enviable on-screen legacies and the real-life abilities to drag off a really memorable struggle scene. As such, their conflict has been long-awaited, seemingly by Chad Stahelski himself, who’s unapologetically a fan of each and claims to nonetheless be excited by “John Wick: Chapter 4” even after viewing it 100 occasions. Being a fan of Reeves and Yen made Stahelski aware of every thing each actors had finished earlier than when it comes to struggle scenes, giving the director a novel perception into what he may do that will make this specific showdown completely different.
The scenes from the trailers definitely appear like we may very well be in for one thing particular, and contemplating Yen is nearly 60 years previous, the pictures of him dueling at excessive pace with Reeves which were revealed up to now are really spectacular. And it appears to be like as if Caine and John Wick have been mates in some unspecified time in the future within the hitman’s previous, which ought to add an important emotional component to the struggle, serving to to boost the motion additional. Now we simply must see Wick vs. ‘Iron’ Mike, and we’ll be set.
“John Wick: Chapter 4” arrives in theaters on March 24, 2023.