If you’ve ever wondered what it would be like to live in one of those classic kung fu movies - you know, the kind where everyone around you, up to and including your Grandma, is an ace martial artist - then ask Chris Yen. Daughter of legendary master Bow Sim Mark and kid sister of Hong Kong star Donnie Yen, Chris grew up in her mom’s kung fu school in Boston, getting the kind of total immersion training that is seldom seen anymore - outside of the movies!
Music was a big part of her childhood too. Chris’ father, Klysler Yen, a journalist for the Sing Dao daily newspaper, is an accomplished professional musician who specializes in the “er-hu,” a two-stringed instrument similar to a violin. He was the first traditional Chinese musician to perform with the Boston Civic Symphony. Chris Yen began her music studies very young, appearing in her first piano recital at age 5.
 As one of the very few Chinese kids in her school, Chris attracted a lot of attention, es-pecially when word got out about her background in “kung fu.” Every day after school, Chris was expected to train for hours at her mother’s school, the Chinese Wushu Research Institute. (The fact that the word “wushu,” meaning Chinese martial arts but used mostly by people from the Chinese Mainland, was unfamiliar and vaguely suspicious to Americans only made it more difficult for her to fit in with her peers.) Kung fu schools are a big deal in Chinatown, and martial arts demos are always in demand on holidays. As her mother’s fame spread, the school’s performance team became a mainstay at community events in the Boston area. Chris got plenty of experience performing as a member of the CWRI team. While other kids were taking swim classes and playing soccer, she was winning medals in international tournaments!
As her expertise grew, Chris was invited to train and compete in China. She had also fallen in love with the Hong Kong movies that played non-stop in rundown theaters in Boston’s Chinatown. Jackie Chan, Gordon Liu, and Chow Yun-fat were her heroes, and as her brother Donnie’s career in the Asian action film industry took off, Chris vowed to follow in his footsteps. She enrolled in a youth theater program at Emerson College and was cast as Oliver Twist in a production of the musical. When Donnie’s mentor, the internationally acclaimed action director Yuen Wo-ping, contacted her with a once-in-a-lifetime offer, a featured role in a kung fu film, she jumped at the chance. CLOSE ENCOUNTER OF A VAMPIRE was shot in Taiwan in 1986. Chris played the lead female, a juvenile role. Although the part was small, it showcased her awesome kicking skills.
Back in Boston, Chris continued her studies, and after graduating from Boston College with degrees in business and psychology, she worked for a international design firm in Singapore. But it’s just like in the movies - the pull of the family business is strong. Donnie Yen’s long time stuntmen Kenji Tanigaki and Yuji Shimomura were branching out into independent action films in Japan, and offered Chris a job. She ended up working with them on SHINOBI 1 & 2 as a stunt double and assistant to director Tanigaki. Then it was off to Prague on the SHANGHAI KNIGHTS project with Jackie Chan and Owen Wilson, where Chris worked as Donnie’s assistant. Hong Kong was next, where she was cast in an on-screen role as a stylish female assassin, for PROTEGE DE LA ROSE NOIR, aka BLACK ROSE, an action/comedy starring alongside some of Hong Kong’s hottest pop stars.
“My mom always emphasized the importance of my martial arts training, particularly wushu, as a health exercise, a sport, an art...I learned to look at this form of martial arts in a very traditional, creative, and artistic sense from early on,” Chris commented during an interview recently. “But even having that kind of experience, (making BLACK ROSE) was still very challenging. Two weeks before the shoot began I was told that I would be using the nunchucks in a lot of my fight scenes. I had never learned how to use them before so I was like, ‘Okay, I can do this.’ Think Bruce Lee.
After spending two weeks studying some of Bruce’s classic films and training hard, Chris, who had previously specialized in long staff forms, felt ready to handle the weapon onscreen. “But I guess by now I should have learned to expect the unexpected when it comes to Hong Kong filmmaking, especially one that just so happens to involve my brother who tossed TWO pairs of nunchucks at me when I got to the set. By the end of the first day, maybe 18 hours later, I could barely lift up my arms. It was tough.” Working in front of the camera again meant another chance to hone her screen combat skills. “It was more important for me to have good timing with my opponents, strong reactions, and a lot of high energy. Of course, having a martial arts background helped me through the physical aspect of doing the action scenes,” Chris recalled. “But I can definitely tell you that there’s a huge difference between doing a martial arts form and trying to act like you’re fighting with some of those techniques in front of a camera.”
Chris Yen’s performance in BLACK ROSE led to a profile in the South China Morning Post, which in turn led to a featured appearance with Matt Lauer on NBC’s The Today Show, broadcast live from Hong Kong to millions of viewers. Invited to LA for auditions by a top casting director from Columbia Pictures, she has been featured in several commercials and print ads, and was cast as the lead in the youth market action film ADVENTURES OF JOHNNY TAO, as well as in a supporting role in A GOOD DAY TO BE BLACK AND SEXY, an official 2008 Sundance Selection. She continues to study acting and is currently developing a number of projects with her writing partners.
When Chris is not busy auditioning, working on projects, or in scene studies, she devotes her time to her two rescue dogs, Rex and Yogi (a lab and doxer-lab mix, respectively) or heads to the pool table for a game of 9-ball or straight pool, a sport she used to play competitively. Her latest hobby is “drifting,” which involves controlling a car going sideways at 80mph. Chris Yen is a young woman who is always ready for a new challenge!
-by Jean Lukitsh |
