According to Sohu, during the National People's Congress and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, martial arts star Donnie Yen answered interviews and explained the reason why he has rarely acted in movies in recent years.
Donnie Yen frankly said: "As long as I can play, I will still try to maintain that form. My current point of view is that if I make films, I must be responsible for my own artistic career.
If that's what I've done before, or I can't reach the level I used to be, then I'm not only at fault with myself but also with everyone.
If audiences come to see Donnie Yen's films, then each of my films must bring something new to them. So in recent years I haven't acted in as many films as before, because if you do too much, you won't be able to focus on creating truly quality works.
In a previous interview, when asked about his feelings about the success of "Xiao Ren: Phong Khoi Dai Mac" - a martial arts work that achieved 1.2 billion RMB in revenue during the 2026 Lunar New Year, directed by Yuan Heping, produced and starring Wu Jing - Donnie Yen revealed that he had been invited to participate in the film.
The 62-year-old actor shared: "They invited me very early, but it's a pity that I couldn't participate this time." Donnie Yen regretted missing the movie due to schedule conflicts.
Although not participating in acting, Donnie Yen still highly appreciates "The Catman". He publicly congratulated Wu Jing for making great contributions to the Chinese martial arts film genre, and congratulated 80-year-old director Yuan Heping for still persistently creating classic martial arts works.
Donnie Yen emphasized that the achievements of "Xiao Ren" make him feel extremely excited about the future of Chinese martial arts cinema.
While Donnie Yen regrets missing "The Catman", his own famous film franchise "Ip Man 5" is falling into a deadlock.
Previously, the movie "Ip Man 4" released in 2019 was considered the ending of the entire series. However, in May 2023, at the Cannes Film Festival, the poster of "Ip Man 5" was suddenly announced, showing that the project would continue to be produced, immediately attracting wide attention.
At the beginning of 2024, Donnie Yen once shared his reason for wanting to continue making "Ip Man 5". He said that when attending the Oscar awards ceremony, many foreign directors, producers and actors told him that they loved the "Ip Man" series very much. That is what made him feel that he should continue to explore this topic.
At that time, Donnie Yen also revealed that the script of "Ip Man 5" was in the writing stage. However, there was no more actual information about casting or filming.
Currently on Douban, the release date of "Ip Man 5" has been recorded as 2030, which means that the movie is still a long way from being released.
In an interview earlier last year, when asked about the progress of "Ip Man 5", Donnie Yen frankly replied: "There is no time to film, maybe it will be 2 more years".
However, according to the media, when filming "Ip Man 4", producer Hoang Bach Minh once revealed that Donnie Yen's cat-xe exceeded 100 million HKD (about 335 billion VND), along with global profit sharing, but he still thought that price was completely worth it.
At the end of last year, rumors appeared that Donnie Yen had set a condition for "Ip Man 5" of 120 million RMB (about 455 billion VND) in cat-xe plus box office revenue sharing.
According to sources, the investor Oriental Film Company and producer Hoang Bach Minh lean towards the "basic salary + profit sharing" model. The two sides have not reached an agreement on this issue, causing the project to stagnate and fall into a deadlock.
