Kick-ass kids

CHRIS YEN IS living proof of the old adage that looks can be deceiving - although it's easy to see why people who've never met the twenty-something often have certain expectations about her.

After all, her mother, Bow Sim-mark, is a martial arts legend, having founded Boston's famed Chinese Wushu Research Institute in the mid-1970s. Then there's her elder brother, Donnie Yen - actor, fight choreographer, director, and all-round Hollywood and Hong Kong movie world hard man.

So, who could blame you for forming a mental picture of a tough nut, or at least a woman who's physically imposing.

'I know, I know,'' says Chris laughing, when we sit down to talk. 'I am so small! People are always surprised - every time. I don't blame them really. They think 'Donnie Yen's sister: she's into martial arts, so she must be a female version of Donnie'. But we're total opposites. He is so big, extroverted and aggressive. I am more introverted. And tiny.'

It's a good description. She is small, even for an Asian woman. But don't be fooled. The longer she talks, the clearer it is that she has a quiet confidence. Maybe, as with her brother, it's helped by the fact that martial arts flows in her blood.

Brother and sister have just completed their first film together - the Twins vehicle Protege de la Rose Noire - with Donnie behind the camera as co-director (with Barbara Wong Chun-chun) and Chris in front as one of a band of fighters (the 'Ivy League'') who take on the film's stars (and heroes), Charlene Choi and Gillian Chung.