Donnie Yen talks Mulan, Ip Man 4 and his passion project Big Brother, a drama about Hong Kong education
In a break from filming Mulan and post-production work on Ip Man 4, action star Donnie Yen talks about the serious intent behind new film in which he plays a teacher, and those rumours about fighting Jackie Chan
After earning acclaim home and abroad respectively with Chasing the Dragon and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story , Donnie Yen Ji-dan is taking quite a change of pace with Big Brother.
In the film, out Thursday in Hong Kong, Yen plays a former soldier turned teacher in a Band Three secondary school (for the lowest achievers) who wins over problem pupils with his idiosyncratic methods.
During a short break from filming Disney’s live-action Mulan , the Hong Kong action superstar sat down with the Post to shed light on his rather unusual new film.
Would you say you’re treating Big Brother as a passion project?
Actually, every one of my films can be considered a passion project, because I devote myself entirely to every film that I take part in. The only difference here is that, perhaps because I’m a father, I realise we should make good use of the film medium to bring some awareness to [some of the issues facing] pupils today. Are there loopholes in the education system? Should we highlight its problems? What attitude should we adopt to face them?
Is that why you made this film so positive?