Corey Yuen, legendary director, producer, actor and action choreographer passed away at the age of 73 in 2022 due to a Covid related illness, but was not made officially public until now, per his family’s wishes.
The Chinese-born Hong Kong film icon – and legendary member of The Seven Little Fortunes – is perhaps best known for his work in Righting Wrongs, Eastern Condors, Dragons Forever, No Retreat, No Surrender, Lethal Weapon 4, The Transporter and Kiss of the Dragon.
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Here’s a classic COF review of DOA in his honour. R.I.P. https://cityonfire.com/doa-dead-or-alive-2006/
Looks like it’s free on YouTube.
Very sad news. A genius.
In no particular order, my favorites that he directed and/or choreographed are:
Righting Wrongs
Yes, Madam!
Fong Sai Yuk 1&2
My Father is a Hero
The Bodyguard from Beijing
High Risk
Kiss of the Dragon
The Transporter trilogy
So Close
Wild Card
She Shoots Straight
Ninja in the Dragon’s Den
I wonder how it was with him being involved in the likes of Dragons Forever, Operation Scorpio, Red Cliff I&II, The Expendables, and Shaolin since they had multiple fight choreographers, and you’d think there’d be a lot of disagreements.
My favorite will always be NRNS II (aka Raging Thunder). For a minute in the U.S., this and the original NRNS were the only Corey Yuen films we were able to get a hold of easily. Corey is also my favorite choreographer, particularly for his more “grounded” approach.
I forgot to mention Blonde Fury, Enter The Eagles and Hero ‘97. Even though other people credit him for Blonde Fury, IMDb doesn’t. Yuen Tak was the action director for the other two, but considering how closely they worked, Corey had to have had a hand in the fights as well.
He has a son named David, who was his translator for an interview that was conducted for the Asian Cult Cinema magazine. David was born in Seattle, months before the making of No Retreat, No Surrender. David’s mother was already living in America at that time.
Apparently he died 2 years ago from Covid. It was kept a secret by his family until now. RIP Corey Yuen. Top tier legend who made some of the best movies in the action genre.
Ah, man, that’s just terrible. “Corey Yuen” was one of the first names I learned when I got into Hong Kong cinema over 20 years ago. Little middle-schooler searching for whatever info or recommendations he could find, and this man’s name and films came up a lot. I can honestly, genuinely say that Yuen had a hand in changing my life. You gave us some absolute bangers, sir. I salute you.
The DOA adaptation was a real guilty pleasure. Of course the movie was stupid, but the fight scenes were of high quality and of course the women were hot. Even though Eric Roberts was doubled for parts of his fights, it was nice seeing him revisit his Best of the Best days.
Sarah Carter was the real standout of the cast, and I wish she became a bigger action star. I haven’t seen that Indonesian film she did, Guardian.
😭
I wish he had done more interviews. This person’s article combines the magazine interviews that Corey had done.
https://popcultmaster.substack.com/p/the-tune-of-yuen
This is a great compilation. It’s interesting to read how he doesn’t gush over some of his films like the fans do, which I guess is common with directors of their own movies.
Interesting how he said Jason Statham didn’t have previous martial arts experience. Maybe it was a mistranslation that he didn’t have screen fighting experience. It was also nice to see that he didn’t become like his Peking Opera House teacher and was able to work with actor’s strengths and limitations.