Celebraties Martial Art Syles

[Master_Mike]

I'm curious, I know what styles Jackie Chan and Jet Li are, but what styles does Chow Yun Fat and Michelle Yeoh trained in?

[CanadianBadAss]

I'm not sure about this, but I don't think Chow Yun Fat has ever really learned Kung fu.

[David Jamieson]

Chow Yun Fat has had the basics from various choreographers in films he's done.

The most notable being Yuen Wo Ping of course in CTHD.

As for Jackie Chan, he's tasted a few. Also trained in the "opera" type of Kung Fu. A little 5 animals, a little Shaolin, a little of this a little of that.

I do believe I have heard mention he has studied seriously Hap Ki Do (Billy Jack style, hard hitting good style) and he has likely had exposure to a lot of things.

Jet Li is a Wu Shu veteran from the Wu Bin school of PRC wu shu.

I am not sure if he has seriously studied traditional, but he is a bonafide forms champion from way back.

The december issue of Kung Fu Qigong mag had a pretty extensive article about Li that covers a lot of this. There is also tons of info available on both these guys at their official fan club sites.

peace

[Xebsball]

Michele from what ive heard is a dancer, never did martial arts.

[GreyMystik]

chow yun fat has not trained and does not train, he pretty much took some crash courses for Crouching Tiger (and worked his a$$ off from what i understand). Michelle Yeoh is a trained dancer but pretty much the same, although learning the acrobatic moves and fighting "cinematic style" came much easier for her by her own admission...

Michelle Y. -trained escrima.Did some crash courses in shaolin and wing chun for the movies.

Jackie Chan took 10yrs of shaolin(wushu) and did the opera house thing. He also took crash courses on forms and styles for the movies.

Jet Li- is obviously a wushu champion, along with his sister.

Chow Yun Fat - I dont know

Hope that helps,

Shaolin36

[KungFuGuy!]

What about Robin Shou? He was Lui Kang from mortal kombat!

[firepalm]

Robin Shou, originally a kenpo guy that changed over to wushu (was one of the first Americans to take a tour to China in the early eighties with American Wushu pioneer Roger Tung).

Jackie Chan, primarily Chinese Peking (Beijing) Opera, all other martial arts (Hapkido, Wing Chun & such) he merely dabbled in. Jackie & classmates like Sammo & Yuen Biao (most Chinese Opera performers) acquired such good body sense and agility that they were able to learn fundamentals quickly of the other arts that displayed in film.

Jet Li, purely a wushu guy, recruited to the Beijing Professional Wushu team as a youngster right out of grade school. Most all of the Beijing Pro Wushu team members of his era were recruited based on specific body characteristics & possessing the right physical attributes (high jump, long jump, timed hundred meters, range of motion, etc...). All team members trained primarily with coaches Wu Bin & Li Jun Feng. Team members however would be sent sometimes for short periods to say a traditional Ba Gua, Xing Yi master or whatever to learn the fundamentals of the style.

Michelle Yeoh apparently attended the Royal Ballet in London. She has been in films since the early eighties and of course has learned a lot on sets.

Chow Yuen Fatt, is strictly a learn on set as required for the film role. One of the guys that was a part of Yuen Woo Ping's crew that trained him was a Wushu champion Sichuan province in China that was teaching for a while in the states before named Chen Hu (he is also the one that helped train Keanu Reeves & Laurence Fishburne {ie; his Chen Taiji}). Chen Hu also competed back in 97 at Tat Wong's event.

One thing that binds all of these celebrities is that when they do stuff for screen it is essentially 'movie fighting', which is an art unto itself. It's funny how people like to have things all in their neat little boxes, when in fact the stuff seen in movies is most often not a specific style.