Articles | "The Concrete Jungle" | "Fight Scenes and Fall Guys"

Ron Yuan: I got my SAG card from famed fight director Jim Nickerson of (Raging Bull, Rocky 1, 2 & 3) and learned a lot from him with regards to impact and traditional fight angles. He tried getting me into more fight work, but I was focusing more on acting at the time. I also worked in Hong Kong with Hung Yan Yan (Clubfoot from Once upon a Time in China and in my opinion one of the most talented fight choreographers to come out of Hong Kong), Dion Lam and Andy Cheng back in 1992.

I assisted my brother Roger on Vanishing Son, a 90's TV series starring Russell Wong. Over the years, I started doing more fight choreography in between acting gigs and when times were slow with acting. Some coordinators and producers I worked with as an actor remembered my physicality and always called to check if I wanted to play. They are truly great stand up guys that cared - Meritt Yonka (Chuck) and Jeff Cadiente (24) - just to name a few. I also coordinated and was second unit director a European spot for "Rocky Jeans" which was a CLEO Award winner.

RY: I break down the script and give the approximate budget and manpower to the producers. I give them budget options on certain perceived high cost action sequences. We also discuss rehearsal time and training for actors. This includes number of stunt crew, if we're not in the same area, then I move on.

If the numbers are close, then I have a more detailed meeting with the director where I try to get into his head about what he sees - tone and style. I ask him questions about each character. This determines for me how each character should move or behave. We rehearse and shoot rehearsals with appropriate camera angles and props. They're called pre-viz and it's a industry standard for action films. It is part of my deal that I direct the action on 1st unit and edit all the fight sequences and then handle it over the director when I'm done.

RY: Over the years, I actually had offers to work on high profile shows way before Black Dynamite, but I passed on them because of my acting commitments or even for just potential auditions. I had these vignettes, which I directed for Sony as well as Black Dynamite doing very well at Sundance. In addition, I acted on Blood and Bone for Sony and Fast and Furious and Prison Break at the same time.

I also second unit directed on a horror film titled Red Velvet performed acting, consulting, troubleshooting and action directing on a boxing film titled From Mexico with Love. A friend of mine got my Sony pieces seen by director John Milius (Apocalypse Now, Conan the Barbarian, Red Dawn). Fortunately, he loved all of them, which led to his agent Jeff Berg (ICM) taking me on as a client.

RY: Aside from MMA, it's very important to me. Even in period pieces...you have to make it about impact and it still has to be raw for it's time. In Angel of Death, I really wanted Zoe to come off strong but real. To me, it's more appealing when a female heroine throws her strikes just like or better than a guy. I hate when I see female leads in films throwing girly punches or just moves that are really pretty and soft like a dancer as they beat up really strong villains. It's not believable. MMA is really popular now, which I'm happy about because I like mixing up different styles.

RY: I've studied and learned from many different styles. They include Kyokoshin Karate, MuyThai, Boxing, Escrima, Wing Chun, Hung Gar, Tae Kwon Do, Aikido, as well as Tai chi. I do not profess to be a master in all of these arts, but I do know how to apply them for film. Staring from when I was younger in New York, I worked out with friends who studied different styles, and have worked with some truly talented martial artists in the business over the years. I also like to incorporate real-life strikes that saved me in fights when I was younger. They're not necessarily flashy, but they're real.

Through my personal experience, I've come to the realization that what happens in a real altercation is 1) most of the time, happens in seconds, 2) is much sloppier than in Hollywood films and 3) that I'm fortunate I didn't get my ass handed to me by a proficient boxer or wrestler in close quarters back in the day. I used to be a work out fiend, but life doesn't allow you that luxury to work out for 5 hours every day. I act, write and direct, as well as produce, so my schedule these days are pretty hectic. Also, recently I was involved in a car accident. So I've been going through intense physical therapy since January, but I'm on the comeback.

RY: I watch a lot of films period. I used to pride myself on watching 1,500-2,000 films a year. As far as Asian martial arts films, I think I've seen most of them, spanning over 40-50 years. Before Enter the Dragon, there was Sword of Doom and since Bruce's passing, I love old Sammo Hung, Yuen Biao as well as the recent Tony Jaa films. My favorite Bruce Lee film is Way of the Dragon. Prodigal Son is another favorite, as well as 5 Shaolin Masters, 5 Deadly Venoms, Dragon Inn, the Drunken Master series, Chinatown Kid, Yojimbo, One Armed Swordsman, Pedicab Driver, any Kurosawa film, Many other Shaw Bros titles...not to mention the old Buster Keaton, Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas and Errol Flynn films. I am also a big fan of Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly and Danny Kaye.

RY: Tea and Remembrance was taken from a feature script that I wrote. I shot it a few years earlier on 35mm, but never finished it because I got busy with acting gigs. It wasn't until Sony offered to buy it that I decided to finish it. Three Bullets was a concept that Michael Jai White approached me with earlier on. I didn't think I was going to be able to direct it because I was working on other stuff, but it ended up working out schedule wise. Sony funded that as well. I had submitted another script called Lollipops that got me my deal to direct a series of short pieces for them.

RY: My filmmaking heroes range from Woody Allen, Sidney Pollack, Sidney Lumet, Michael Mann. Martin Scorsese to James Cameron, Sergio Leone, Robert Rodriguez, Alfred Hitchcock, Johnny To, to earlier John Woo and Wong Kar-Wai. Because of my own film experience, I think my first few features will be in the action genre. I would love to do romantic comedies, as well as historical period pieces and serious drama and human interest stories.

RY: We just finished posting Girl from the Naked Eye. It was great working with David Ren, Jason Yee and Executive Producer Henry Mu. I played one of the leads, as well as producing and directing the action. A lot of peeps are hot on it. We only had 3 weeks to shoot it.

Shanghai Hotel is another indie I shot with Eugenia Yuan (Charlotte Sometimes) in New York (my hometown) that hasn't come out yet. I have projects I'm developing with Zoe Bell (Quentin Tarantino's Grindhouse) and Will Yun Lee (Die Another Day), as well as Alex Tse (co-writer of Watchmen). Blood and Bone directed by Ben Ramsey and starring Michael Jai White just came out on DVD. I also have a lot of video games that I voiced over that will be coming out. I have other scripts I'm meeting on but mums the word right now.