Yen Ocean's 11 Character: Who Plays Him and Where He Appears

Yen is the acrobat on Danny Ocean's crew in Ocean's Eleven (2001), directed by Steven Soderbergh, and the actor behind him is Shaobo Qin. Many viewers look for the film as Ocean's 11, but the title on the credits is Ocean's Eleven, and that is the form used from here on.

Qin is billed 12th in the 2001 cast, after Bernie Mac's Frank Catton and just ahead of Carl Reiner's Saul Bloom, which puts him inside the ensemble rather than at the edge of it. Danny Ocean and Rusty Ryan assemble a team of specialists that includes a pickpocket, a demolitions expert, a card dealer and an acrobat, and Yen is the acrobat. Their target is a vault shared by three Las Vegas casinos owned by Terry Benedict, and the job is timed for a boxing match night, when the vault holds its most cash.

The name shifts slightly across the saga. The credits read "Yen" in Ocean's Eleven and Ocean's Thirteen (2007), and "The Amazing Yen" in Ocean's Twelve (2004). Both credits belong to the same character and the same actor, Shaobo Qin.

For the roster around him, see the Ocean's Eleven characters page, and for the cast of every film, see the Ocean's Eleven cast page.

Yen appears in Ocean's Eleven (2001), Ocean's Twelve (2004) and Ocean's Thirteen (2007) as a member of Danny Ocean's crew, and is named in the plot of Ocean's Eight (2018). He is a supporting member of the ensemble in each film.

In Ocean's Eleven (2001), the crew builds a replica of the vault to rehearse, knocks out power across the city with a device that creates an electromagnetic pulse, and sends members in disguised as a SWAT team to bag the cash. Benedict's security staff watch a looped recording while the real money leaves the building. The film grossed $450.9 million worldwide on an $85 million budget, according to Box Office Mojo. No published plot summary assigns Yen a single named beat in the job, so his place in it is the one the setup gives him: the crew's acrobat.

In Ocean's Twelve, the credit becomes "The Amazing Yen", and Qin is billed 15th. Benedict finds the crew and demands his money back with interest in two weeks, so the group heads to Europe to find a score. The film earned $362.7 million worldwide on a $110 million budget.

In Ocean's Thirteen, he is credited as Yen again and billed 15th. Willy Bank pushes Reuben Tishkoff out of a Las Vegas casino deal, and Danny gathers the old crew to get revenge. It grossed $311.3 million worldwide on an $85 million budget.

In Ocean's Eight, directed by Gary Ross, Debbie Ocean leads a new crew. In the plot, Lou and Yen also steal royal jewels on loan to the museum during the lockdown and swap them for fakes. Shaobo Qin is not among the top billed cast of Ocean's Eight, so the performer behind Yen in that film is not confirmed.

Yen works alongside Danny Ocean and Rusty Ryan's crew in Ocean's Eleven, Twelve and Thirteen. In Ocean's Eleven, that crew also includes Linus Caldwell, Basher Tarr, Frank Catton, Livingston Dell, Saul Bloom, Reuben Tishkoff and the Malloy brothers, Virgil Malloy and Turk Malloy. Their target is Terry Benedict, who is dating Danny's ex-wife Tess Ocean.

He stays with the original crew through Ocean's Twelve and Ocean's Thirteen, where the opposition changes (Benedict, the rival thief known as the Night Fox, who is really François Toulour, then Willy Bank) but the group around Danny does not. Ocean's Eight places Yen alongside Lou, Debbie Ocean's old partner.

For the two men who lead the crew, see Danny Ocean and Rusty Ryan. For the man the crew keeps crossing, see Terry Benedict, and for the woman who leads the crew in Ocean's Eight, see Debbie Ocean.

Yen survives every film he appears in; the last plot detail about him is the jewel swap with Lou in Ocean's Eight. In that film the two of them swap the loaned royal jewels for fakes during the lockdown, and nobody notices.

The earlier films leave him with the crew. In Ocean's Eleven, the gang gathers in front of the Bellagio fountain at the close. In Ocean's Twelve, the crew ends up free. In Ocean's Thirteen, the revenge plot against Willy Bank succeeds and the crew walks away wealthy.

Yen's most notable moment is the jewel swap with Lou revealed in Ocean's Eight (2018). During the Met Gala lockdown, the two replace royal jewels on loan to the museum with Amita's fakes, a haul worth more than the necklace the rest of the crew went after. It is the one plot detail in the saga that gives him an action of his own. In my opinion it works as a late payoff for a character the earlier films keep in the background.

His debut in Ocean's Eleven (2001) puts Shaobo Qin 12th in a cast built around the blackout job at the Las Vegas vault. The electromagnetic pulse darkens the city, a team in SWAT disguises walks into the vault, and a looped recording keeps Benedict's security staff watching an empty room. Every specialist covers one task in that sequence, and the acrobat is one of them, though no plot summary names which beat is his. Compare that with Ocean's Thirteen, where the plot is a revenge scheme to rig the games in Willy Bank's casino: the crew is larger in scope there, and Qin slips to 15th billing.

The third milestone is the credit "The Amazing Yen" in Ocean's Twelve (2004), the only film where the name changes. That film sends the crew to Europe under a two week deadline from Benedict, and it is the one entry where Yen's billing carries a showman's title. If you want to follow him through every film, start with the Ocean's films in release order.