• November 05, 2001
• Vol. 56
• No. 19

Kicking Back

Iron Monkey's Donnie Yen Knows Not to Mess with Mom: She Taught Him All His Martial Arts Moves

Some mothers pass along family recipes; others dole out maternal wisdom. Donnie Yen's mom, Bow Sim-Mark, imparted an even more useful gift: the ability to kick butt. At age 9, "I was waking up at 5:30 to do an hour-and-a-half of drills," says Yen, whose mother is a renowned teacher of Chinese martial arts. "I kept thinking, 'Why is she making me do this?'"

Looks like Mother knew best. At 38, Yen is one of Hong Kong's biggest action stars, with more than 30 films and TV shows under his belt. Now he is showing his chops stateside in Iron Monkey, a turbocharged pummelfest by director Yuen Wo Ping, who choreographed the fight scenes in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Yen fan Quentin Tarantino urged Miramax to pick up distribution rights for Monkey, released in Hong Kong in '93, and helped Yen score a three-movie deal with the studio. "Donnie comes on with a bold, in-your-face flavor, like he's going to explode with rage," says Tarantino. "He doesn't waste his time bowing."

He never has. At age 11, Yen emigrated from Hong Kong with his family—Bow, now 59, dad Klysler, 61, an editor of a Chinese newspaper, and sister Christine, 28. They settled in Boston, where Bow set up a kung fu school. Between classes, "I used to go up to teachers and friends and kick within an inch of their faces," Yen says. "All my friends said, 'You're Bruce Lee!' I recognized that martial arts made me special."

Now single and living in Los Angeles, Yen couldn't be more content. But his mom, who speaks little English, still frets—as only a mother can. "She worries," says sister Christine, who works as his assistant, "about him not being married."