Bolo Yen. Life, cinema and sports (4 photos)

When the world cinema was not yet filled with screen adaptations of Marvel and DC comics, when the public was not spoiled by special effects, viewers were pleased with these action films with a simple plot, but with clear motives, bright and charismatic characters. But it is one thing to please and make the public fall in love with you when you are a positive hero, and a completely different challenge is to remain in the memory of the TV viewer, albeit a negative, but unique character.













Let's remember the most interesting, and for some, unknown facts from the life of the legend of martial arts films, and see what happened to him after the peak of his popularity.

His form and skills were the result of strength training and martial arts practice. Multiple Hong Kong bodybuilding champion Ian equally loved powerlifting, in which he also achieved championship regalia. According to some sources, in the same deadlift he went over an impressive 300 kg. And of course, working with such weights gave its results. Since the start of his career in the late 60s, in each of his images he was massive and muscular, and he maintained his volume when he was over 40 and even under 50 years old, which is even more worthy of respect! But the path to the roles that made him famous was, of course, given to him by joint projects with the great Bruce Lee. Bruce and Bolo became friends, trained together and thought out fight scenes together. After the death of Bruce Lee, one of the most impressive duets broke up. Then Ian starred in a couple of films with Bruce's son, but these films did not receive such great recognition.

Yen himself was able to realize himself and played in dozens of films of Chinese and American production, and it was the latter that were especially spectacular! At the same time, viewers who knew a lot about martial arts noted how skillful and practiced were Bol's movements during filming. But most of the uninitiated audience simply watched with admiration the color and charisma in each movement of the fighter. According to Yen: "Anyone can strike with a hand or a foot - you won't surprise anyone with this. But you can present the art of combat differently so that the viewer understands and remembers it." Yes, for the most part, the actor was remembered as a tough antipode of the main characters, who was ultimately destined to lose to them, but his colleagues also found explanations for his emphasized ferocity on camera. Being a kind, friendly person with an excellent sense of humor in life, he managed to play villains in such a way that the viewer, even understanding that he was not the one to root for, nevertheless empathized with him. And this was Ian's greatest skill.

As Van Dam himself admitted later, he had been a fan of Ian since his youth: "I remember well the first time I watched "Enter the Dragon", I was still very green then. How old was I? 16-17, I think. I remember seeing Bolo on the screen and being shocked. Both Ian and Bruce Lee were an incredible duo! And it was under the impression of what I saw that I started doing karate."

At the end of the nineties, he stopped filming. But even 10 years later in the film "Close Combat" he still looked great despite the fact that he was 61 years old at the time! Alas, these days Bolo almost never appears on screen. Ian is already 71 years old, alas, time is merciless, he has aged, but he still continues to train and develop bodybuilding.

In Hong Kong, being the head of the local Federation. He also has three children. Moreover, one of his sons, David, went headlong into bodybuilding and became a competing athlete.

Working with iron stretched like a steel thread through the entire life of the legend, and even in old age, Bolo is respected among fans of strength sports. A kind and calm person in life, he always knew how to bring a sense of real threat to what was happening on the other side of the screen. He is a representative of the golden era of fighters, which has not received worthy followers in our time, as Bolo himself believes.

"Bruce Lee ..., and then Jean-Claude Van Damme, and then who? Who after Van Damme? Who is next? No one. But why? So many years have passed! Why has no one come to replace? Where is the next great fighter in the cinema? I do not understand why?"

Do you think Ian Bolo is right?