Donnie Yen??? I Fu-Kin Wish!!!

Anyone that knows me would know how much of a big fan of Donnie Yen I am.  He would be my personal number one idol (up there with Bruce Lee anyway).  I have followed his career ever since I was a little 8 year old, his early collaboration with the legendary Yuen Woo Ping in "Tiger Cage I & II" and "In the Line of Duty IV"really stuck with me and I knew I found myself a hero in Donnie Yen.

It is great to see how much Donnie Yen's fan following has come on and I am delighted he is receiving the attention and credit he deserves, and I am truly proud to say I stuck by him (not literally in person, although I wish I did! ) even through some of the rougher points of his career (although his appearances in movies like" Holy Virgin versus The Evil Dead","City of Darkness", etc. were good, the movies were better off forgotten).  And I would never forget the day when I first met Bey Logan in Dublin back in 2001 he recognised me and addressed me as "Donnie Yen's number one fan"!!!  

My own onscreen career couldn't be more different.  I unfortunately have never been given the opportunity to demonstrate much or any of my martial arts abilities onscreen.  The roles I have done or been offered have more or less been bordering stereotypical Asian roles, and in fact I had never really got to use my own natural accent infront of the camera (which is a pretty neutral Dublin accent... ).

A good friend of mine, Craig Woods had taken this onboard, and during his time in film school he kindly written a small role especially for me in a project which he invited me to take part in.  I don't usually get involved in student films, but Craig is a friend and a real talent (one to look out for in future) so I was naturally quite excited.

Now I don't know if you're familiar with a documentary show called "Ross Kemp on Gangs".  It follows former TV series bald hard man, Ross Kemp ( UK soap drama "Eastenders", "Ultimate Forces", and as himself in the hilarious episode of "Extras"which mocks his 'hard man' image!) as he travels around the world to uncover the most dangerous gangs in different countries.

Craig and his colleagues in college took on a project to make a parody of the show, "Niall Keegan on Gangs".  This mokumentary follows Niall Keegan as he tracks down the most notorious anti-environmental gang in Dublin, P.M.A.T.A.P.O.E.P. (Peoples Militia Against The Anti Proliferation Of Environmental Propaganda!!!!).

I played the role of the 'victim' to this gang, a martial arts instructor turned environmental vigilante, Fu Kin Yen.  Craig knew of my fondness of Donnie Yen so he wanted to give some respect there.  As for my characters first name...?  Well, it's all for a bit humour as they say...

My scene with Niall was filmed almost a year ago now (9th February 2008 to be exact), shot in just little over 2 hours.  I was given the script the previous day and with another challenge on my hand was to translate and deliver dialogues in Cantonese (again, something which I never had the opportunity to do before!).  Although I can speak Cantonese fluently I can neither read nor write the language, so I was pretty much left trying to translate the English text into Cantonese in my head as I was delivering them! Video: http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=50965579

I really enjoyed the shoot as it was good fun.  And credit has to go out to Niall Keegan (looking uncanningly like a younger Ross Kemp!), who is neither an actor nor a martial artist, for managing a good job in his role.  He went with the flow as I just pieced together some basic moves with limited chance of any injuries but funny at the same time.

The full 20 minutes mokumentary "Niall Keegan on Gangs" can be seen at the following links, and it's a good fun show also paying homage to the likes of "Blair Witch Project", "Apocalypse Now", etc.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6NzNpQCDm0 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_1FBciQiOo

Hats off to my friend, Craig who has given me the opportunity to play a character bit more closer to home, allowed me to loosen my limbs onscreen a bit, and to deliver chunks of dialogue in Cantonese!

Donnie Yen I may never be, but so far this may be the closest I get in Ireland!

Peace & Best Wishes,

Alan

PS.  This is what me and Craig use to get up to in work.  Good times, good times....