Lifetime Achievement Award袁和平
Hong Kong action choreographer and director extraordinaire Yuen Woo-ping is perhaps best known to Western audiences for his work on The Matrix, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and Kill Bill. The extremely prolific Yuen comes from a family of martial artist performers and started as an actor and stuntman in the ’60s. In 1978, he made his phenomenal directorial debut with the smash hit Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow, followed quickly with even greater success by Drunken Master_ — the two films that not only made Jackie Chan an international star but practically created the indelible kung-fu comedy genre. His filmography is a treasure trove of kung-fu classics marked by innovations in fight choreography and hyperkinetic genre stylings. Screening in the festival are the seminal Donnie Yen vehicle Iron Monkey (on 35mm), now a classic of the ’90s “New Wave” of kung fu; the brand-new Master Z: Ip Man Legacy, an exciting entry in the popular Ip Man film series, starring Max Zhang, Michelle Yeoh, and Tony Jaa; and The Miracle Fighters, Yuen’s first of several absolutely crazy meldings of kung fu, fantasy, and comedy that must be seen to be believed.