Kung Fu Jungle aka Kung Fu Killer

[GeneChing]

Not sure how this one got by us for so long...maybe it was the title change.


Donnie Yen's "Kung Fu Killer" Retitled to "Kung Fu Jungle" (http://www.movieswithbutter.com/blogs/donnie-yens-kung-fu-killer-retitled-kung-fu-jungle-740442)
Posted 1:13 AM March 28th, 2014 by Senh Duong

http://www.movieswithbutter.com/sites/default/files/images/kung-fu-jungle.preview.jpg

A couple of days ago, I briefly stepped into the Filmart section of the Convention Center in Hong Kong during the Hong Kong International Film Festival. The Filmart is where Asian film studios try to sell the foreign rights to their movies.

I saw a booth with a large display showing stills from a Donnie Yen film titled Kung Fu Jungle. From talking to the organizers of the booth, I learned that Yen’s film Kung Fu Killer has been retitled yet again. The first version was Last of the Best.

Of the three titles, Kung Fu Killer is the best, but it’s also the title to a David Carradine TV movie made in 2008, which could be why it was changed.

The latest title Kung Fu Jungle is the worst. It sounds like a silly Kung Fu comedy for kids, not an adult thriller about catching a serial killer who murders Kung Fu masters of various fighting styles. The title probably refers to the various styles that resemble wildlife animals.

Still, Kung Fu Jungle just sounds silly. I hope between now and its August release in China, Emperor Motion Pictures, the studio behind Kung Fu Jungle, will make another adjustment.

[Jimbo]

The plot sounds just like that old Canadian movie, Tiger Claws, that starred Bolo Yeung and Jalal Merhi.

I don't like it when the newer MA movies use the words 'Kung fu' or 'Dragon' in their titles. Someone really needs to try a little harder. Even 'Last of the Best' wasn't a good title, though it's still better than 'Kung Fu Jungle'.

Otherwise, I think this one might be a good Donnie Yen vehicle (I hope).

[GeneChing]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoBigT-GIBQ

[GeneChing]

58th BFI London Film Festival (http://www.bfi.org.uk/lff) "8-19 October 2014. 248 films. 17 venues. 12 days. One festival."


'Kung Fu Jungle' to Get World Premiere at London Film Festival (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/kung-fu-jungle-get-world-733120)
2:23 AM PST 09/16/2014 by Georg Szalai


http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/news_portrait/2013/03/yen.jpg
Donnie Yen
The Teddy Chen film features action star Donnie Yen and Michelle Bai

The 58th BFI London Film Festival will present the world premiere of Kung Fu Jungle (Yi Ge Ren de Wu Lin), directed by Hong Kong filmmaker Teddy Chen (Bodyguards and Assassins).

The film, which will screen in the festival's Thrill selection, stars Donnie Yen and Michelle Bai. The stars and the director are scheduled to attend the premiere at London's Empire Leicester Square Cinema, a big premiere venue in the British capital.

"Donnie Yen is a truly exhilarating martial arts star and action director and Kung Fu Jungle is a breathtaking thrill ride, featuring stellar performances from the entire cast," said festival director Clare Stewart.

The film is about a former martial arts instructor (Yen) who is imprisoned after accidentally killing an opponent. When a killer starts targeting the reigning kung fu masters, he offers to help the police catch him in return for his freedom. The killer then threatens the woman he loves (Bai).

Said Chen: "As the Empire is equipped with one of the biggest screens in the U.K., it will surely be the perfect setting for the screening of my film. It is my first film to cross martial arts combat in a contemporary Hong Kong action film with elements of a thriller and crime detective story."

The festival previously announced that it would also host the world premiere of Monsters: Dark Continent, directed by Tom Green, the sequel to Monsters (2010), in its Thrill selection. It has also booked a range of Cannes favorites for its lineup.

The Imitation Game, starring Benedict Cumberbatch, will open the London festival, while Brad Pitt's Fury will close it.

Email: Georg.Szalai@THR.com
Twitter: @georgszalai

[GeneChing]

The initial buzz seems pretty good. I'm looking forward to this one.


Director Teddy Chen reaffirms his love of martial arts in his latest offering (http://www.scmp.com/magazines/48hrs/article/1627311/director-teddy-chen-reaffirms-his-love-martial-arts-his-latest)
Edmund Lee

http://www.scmp.com/sites/default/files/styles/620x356/public/2014/10/29/6c58dfeafd121d8475c7ecb378789ed0.jpg?itok=KKCqGVvQ
Teddy Chen Tak-sum. Portraits: Jonathan Wong

Of the more than 20 students in a judo class in a Hong Kong public housing estate in the mid-1970s, few were more stunned than the young Teddy Chen Tak-sum to witness their teacher's public humiliation. It shocked the 12-year-old that a formidable judo master would back down to a few hooligans over a trivial dispute about girls, while being slapped in the face with machetes.

"We all thought he's a master and had no reason to let that happen. We urged him to fight back but he just knelt down and apologised," recalls the veteran filmmaker, who, before that moment, had believed his own athletic gift to be a way out of his miserable childhood.

Raised in a broken family, Chen was used to taking refuge in the heroic fantasies he found in Shaw Brothers films and judo-themed Japanese TV dramas. Nominally a Form 5 graduate, he readily acknowledges that his "real education level is only about Form 2 or 3", and that he only was promoted because of his excellence in physical education.

Sitting inside Luk Chee Fu Martial Arts Federation in Chai Wan, Chen can't resist the opportunity to check out the weapons.

Given the tortuous decade-long production time for his previous film, Bodyguards and Assassins (2009), it must be a relief that we can chat about his follow-up effort after only five years.

https://www.scmp.com/sites/default/files/styles/486w/public/2014/10/29/2e9f916375febb456f1c9d2b1e0fddf0.jpg?itok=igiVvZ0i
Donnie Yen (above, below) in Kung Fu Jungle

https://www.scmp.com/sites/default/files/styles/486w/public/2014/10/29/716925ed75b05ad9fd7c19361a6d9ff9.jpg?itok=g4FEm5YT

Kung Fu Jungle had its world premiere at the London Film Festival earlier this month and will open generally in Hong Kong and several other Asian territories this week. A ferocious action spectacle in the thinly veiled guise of a detective procedural, it follows a police inspector (Charlie Young Choi-nei) as she restlessly pursues a psychopathic serial killer (Wang Baoqiang) with the assistance of a former kung fu instructor (Donnie Yen Ji-dan), who was imprisoned for accidentally killing his opponent in a duel.

Chen had planned to write that early episode about his judo instructor into the traumatic back story of Wang's killer-on-the loose character, but decided subsequently that a genuine martial arts fanatic needs no such motivation to become the best fighter. The awkward overlap between the romanticised ideals of martial arts and the practical reality of the world has, however, been retained.

"This is my experiment to inject the spirit of the martial arts world into an action movie set in a world of advanced technologies, where a person can be simply killed by a gunshot," says Chen, who reveals the setting for Kung Fu Jungle to be a consequence of his approach to honing his scripts.

"My original intention for the film was to again use the set of Bodyguards and Assassins, because I loved that set," says Chen of the concrete streetscape in Shanghai. "After all, I'd spent so much time making it happen; it's a waste to make only one movie with it. But I'm too slow in my scriptwriting. In the two years since Bodyguards was released, several dozen early-20th-century-set kung fu films had popped up. Everyone was sick of it by that point."

https://www.scmp.com/sites/default/files/styles/486w/public/2014/10/29/cb45de2135b2d0b3ec21cf8fca1de342.jpg?itok=shdXKkQ4
Charlie Young

To transpose his story to a different time, Chen went through his portfolio of partly developed scripts and found a serial killer story treatment that was incorporated into Kung Fu Jungle, which was mostly shot in Hong Kong.

"It's like [the 1995 David Fincher movie] Se7en but with Chinese elements," he says. "It was going to be made with a co-producer from France, but they were too slow to act and I decided not to wait any longer."

Chen has reasons to be confident about the project - with or without overseas investment. As one of Hong Kong's more established filmmakers, his memorable action offerings include the stylish espionage flick Downtown Torpedoes (1997), the outrageous terrorist thriller Purple Storm (1999), and the Jackie Chan vehicle The Accidental Spy (2001), which opened 22 years after he worked for almost a year as the action star's personal assistant. "Or lackey, if you're being less courteous," he says with a chuckle.

In addition, the director's previous outing, the Peter Chan Ho-sun-produced Bodyguards and Assassins, received a whopping 18 nominations at the 29th Hong Kong Film Awards - later reduced to 17 due to a technicality in the best new performer category - and took home eight prizes, including a best film win along with a best director nod for Chen.

https://www.scmp.com/sites/default/files/styles/486w/public/2014/10/29/20141030_48_mag_tc1.jpg?itok=Jb46Opl_
Bai Bing

Known as much for his versatility as for the eventfulness of his career, Chen is no stranger to his own adaptive reserve following the long line of abrupt setbacks to his projects. He saw 9/11 happen a month before he was scheduled to start shooting his Hollywood remake of Purple Storm, while Sars broke out in the Guangzhou village next to where he had just built a monumental set for Bodyguards and Assassins.

Chen's rare ventures outside action filmmaking have seen him making arguably the best nightlife-themed Hong Kong film (1994's Twenty Something) in the past two decades, and also managing to entice superstar Andy Lau Tak-wah to take the lead of an ostensibly unprofitable family melodrama (2005's Wait 'Til You're Older), which was made in memory of Chen's long-estranged and deceased father.

In a recent development that looks much more likely to be heading for a happy ending, Chen has been dedicating many of his waking hours to raising money and assisting in the establishment of a welfare fund, which will benefit veteran stuntmen who are past their prime, as well as crew members who are injured on the set.

"I hope everyone who has accomplished something, and who has made some money, can help the industry a little bit. I'm only kicking off this thing as a start," he says.

https://www.scmp.com/sites/default/files/styles/486w/public/2014/10/29/11a5db23930a260282e7587aedbbbd8f.jpg?itok=kgrkJfZZ
Teddy Chen

Together with Jackie Chan, Eric Tsang Chi-wai and a host of other leading industry figures, Chen has been part of a concerted effort to restructure the action filmmaking profession. It began with the endeavour to help stuntmen secure insurance policies ("Even the scaffolding business found it easier to get insured than us"), and will be followed by the opening of new training courses for people looking to join the field, and a major action film project.

From the cameos and tribute messages included in Kung Fu Jungle - the action of which was alternately choreographed by Donnie Yen, Yuen Bun and Stephen Tung Wai - the director's respect for martial arts cinema looks boundless. "I don't look at one area or one generation - it's all-inclusive," says Chen, who credits his theme of the bond between men to "the help of many, many friends who have allowed me to get to where I am today".

For someone who has seen the worst vulnerability of kung fu as a kid to reaching the top of action filmmaking as a director, how does Chen make sense of it all?

"I don't mean to philosophise," he says of his filmmaking ethos, "I'm a commercial filmmaker who aims to make entertainment movies. I just want to grab your eyeballs for two hours. That's my mission." Chen's lifelong faith in martial arts' capacity to lift the spirit appears stronger than ever.

Kung Fu Jungle opens on October 30

[GeneChing]

Another nice piece by Dean Napolitano.

Kung Fu Jungle Director Says Movies Have Missed Strong Characters (http://online.wsj.com/articles/kung-fu-jungle-director-says-movies-have-missed-strong-characters-1414665095)
Actors Performing Their Own Stunts Helped Make Kung Fu Popular
By DEAN NAPOLITANO
Oct. 30, 2014 6:31 a.m. ET

http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/AW-AO340_KUNGFU_P_20141029075044.jpg
Donnie Yen, in a scene from ‘Kung Fu Jungle.’ EMPEROR MOTION PICTURES
Hong Kong kung-fu movies have taken a real beating in recent years. Moviegoers turned away from them in droves, China’s film industry took over, and the noticeable lack of fresh, young martial-arts stars has been evident.

Teddy Chen, director of “Kung Fu Jungle,” which opens this week, wants to bring back the thing that drew people to kung-fu movies in the first place: a strong character who audiences love.

“Can you remember the action scenes of Wong Fei-hung?” he says, referring to the real-life martial-arts master who came to prominence during the late Qing dynasty and has been popularized over the years in films and television series. “I don’t think so, but you remember the character,” Mr. Chen says. “If you build a good character, people will follow.”

In “Kung Fu Jungle,” Donnie Yen, Asia’s reigning action star, plays a martial-arts expert serving time in prison for accidentally killing an opponent. In an effort to gain his freedom, he agrees to help the police track down a serial killer targeting kung-fu masters.

Nestled inside this Chinese version of “Se7en” is a homage to Hong Kong action movies, with veteran kung-fu actors popping up in cameo roles. While not as famous as Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan and Jet Li, the actors are familiar faces to fans of martial-arts movies. Some, like John Chiang, have careers dating back to the 1950s.

For decades, Hong Kong martial-arts films ruled the box office and their influence spread far beyond the city’s borders, spilling into other parts of Asia and around the world. Much of what made these movies popular was the fact that the actors performed their own stunts. “They all could fight by themselves,” Mr. Chen says. “No doubles.”

But modern movie technology and CGI has turned actors with little or no martial-arts training into sleek fighting machines. “All the great stunt choreographers have gone to Hollywood, so we are empty here,” Mr. Chen says. “We don’t have quality action kung-fu films.”

Write to Dean Napolitano at dean.napolitano@wsj.com

[GeneChing]

Interesting on Wang. I thought he was great in Lost in Thailand (thought I reviewed that here but it's not coming up in a forum search - it does end with a climactic Kung Fu fight). Here's our Wang-Baoqiang (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?65175-Wang-Baoqiang) thread... Well, it's just one post by me at this time, but if Donnie and I are right, it'll grow over time.



Donnie's double (http://news.asiaone.com/news/showbiz/donnies-double)
Tan Kee Yun The New Paper Friday, Oct 31, 2014

http://news.asiaone.com/sites/default/files/styles/full_left_image-630x411/public/original_images/Oct2014/20141029_WangBiaoqing.jpg?itok=pxIFIpA9
Donnie Yen predicts co-star Wang Baoqiang (right) will be the next big Hong Kong action hero.

SINGAPORE - It looks like martial arts hero Donnie Yen has found a worthy successor.
Chinese comedian-turned-actor so impressed the veteran 51-year-old Hong Kong action superstar, that Yen spent much of this interview heaping praise on the young actor.
The two face off many times in the new actioner Kung Fu Jungle, which is about a maniacal serial killer, Fung Yu Sau (Wang), who draws former world wushu champion Ha Hou Mou (Yen) into a deadly game of cat and mouse.
"Baoqiang's performance was motivating and a huge surprise, in a great way," Yen said in Mandarin.
"He is humble, hard-working and doesn't have his head in the clouds. I see a glimpse of my younger self in him."
The industry veteran, whose career rocketed when he played the eponymous wing chun expert in Ip Man (2008), admitted he had
"initial reservations" about having Wang join the project.
"We needed someone with strong gongfu chops and we weren't sure if he could deliver," he said.
As it turns out, Yen needn't have worried.
Wang cut his teeth as a wacky comic and is a regular cast member of popular reality TV series Hurry Up, Brother, which is known as China's version of Korea's Running Man.
However, Wang is also Shaolin-trained and boasts solid fighting skills.
Said Yen: "I foresee Baoqiang becoming a leading man in action films."

Hard-hitting
Kung Fu Jungle, which also stars Hong Kong actress Charlie Young and Chinese actress Michelle Bai, opens tomorrow.
The movie has been referred to as an ode to Hong Kong's gongfu stars and it has cameos by real-life contemporary martial artists such as Louis Fan and Xing Yu.
In a separate interview, director Teddy Chan said that while these cameos were brief, it "wasn't hard getting the martial artists to participate".
"Even though their screen time wasn't much, they knew the material was very exciting. Their fight scenes allowed them to deliver their best moves" said Chan.
For an action movie to succeed, it cannot be a soulless affair, he added.
"You cannot (have a) fight for the sake of fighting, audiences will never buy it.
"A successful action film must still have a strong storyline with the four important Ws - why, what, where, and who - and one H - how - at its core."
One of the most exhilarating fight sequences in the movie sees Yen and Wang duelling at a busy highway. They slug it out as huge trucks zoom past, missing them by inches.
Yen recalled: "We made sure we minimised the risks as much as we could... That scene definitely had its share of dangerous moments."
keeyunt@sph.com.sg
- See more at: http://news.asiaone.com/news/showbiz/donnies-double?page=0%2C1#sthash.THe0Zor2.dpuf

[GeneChing]

This is a kick-ass Donnie flick, the kind we've all been waiting to see again. The fights are some of the best stuff Donnie has delivered in years. There's wirework and CGI but it's done well and adds to the action.

It's a little like Gallants (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?57614-The-Gallants) in that it has a high regard for the wulin and wude. It has that great old skool Kung Fu vibe too, although this time it's set in modern Hong Kong. What's more, it gives face to a lot of HK film veterans, showcased in the ending credits. HK is shown off really well, its tangled urban jungle, cluttered shore dwellings, and fast-motion panoramic city-scapes. It has a gritty police-procedural tone, but then it explodes into these outrageous Kung Fu duels. Most notable is that in HK, major Kung Fu battles can take place on highways full of cars and semis, and none of the drivers really bat an eye. ;) This totally redeems the silly highway fight finale in Iceman (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?62460-Iceman-%E5%86%B0%E5%B0%81%E4%BF%A0).

Donnie plays an older role, which fits him well. He even shows some good acting chops, surprisingly good actually, more range than usual, especially given the nature of his character. He could have played it off much more simply but he reaches for a little more dramatic depth and it totally works.

Wang Baoqing is a revelation as the serial killer uber villain. He's a Shaolin guy (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?65175-Wang-Baoqiang) and this film really showcases his skills. He's a great match for Donnie.

Shi Yanneng (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/magazine/article.php?article=955) also has a role - a surreal fight on a giant skeleton. And there's even a sword fight with a sword hottie (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?41007-Sword-hotties&p=1279010#post1279010). :D

This might be my favorite Kung Fu film of 2014. I thoroughly enjoyed it and look forward to seeing a better quality version.

[Stickgrappler]

Ching sifu,

Thank you for your review! I was iffy on this, it's a Donnie movie and we only get 2 fights from him, and yet we get 4 or 5 fights from Wang Baoqing. Yes, I know the story/plot is structured with Wang as a serial killer of kung fu masters so he will get more fights. At least give Donnie one more fight.

To me, it's sad to see/say that Donnie's back problems/health/age is slowing him down.

I am still a fan, but I expected more from Donnie from this. Wang's and Louis Fan's and the sword hottie's fights were pretty good.

Still would reco this movie, but just sad to see less of Donnie and way more of Wang in this.

[Jimbo]

This has become the only new MA-related movie at the moment that I really *have to* see! I hope it gets a proper DVD release here, and soon.

[GeneChing]

It's toss-up between this and Raid 2 (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?59354-The-Raid-2-(aka-Berandal)-starring-Iko-Uwais)for my 2014 fav. R2 had more over-the-top ultravi. KFJ has more wude.


it's a Donnie movie and we only get 2 fights from him.... At least give Donnie one more fight.
Donnie had 3 fights: the prison brawl in the beginning, the waterway fight in the middle, and the finale fight on the highway.

[GeneChing]

Kung Fu Killer (https://www.amctheatres.com/movies/kung-fu-killer)

https://cdn.amctheatres.com/titles/images/Poster/Standard/2240_kung-fu-killer-poster_AB40.jpg
Coming Soon
Synopsis

When a vicious killer (Wang Baoqiang) starts targeting top players in the kung fu martial arts, the police seek the aid of convicted criminal and kung fu master Hahou (Donnie Yen). Released from jail into police custody, Hahou is brought on to help catch the killer. However, the police soon have their doubts about Hahou’s true allegiance, after a series of mysterious events. Hahou soon finds himself on his own journey, leading to a final battle in which he must confront himself in this action-packed kung fu crime thriller from director Teddy Chen.

Running Time
1 hr 40 min
Release Date
April 24, 2015

I modified the title of this thread. It'll always be KFJ to me. Plus KFK is the same title as that 2008 David Carridine/Daryl Hannah flick. That was one of my favorite interviews ever: David Carradine in Spike TV's KUNG FU KILLER (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/ezine/article.php?article=779)

[GeneChing]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddiV_0nj9e4


Published on Mar 26, 2015

See it In Theaters April 24th!

Donnie Yen is a killer and a kung fu expert, recruited by police to track down a murderer in return for his freedom.

For more information visit:
https://www.kungfukiller-movie.com

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[GeneChing]

Enter to win KungFuMagazine.com's contest for 'BEST OF DONNIE YEN' PRIZE PACK (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/sweepstakes-best-of-donnie-yen.php) including 5 Donnie Yen films on Blu-Ray™: IP MAN (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?52218-Ip-Man-starring-Donnie-Yen), IP MAN 2 (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?56421-Ip-Man-2), ICEMAN (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?62460-Iceman-冰封俠), FLASH POINT (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?38795-Spl?), & LEGEND OF THE FIST (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?55650-Legend-of-the-Fist-The-Return-of-Chen-Zhen)!!! Contest ends 6:00 p.m. PST on 4/16/15.

[GeneChing]

Best Action Choreography at the the 34th Hong Kong Film Awards (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?65254-Hong-Kong-Film-Awards&p=1283098#post1283098) 香港電影金.

[GeneChing]

With 'Kung Fu Killer,’ Teddy Chen pays homage to stuntmen (http://www.sfgate.com/movies/article/With-Kung-Fu-Killer-Teddy-Chen-pays-homage-6217995.php)
By G. Allen Johnson Published 6:41 pm, Wednesday, April 22, 2015

http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/simgad/13867605904675414487

The climactic fight in the martial arts joyride “Kung Fu Killer” has Donnie Yen battling villain Wang Baoqiang on a busy Hong Kong highway, with cars and trucks ****zing by. At one point, Wang gets kicked into the path of a truck and seemingly certain death when Yen pulls him back, temporarily saving his life.

“We’re not finished yet!” he growls.

Director Teddy Chen, an industry veteran for more than 30 years, laughs when recalling the shooting of that scene.

“I always wanted to do something on a highway,” Chen said via Skype from Hong Kong. “I told Donnie Yen, 'It’s like two people fighting in a great sea, and it’s full of sharks and whales, so they’re in great danger. They not only want to kill each other, but they are in a dangerous situation.’”

Chen has been around since he was a script continuity assistant in the 1980s, working his way up the Hong Kong movie food chain until becoming a director in the 1990s — he is best known for the Jackie Chan film “The Accidental Spy” (2001). Yen, 51, also began in the ’80s and has been a martial arts star for 20 years. So it’s no wonder that “Kung Fu Killer” has an old-school feel to it.

Just good old-fashioned stunt work in a crackling action picture.

The plot: Mo (Yen), a kung fu master, is in prison for accidentally killing a man. But when a serial killer is targeting other martial arts masters in Hong Kong, he convinces Detective Luk (Charlie Yeung, an actress and singer who hit stardom in the 1990s and is in the midst of a comeback) to release him and assist her team on capturing the killer.

Chen said he intentionally made the film in an old-fashioned way as a tribute to the Hong Kong stuntmen he has known.

“I saw so many stuntmen get wounded, because at that time, there were not so many ways to protect stuntmen,” Chen said. “They have to fight with their guts. ... In the first action film I did as a director (1997’s “Downtown Torpedoes”), a stuntman was killed in an explosion scene. It almost made me leave the film business. I was so unhappy and sad.”

Chen, who was not at fault for the incident, said he turned to religion to help him cope. Although he has made different types of films, including action films, since the incident (“Bodyguards and Assassins,” from 2009, won best picture at the Hong Kong Film Awards), he specifically made “Kung Fu Killer” to pay homage to the most dangerous job in the film industry.

“I told myself, I have to make an action film as a gift to those stuntmen, as a respect for the last 30 years in the business,” Chen said. “That’s why the killer doesn’t use a gun or a knife; he uses kung fu.”

Yen, who has appeared in Zhang Yimou’s “Hero” and the popular “Ip Man” films, helped Chen, a pal for two decades, realize his goal. Yen was a martial artist first, then broke into acting, making a big impression in a fight scene with Jet Li in “Once Upon a Time in China II” (1992).

“He’s the best action (choreographer) in Hong Kong,” Chen said. “He’s worked in Hollywood productions, and he brought that new technology and brought it back to Hong Kong, and put it in his stunt design.”

So it seems “Kung Fu Killer” is a rough action film made with tender, loving, expert care.

G. Allen Johnson is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: ajohnson@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @BRfilmsAllen

If you go

Kung Fu Killer: Starts Friday at Bay Area theaters. I'm really hoping to see this on the big screen but my schedule is really tight this week. Hopefully it'll stick around for a few weeks so I get the chance.

[Jimbo]

IMO, this is an excellent movie, the best KF film out of HK or China in years. Donnie is still in top form, and Wang Baoqing is a worthy arch-villain. I like that it's filmed mostly in HK. In recent years, the movies filmed fully in China tend to look gray and gloomy.

It was fun spotting the many old-school KF actors/stars, including Meng Hai, Yuen Cheung-Yan, Sharon Yeung Pan-Pan, David Chiang, Tsui Siu-Ming, Tony Leung Siu-Hung, Yang Ching-Ching, and many others. There was even a cameo by Golden Harvest's Raymond Chow.

If I had any reservations at all, I would say that maybe Wang Baoqing's mannerisms could have been a bit less over-exaggerated. Sure he was a maniacal MA serial killer, but a little more understated might have been even more menacing. I think back to Hard Boiled (1992), and the co-villain Mad Dog, played by Phillip Kwok, a.k.a., Kuo Chui. Not overdone, but still menacing. But that's a small thing.

The end fight is another Donnie Yen blockbuster, with Wang Baoqing matching him move for move. Awesome and hazardous work, with cars and trucks buzzing by. I rate this a solid 5/5.

[boxerbilly]

This stuff never makes it to our local theatres.

[GeneChing]

See our KUNG FU KILLER: ‘BEST OF DONNIE YEN’ PRIZE PACK winners (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?68626-KUNG-FU-KILLER-%91BEST-OF-DONNIE-YEN%92-PRIZE-PACK-winners) thread.

[GeneChing]

Teddy Chen on KUNG FU KILLER (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/ezine/article.php?article=1221) by me.

We always endeavor to post our coverage on the day a film premieres. Unfortunately, Teddy Chen wasn't able to get to my questions until just last Monday, so this interview is a little tardy for us. My apologies.

[GeneChing]

Enter to win KungFuMagazine.com's contest for KUNG FU KILLER on DVD (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/sweepstakes-kung-fu-killer.php)!!! Contest ends 6:00 p.m. PST on 7/23/2015.

[GeneChing]

See our WINNERS-KUNG-FU-KILLER-on-DVD (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?68845-WINNERS-KUNG-FU-KILLER-on-DVD) thread.