Jet Li and Donnie Yen have actually known each other for over forty years, according to Kung Fan, although their first meeting was more of a casual acquaintance during Donnie Yen’s brief apprenticeship with Jet Li’s master Wu Bean. Fifteen years later, they met again in Hong Kong while filming Once Upon a Time in China 2. They have since reached the top, each becoming a star in their own way. Clearly, the contest is more about giving a slight advantage rather than declaring an inevitable winner, which is impossible.
Donnie Yen:
Donnie Yen started martial arts from a young age. After learning tai chi and other traditional martial arts from her, his parents sent him from Boston to joi n the Beijing wushu team to keep him out of trouble. There, Master Wu Bin noted that “he worked very hard, he was the only one who was still practicing after everyone else had left the martial arts hall.” Later, Yen also began to learn taekwondo, judo, and Brazilian jiu-jitsu. In 2007, Donnie Yen landed the lead role for which he is best known, Ip Man, Wing Chun martial artist and Bruce Lee’s teacher.
To prepare for this role, Yen spent nine months studying Wing Chun under Yip Man’s son, Yip Chun.
Donnie Yen once had to fight non-actor but heavyweight champion Mike Tyson during the filming of Ip Man 3. People on set were worried that Tyson would forget to hold back his punches. However, in the end, it was Donnie Yen who broke Mike Tyson’s finger with his elbow, blocking one of his punches.
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Jet Li:
Jet Li was born into poverty and started learning Wushu at the age of 8 when his school randomly assigned him a Wushu class. According to Kung Fu Kingdom, Woo Bing quickly realized that he was talented and did more rigorous training. In another essay, looking back on his childhood, Jet Li recalls how coaches reacted when a student complained of a sore hand: “Hmm,” he said, “you’re right. . Why don’t you do leg exercises instead?” However, these conditions paid off as Jet Li won the National Games when he was only 12 years old, beating competitors who were in their twenties and thirties.
And then he did it over and over again, winning every year for five years from 1974 to 1979.
Since then, Jet Li’s focus on wushu has been more spiritual than physical, and that feeling can be found in an essay he wrote comparing wushu’s past and present: “I find deep inside wushu wushu much worse than before.” Lee writes. “I’m talking about inner knowledge, that part of wushu that is not connected with the physical body. Internal improvement is the most important part, and it’s definitely missing these days.”
So Who Would Win?
As you can see from the previous section, we think Donnie Yen will have the upper hand in sparring. Presenting a scenario in which both are at the peak of their development, the difference in emphasis with which each of them approaches martial arts brings us closer to Donnie Yen. Firstly, he continued to explore and develop outside of the system he started with, and secondly, Jet Li’s preference for inner essence and the use of wushu as an art form for self-expression, although commendable, is not necessarily the best preparation for the finale. But let’s say that the two of them are martial arts masters each in his field is a master.RELATED:
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