Donnie Yen wins lawsuit against film company for damaging his reputation

If there's one thing we've learnt from the many Ip Man movies, it's to not mess with its leading man Donnie Yen.

Last week, a Chinese film company posted an online apology to the Hong Kong action star after he won a lawsuit against it for defamation.

"It was unintentional and a misunderstanding. We express our deepest apologies to Donnie and his fans," wrote the company in its apology letter. 

The whole brouhaha started when Donnie's 2018 movie Iceman: The Time Traveler raked in only $6.7 million in China after 10 days of its release, reported The Straits Times.

West Movie Group then wrote a post on its official Weibo account, blaming Donnie for the box-office flop. It accused him of changing the script on a whim, interfering with the action choreographer's work, and refusing to take part in promotional activities.

In response, Donnie, now 57, wrote a 2,000-worded post to defend himself, calling the allegations "baseless" and "malicious", adding that he would take legal action to "protect his rights".

The actor also questioned why his reputation was smeared as there had been no prior complaints from producers after the first movie Iceman was released in 2014.

The court recently ordered the film company to post an apology letter on its Weibo account, and for the letter to remain online for 30 consecutive days. Failure to do so will result in a 500,000 yuan (S$100,000) compensation to Donnie.

"We hope that both parties can clear the misunderstanding between us and continue to work with each other in the future, to produce more interesting projects for our audience," the apology stated.

After winning the case, Donnie's agency released a statement on Oct 16, claiming the film company fabricated facts to slander and discredit Donnie to draw attention to the movie.

It added: "Although the apology cannot compensate Donnie for the damages done to his reputation after the incident, we respect the court's judgment."

ALSO READ: Donnie Yen 'very disappointed' with Quentin Tarantino's treatment of Bruce Lee

trining@asiaone.com