Donnie Ye (born 27 July 1963) is a Hong Kong actor, martial artist, action director and politician. He is regarded as one of Hong Kong’s top action stars.
Yen is credited by many for contributing to the popularisation of Wing Chun in China. He portrays Wing Chun grandmaster Ip Man in the Ip Man film series, which has garnered box office success. He has also gained international recognition for playing Chirrut Îmwe in Rogue One (2016) and Xiang in XXX: Return of Xander Cage (2017), as well as Commander Tung in Mulan (2020) and Caine in John Wick: Chapter 4 (2023).
In 2016, Yen co-starred in the Star Wars anthology film Rogue One as Chirrut Îmwe, the Zatoichi-like blind transient warrior. On February 12, 2016, it was confirmed that Yen would once again replace Jet Li for the third time as Xiang in the upcoming action film XXX:
Return of Xander Cage (after Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen in 2010 and The Monkey King in 2014).
For the promotion of XXX: Return of Xander Cage, Paramount focused marketing efforts on Yen in China and most parts of Asia, placing him at the front of the film posters ahead of Vin Diesel, and shared clips and reviews of Yen’s performance in the movie on the popular Chinese social media site Weibo. Paramount’s efforts worked very well in China. The film was number one in its opening weekend with $61.9 million, and crossed the $100 million mark in just six days with $22.2m coming from Valentine’s Day alone after rave reviews praising Yen’s performance swept through Chinese social media, driving moviegoers to the cinema.
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