The vermillion lanterns sway back and forth like buoys bobbing playfully in the night sky of San Francisco’s Chinatown above the crowded heads of the spectators. He stands with his left arm chambered back, his right hand pressed forward, fingers folded flatly, palm down in decidedly horizontal martial alignment. The crisp, firm, white fabric of his Karate gi (空手着) covers his muscular frame with the preciseness of folded origami. He stares forward intently at his opponent who had just walked on the stage to confront him.
Ip Man, the gracefully thin, middle-aged Sifu clad in gentle black had stepped into the fray, helping a fellow Chinese, a female Kung Fu master, who just succumbed to the indomitable force of the U.S. Marine and Karateka known as Collins Frater. The two begin to fight a classic battle of Japanese Karate against Chinese Kung Fu. The solid, aggressive, angular strikes of Frater’s Kyokuten Karate are countered adeptly by Ip’s supple, compactly efficient Wing Chun. Suddenly, the crowd gasps in shock as the Karate practitioner began to adapt his fighting style into an exact mirror image of his opponent. It appears as if both men are now using the fighting techniques of Wing Chun Kung Fu, responding to one another with rapid flurries of vertical chain punches and inverted wing arm blocks. How could this be?
“It was hilarious because there was one instance when Yuen Woo Ping was directing us and me and Donnie started to move on a particular sequence,” recounted actor Chris Collins when discussing his time filming a fight scene as Collins Frater under the guidance of legendary fight choreographer, Yuen Woo Ping and action cinema powerhouse, Donnie Yen portraying the titular character on the set of the blockbuster Kung Fu movie IP MAN 4: THE FINALE. “I was just relaxing my arms and I was just doing Wing Chun with him. And Yuen Woo Ping was like ‘No! No! Stop! It’s just Wing Chun versus Wing Chun! You’re a Karate guy!’ I was like ‘Sorry! It’s just my natural instinct.’
This must have been a surreal experience considering that Chris Collins himself is not a practitioner of Karate but a Wing Chun Kung Fu Master with a direct lineage to the real life Ip Man himself. Additionally, Chris was keen to point out that one of IP MAN 4’s most prominent characters, Hartman Wu (played by Taiwanese-American actor Van Ness) is loosely based on his own experience as a Marine attempting to promote the implementation of Wing Chun into the military’s Hand-to-Hand combat training.
“Actually the backdrop of the film is my life story,” Collins explains. “I really wanted to be part of this movie. I wanted to play that character, but Wilson Yip, the director, he just laughed and said ‘We need a Mandarin-speaking Chinese person to play the role.’ So, I ended up playing one of the guys from when I was in the Marines trying to bring Wing Chun into the Corps.”
Collins is a steadfast supporter of Wing Chun as an efficient fighting art for soldiers. “You are carrying a 150-pound rucksack, you got your combat vest on, you got your boots, you got your rifle, everything’s really heavy and you’re tired. You can’t expect to get into a big grappling match, you can’t throw high kicks, you’re not going to be able to dance around and do Muay Thai. I really liked Wing Chun cause I could put all that gear on and still do the fighting comfortably, allowing my body to move efficiently.
In addition to Collins’ impressive Wing Chun pedigree, he has an extensive Martial Arts background consisting of the Filipino combat system of Pekiti-Tirsia Kali and a Black Belt in Clark Gracie Jiu Jitsu. While these varied fighting arts have roots in Asia, he began his martial arts training during his formative years in the western combat sports of Greco Roman Wrestling and Boxing, the latter of which he notes was at the prestigious Boxing gyms of Ray “Boom Boom” Mancini in Ohio followed by time at Roy Jones Jr.’s facility in Pensacola, Florida.
However Chris mentioned that his life took a most inspired turn during his subsequent years of service in the Marine Corps at Twentynine Palms, California where he had a chance encounter with an older man who was a Wing Chun exponent. “I’d just kind of throw arms with him a bit. I remember being so amazed that he was in his 70’s and he would just deal with me with such ease, with a smile on his face. I was just captivated!”
Despite his sincere desire to learn Wing Chun from this Master, Chris was declined. However there was a glimmer of hope as the old man advised that if he truly was sincere in his desire to learn the renowned Southern Kung Fu style, he should seek instruction in the then Crown Colony of Hong Kong. So, Chris managed to be transferred to the Far East and eventually came to study the art firsthand in the Pearl River Estuary of China.
“For me, Wing Chun is really what changed my life. It taught me different learning methods and principles. I really understood more about how to be focused on very small details. It helped my mind and changed my thinking. When I came to Hong Kong I was the only westerner training at the Kung Fu Academy. It was really strange for me because I immediately felt like an outsider and it took a lot longer to learn things. I realized that I just had to stick it out no matter what. If I stayed I was going to follow through with what I wanted to do in life but if I gave in and quit, I wouldn’t get anything. That was the hardest part. Getting through that was tough, but once I got through it, things started to click.”
During this period of his life in Hong Kong, Chris worked as a security guard at nightclubs to make ends meet, employing his formidable repertoire of fighting skills. He was spotted by a talent agent which led to his inclusion as a model in a successful clothing ad campaign which in turn led to a series of small acting roles in various action films like GEN X COPS (1999).
However it was a fleeting opportunity to showcase his fighting skills with none other than Martial Arts film luminary, Jackie Chan on the film GORGEOUS (1999) which taught him an important lesson in humility. The role he was initially to be cast as was a rival Kickboxer who fights Jackie in the climactic action set piece of the film. Fans of the film will note that this role was eventually given to Australian Martial Arts actor, Brad Allan. Chris explained what transpired:
“Originally I was cast for that part. I had no prior experience but I remember meeting Jackie and he was like ‘Wow! You have some crazy hand speed! We can really do a fantastic fight scene.’ So, here I am in my 20’s and I say to Jackie ‘I can teach you some Wing Chun and if you need me to help you choreograph something I can help you with that too.’ I remember him looking at me and saying ‘Thank you very much, we will be in touch.’ Then, I never heard back from them. So I had this arrogance, in my twenties as I guess we all do and so I ruined that opportunity. My friend Mike who is a casting director in Hong Kong said ‘You are so silly. I can’t believe you did that. You totally lost your opportunity.’”
In subsequent years, Chris said that he returned to the Marines and later created his own security services company. However, the film industry beckoned his return, this time behind the camera in an advisory capacity, sharing his military tactical knowledge with cast and crew on films like the Hong Kong criminal thriller, THE WHITE STORM (2013) and the wildly popular WOLF WARRIOR (2015).
“After WOLF WARRIOR, there was a huge buzz in China because everyone was wondering who I was, because all the skill sets I was showing in the movie regarding firearms,” Chris explained. Soon film producer, Paco Wong grew to have great interest in Chris’ rising stardom and approached him with a stellar business proposition.
“Then Paco came to me and said ‘I think we should think of you in front of the camera as opposed to focusing on training the actors.’ I said ‘What do you mean by that?’ He said ‘I want to turn you into an action star.’ I started laughing at him because I’m in my 40’s. I’m like ‘Paco, this is what you say to people in their 20’s!’ He says ‘Yeah I know, but I really believe I can do this with you because you have all these skill sets to be an action star!’ I said ‘If you believe me and trust in me, I’ll go at this 100%!’ That was three years ago and it’s kind of what he promised. He said to me ‘Give me three years and I’ll put you in a position to do this stuff.’ So I’m happy because it’s coming to.”
As IP MAN 4: THE FINALE dominates the global box office, Chris Collins has finally arrived to the world stage according to some preordained plan. While the path thus far has been fraught with peril, hardship, and life lessons, it appears he is finally where he was meant to be all along. Right on time.
IP MAN 4: THE FINALE opened nationwide in limited release on Wednesday December 25, 2019. Consult your local listings to see if it is playing in a theater near you.
