Donnie Yen's First MMA Movie Came WAY Sooner Than You Think
screenrant.comDonnie Yen helped pioneer MMA in martial arts films, but he did much earlier than many realize with 1989’s In The Line of Duty IV. Yen shot to global stardom by leading the Ip Man kung fu movie franchise, but his career goes back much further into the ‘80s. Hong Kong movies like Iron Monkey and Once Upon A Time In China II made Yen a rising martial arts star, while the early 21st century saw him beginning to appear in Hollywood movies like Blade II and Shanghai Knights.
Yen is also well-known as a huge MMA fan, and sought to bringing its blended approach to combat with his 2005 Hong Kong action movie Sha Po Lang, later released as Kill Zone in the Western world. Yen followed the film up with another martial arts cop action film in 2007’s Flash Point, standing as Donnie Yen's best MMA movie. The combo it served with Sha Po Lang helped push MMA-based fight choreography right to the front of contemporary martial arts films. Still, Yen showed he was already headed in that direction with In The Line of Duty IV.
RELATED: How Donnie Yen's Early Hollywood Roles Wasted The Action Icon
The Hong Kong cop movie sees Yen as a Hong Kong cop named Donnie pursuing gangsters alongside his associates on the force. Yen’s approach to the film’s fight scenes is quite eclectic with the assortment of different techniques utilized. That’s most especially seen in his rooftop showdown with Michael Woods.
In their face-off, Yen and Woods battle each other with a combination of punches, kicking, and grappling techniques that are the exact basis for MMA in modern times. While Donnie Yen has delivered countless amazing fight scenes in his career, such as multiple Jackie Chan vs. Donnie Yen fights, this approach made the end fight of In The Line of
Read more on screenrant.com
