First look at Donnie Yen in ‘14 Blades’

Photos from the set of director Daniel Lee’s upcoming period martial arts actioner 14 BLADES, depicting leading wushu star Donnie Yen, have begun appearing in Chinese media. Images show a serious-looking Yen, both clothed and shirtless while sporting a goatee, fake tats and beefed up abs.

14 BLADES puts Yen into the role of Green Dragon, a Ming Dynasty-era Imperial guard, the best of a specially trained force of sword-slinging agents who take orders directly from the Emperor. When an evil Eunuch takes over the Imperial court, Yen’s associates turn against him while they’re on a secret mission. Green Dragon becomes public enemy number one and must battle his former comrades while rallying those still loyal to the Emperor.

SHAOLIN SOCCER AND PAINTED SKIN star Vicki Zhao plays Qiao Hua, the daughter of an armed escort service chief. She becomes romantically involved with Green Dragon.

Other cast members include Wu Chun, Qi Yuwu, Kate Tsui and Law Kar-ying.

The film is expected to contain heavy doses of stylized fight sequences populated by a large number of veteran martial arts stars, all overseen by action director Ku Huan-chiu who has worked closely with wire-fu master Yuen Woo-ping for the past 20 years.

Veteran genre actors to make appearances include Chen Kuan-tai (THE FLYING GUILLOTINE), Wu Ma (THE DEAD AD THE DEADLY), Sammo Hung (MARTIAL LAW), Xu Xiang-dong (WING CHUN), Chen Zhi-hua (IP MAN), and Damian Lau (DUEL TO THE DEATH).

Chen Kuan-tai, one of Shaw Brothers’ top kung fu stars of the 1970s, will play a nemesis to Donnie Yen’s character. It’s a fitting choice as not only is Chen a real kung fu expert who has stayed in shape, he starred in Shaw Brothers’ two FLYING GUILLOTINE films which are very similar in plot to 14 BLADES.

Mainlander Xu Xiang-dong is another highly skilled, albeit less famous martial arts-trained actor who previously appeared in Yuen Woo-ping’s wire-fu comedy WING CHUN, starring Michelle Yeoh and Donnie Yen. He also recently crossed fists with Yuen Biao in the excellent kung fu TV series WING CHUN (2007) where he showed that he is still in top form.

Yen has suggested that 14 BLADES has some of the most plentiful and challenging fight sequences from among his recent films. A likely reason for the injury and the challenge might be Ku Huan-chiu, who as action director is reportedly pushing the film’s fighting stars.

Midway through the 14 BLADES shoot, Donnie Yen reportedly suffered a leg injury, apparently related to a previous injury. Despite the setback, he returned to finish his scenes.

On a personal note, Donnie Yen’s grandmother passed away on July 14 in Boston. Amazingly, she was over 100 years old. Yen, who was in China on the set of 14 BLADES, was unable to fly back to the U.S. to attend the funeral service.

Sources: DonnieYen.us, Wu-Jing.org