But in regards to IRON MONKEY, Yen points out that the time is right for its release in the States because he feels that America is tired of action films where a fight is one, two or three punches. "We (Hong Kong filmmakers) understand martial arts and the body mechanics and our standards are higher and the American audiences now wants a higher standard," he posited.

Born in China, and raised in Hong Kong, Yen moved to Boston at age 9 where he learned kung-fu from his mother. Returning to Hong Kong, Yuen Woo Ping discovered Yen and cast him as the lead in his first film DRUNKEN TAI-CHI (1984).

"That is the hardest film I've ever done," Yen reminisced, "because the standard for shooting film back then was primarily on just physical deprivation. We didn't have all the lights or sophisticated cameras. All we did was just martial arts and fighting. For a newcomer, each scene took days and it just all seemed inhumanely impossible. Yuen had the highest standard at the time and it was a nightmare. But over the years in working with him he became my most trusted person and my choreographer. I learned the art from him and gave my best performance according to the situation. IRON MONKEY was also very hard too, but I had gone through all that training in front and behind the camera and could now give it my best performance with less effort so in that way it was easier than DRUNKEN TAI-CHI.

"But in regards to IRON MONKEY, the world is smaller and America is paying more attention to other cultures. Asian culture has the biggest population in the world. Hong Kong was once a cinematic force only second to Hollywood and ever since Bruce Lee, martial art films have always had more exciting action. I mean look, it's hard to believe that IRON MONKEY is now a popular film in America 8 years after it was made. The irony is that when IRON MONKEY was made in Hong Kong, the whole wu xia style of films was going down hill so the film was released at a time when people were tiring of the genre in Hong Kong. But now the timing is perfect in America."

Since DRUNKEN TAI-CHI, Yen has gone on to star in over 19 films recording classics such as Tsui Hark's ONCE UPON AT TIME IN CHINA II (1992) and DRAGON INN (1992), Ching Siu Tung's BUTTERFLY AND SWORD (1993), Yuen Woo Ping's WING CHUN (1994) and his American debut as an actor/fight choreographer in HIGHLANDER: ENDGAME (2000). Followed by Wesley Snipes' BLADE II (2002).

So how does Quentin Tarantino figure into all of this? Tarantino told me that six years ago he told Miramax about Yuen Woo Ping and had an idea to bring Jet Li over to do a film and to have Woo Ping direct it. "They (Miramax) were like, 'Well, yeh, maybe,'" Tarantino chides. "I wanted to try and get a theatrical release of FIST OF LEGEND in America, in Chinese, and have it a major release. It didn't quite work out the way I wanted it. Miramax wasn't ready, the audience wasn't ready, they might have been wrong and they might have been right. Golden Harvest wasn't even ready. They said, 'Oh, we give you English rights and not Chinese rights.' I told them 'Fine' and that I wasn't in this for the money and if you're going to make it hard for me, then I won?t do it. So we ended up doing an English, video release. Again, this is not what I wanted.