Things looks to have been neutralized as both Donnie Yen and Vincent Zhao are very busy doing promotion and shooting their respective projects – Donnie currently shooting a romance film titled Together starring Bosco Lam and Michelle Chan and Vincent promoting the upcoming kung fu drama Wu Dang. Last that happened was that Mainland director Tan Bing came out on April 6 and spoke out about Donnie’s unfaithful work ethics and arrogant behavior which further caused heat between the Yen and Zhao camps. Neither Donnie nor the production team have responded to Bing’s actions.
Despite this, there have been lots of news reports and press conferences concerning the scandal that I’ve missed out due to limited resources (such as lack of people transcribing and translating information in Chinese, and getting translations that are too sloppy to understand). One of these news reports is one covering events during the filming process through the eyes and experiences of Mainland actor Hung Bao – who was in the original cast of Special Identity playing Vincent Zhao’s main henchman (check out my earlier post here: http://ericjacobus.com/2012/04/19/special-identity-more-trouble-stills-of-vincent-zhaos-intended-role/).
However, it’s not the case of another actor pointing all fingers on Donnie to blame for the problems that arose during shooting. Hung Bao clarifies rumors on Vincent acting arrogant and being accompanied by an entourage, how things were when Vincent was around the set and how it was working with him, working relations with him and Donnie, dispute between two drivers on the set (which led to the murder of one of them), and reveals that there was someone that was a big influence on and eventually was the reason for the script changes (although it was not mentioned) and that this fact came from a person (a friend of Hung Bao and also someone not mentioned) who was involved in the film crew.
if Donnie yen is such mess how did he manage to rise so high
it’s his attitude outside of acting that’s the problem.
because he has rised to the top he probably has ego problem or high self esteem.
but the problem are the film crews man:/
they are the ones causing all these things.
Vincent calling out on Donnie’s acting was uncalled for and that was the reason why this incident was brought to the media.
Somewhere along the way, he must’ve learned to keep his thoughts to himself that could otherwise jeopardize the mutual respect from others in a collaborative situation among members in a film crew.
In the film industry, you can’t survive that long taking things into your own hands and making others change things just because their agreement on how things should be done doesn’t coincide with you own opinion. Had he kept that attitude, we wouldn’t see him do SPL, Flash Point and all the new films he’s doing now.
thanks for this man! 😀
man this is a complete mess!
Hung Bo praised Vincent a lot which means he’s the good guy. And I didn’t want to place blame on him, i love his acting in True Legend. Also it makes sense that if Vincent walked out of set and Hung was let go, there is something going on.
Hung didn’t say much about Donnie, you can see how he said a lot about Vincent, defended him but couldn’t review much about Donnie. Meaning Donnie must have been the bad guy here and Vincent was right that Donnie was acting like a big shot. Even Hung mentioned a hint about someone being a big shot so we know it’s Donnie.
but I can respect that, Donnie has been in a lot of movie and directed stuff too, so his experience is the reason for his big shot. Good thing Hung didn’t say bad thing about Donnie or it would ruin Donnie’s reputation and things will get heated up again:/
one of the reporter is stupid especially the female. Hung said from start that he doesn’t know why he was kicked out and a lady asked the same question again:/
Such a shame the crew did fraud, because he didn’t sign a contract so they used that to their advantage to get rid of him. It’s legit because there’s no contract involved but still, very harsh and Hung gave up other films just for this movie.
so they work 15 hrs most days!? WOW Man! O_o
I guess there is something wrong with the crew…who are these crew anyway? are they always working with Donnie all the time or is this another period of time Donnnie is working with them for this movie?
It’s totally wrong to call Donnie the bad guy just because he’s the lead star. We will have to consider other parties to judge this more faithfully.
1. First and foremost, Donnie is the lead actor as well as action director and co-producer so what he decides on set is part of his call: doing what’s best for shooting certain scenes. I, for one, wouldn’t want him to drop the strictness and go soft on the ones he expects to perform to the fullest because then he would lose his touch and his goals in creating new and intensive action scenes (which in most ways requires alot from the performers) would be for nothing. If Vincent and Hung couldn’t take his strict (or so called big shot) attitude on set then they are just not made for such working conditions.
2. Next we have both Vincent and Hung. Hung had no contract so his drop-out was legit (and yeah, harsh too) and Vincent and the studio heads came to an agreement on contractual terms. Now, if Vincent’s contract was violated he could’ve just taken it up with the production company who owns the rights to the film and handled his contract. What’s Donnie got to do with their contract deal? He only recommended Vincent to them, nothing more.
3. Producers. Taking these positions into account, there’s no way Donnie could’ve had total control over the film without having support or advicers to achieve things and proceed further to the next shots. In other words, Donnie’s influence on set and on the script was partial as the other producers would likely to have had as much or even more control than him.
4. The production company. They were responsible for signing on Vincent to co-star in the film and handled his contract. Why accuse Donnie for the violations of the terms when it’s the production company that was in charge of his contract? That’s not how contract deals should be dealt with. Funny thing is that Vincent complained about them in one press conference and in the next he was quick to not mention them ever again.
5. The other crew. What happens on set can quickly be picked up by crew members as they are observing and then will be passing information to other members which in turn can lead to serious consequences. Even though Hung might have hinted Donnie’s “harsh” attitude and work ethics on set, he interestingly (from what I apprehended) also points out few other persons that knew what happened and that one was the influencing the script be changed and the other has the facts to it.
Overall, judging by these points it looks like the situation is bigger and complex than it appears to be. So Donnie might have had his usual strict attitude giving Vincent and Hung a hard time but this is too less to conclude the big picture. There’s way more things that is being kept secret and seems to probably never be made public unless all these parties have the guts to come forward and admit their wrongdoings.
you are right.
Seriously wtf is going on man!?
This is really complex just as you said! I can’t believe someone died during the filming.
Martial Arts Movie Junkie told me that Vincent has been involved with other dispute during his filming career. So him being involved in this situation is no new thing to some people.
Donnie is totally right to act like that just like I said.
But the biggest problem is the Special Identity Crew, those guys are ballistic, I can’t believe they even insulted and attacked an on-looker.
It’s like there’s no control between the filming and those production crew.
Donnie did report that the movie is finally drop and now under wrapped (editing room) in his website.
So will this movie be good or not? It’s still such a shame man, I mean we are fans of martial arts movies, we adore these actors. And our biggest dream is to see all our favourite actors/actresses pitched into one filming.
Similar incident with Tony Jaa and Prachya director, however they put their feelings behind and are working together to bring us Tom Yum Goong 2. Better yet Jija and Tony will be in the film.
This is the kind of thing we want our actors to make, a collaboration of graced actors and actresses pitched together to fight.
Well I will be waiting for the movie, but do not respect the Special Identity Crew’s attitude:/