Donnie Yen could show a new on-screen fighting style in his role in several martial arts stars John Wick 4 as he takes his fight directly to the High Table, with help from the Bowery King (Laurence Fishburne). One of them will be Donnie Yen in the role of John's old friend Caine, with some glimpses of Yen in fight scenes with both Keanu Reeves and Hiroyuki Sanada in John Wick 4's trailer.
The John Wick franchise has become where other action movies increasingly look to as a model for fight choreography, especially with the series blending martial arts and gun-fu. That is also a big part of what makes Donnie Yen's involvement in John Wick 4 one of the most exciting John Wick casting additions. A major factor of that is Yen's approach to deg fight scenes have helped completely reshape martial arts films in the 21st century.
Donnie Yen's mixed martial arts movies, namely Sha Po Lang (a.k.a. Kill Zone), Flash Point, and Special ID, helped make MMA-based fight scenes more common than ever. Yen's role as Bruce Lee's mentor in the Ip Man movies also amazed the entire world with Yen's showcasing of Wing Chun kung fu. With the grappling Yen put to use in his MMA movies and the techniques of Wing Chun he utilized as Ip Man, a combination of the two might be his next big fight choreography experiment in John Wick 4. This would constitute a never-before-seen approach and deliver perhaps the series' most thrilling fight sequences yet.
How Donnie Yen's Fighting Style Might Be A Whole New Blend In John Wick 4
What makes Yen's potential fighting style in John Wick 4 so exciting is that the specific combination it could bring has never been in the John Wick movies, or possibly any martial arts films. Yen's MMA movies injected grappling techniques from Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu alongside his striking to deliver the full essence of MMA. Meanwhile, the close-quarters techniques of Wing Chun employed by Yen in the Ip Man kung fu movie series, combined with Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu's grappling could be something completely unique for the John Wick franchise.
The added factor of Yen's kicking skills from Wushu and Tae Kwon Do would also be an amazing blend of arts with Wing Chun, which would only get even better working in tandem with a Wing Chun-Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu combo. Director Chad Stahelski is every bit as enthusiastic about merging martial arts in John Wick's fight scenes as Yen has long been in assembling fight scenes, John Wick 4's trailer already shows Yen wielding a sword and engaging in a gun-fu fight with John (itself indicating John Wick's difficulty with maintaining friendships). With that probably being just the tip of the iceberg of Yen's fighting style as Caine, the combat methods he used in his MMA and Ip Man movies would undoubtedly be perfect for he and Stahelski to turn into a whirlwind of flying armbars and chain-punching knockouts in John Wick 4.
The John Wick franchise has practically become a science lab for different martial arts to be dissected, analyzed, and crafted into the kinds of approaches to fighting that a world teeming with assassins requires. That alone makes Donnie Yen's entry into John Wick 4 very exciting for potentially the latest advancement of fight choreography on Yen's part. Combining Yen's grappling from his MMA movies and his Wing Chun techniques from the Ip Man series in John Wick: Chapter 4 could create some of Yen's most incredible fight scenes ever, adding to the John Wick franchise's plethora of martial arts.
