1. Donnie Yen
Big martial arts film fans know who Donnie Yen, and most of them will honour Donnie with the most superlative of praise. Outside of followers of martial arts films, his name will be met with a blank stare if you mention his films to your friends down the pub. Yen's most notable cinematic outings are in the two Ip Man movies and his only American film to date, Guillermo del Toro's Blade II, though he doesn't say a word. The general consensus is that Yen is the finest Hong Kong movie star working today. He's different to other action stars, he's quiet, brooding and lets his martial arts skill do all the talking. He is, by far and away, the best martial arts actor on the scene right now. He's thrilling, unique and diverse, and has genuinely great acting talent, which sometimes gets lost as you stare in awe at his martial arts wizardry. If you weren't sold on Yen before Ip Man then you were after, his standing in the cinema world ballooned massively and it is the film (apart from Blade II) that has been shown the most on Western shores, albeit at very late hours. He's a committed hard worker with outstanding choreography, and became the perfect leading man. He's yet to break into the US, though he was rumoured for The Expendables 2 and it would be nice to see him in the next instalment if only for him to get greater recognition for his brilliant work.