Michelle Yeoh has just won the Academy Award for best actress with her hysterically good performance in “Everything Everywhere All at Once”, making Oscar history as first Asian woman winning that category. It has been a long way since the year 1937, when white actress Luise Rainer won the same category for sporting a “yellowface” and play a Chinese villager in “The Good Earth.” But the Malaysian-born actress had already built up a reputation in the 1980s and '90s as Hong Kong's kick-ass action star.
Check out the interview of Michelle Yeoh
A ballet dancer since 4, she moved to London to study at the Royal Academy as a teen, but her dancer career didn't last long. After winning the Miss Malaysia beauty pageant title and the Miss Moomba beauty pageant title in Australia in the early 1980s, she happened to work on a 1984 commercial with martial arts star Jackie Chan. From there, in 1985, she began making action movies with D&B Films of Hong Kong in which she performed her own stunts. Much later, she became known to Western audiences through role in the James Bond film “Tomorrow Never Dies” (1997) and in the incredibly successful “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” (2000), and after her role in “Crazy Rich Asians” (2018) she became a bona fide Hollywood star, playing in the most diverse films, from the “Star Trek” spinoffs to Marvel's “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings”.
To follow, in chronological order, you can find some of her best films.
1. Twinkle Twinkle, Lucky Stars (1985)
The rest of the episodes focus on Swordflower breaking the heart of Frangolin Greens (yes, that is how Sammo Hung‘s character is called in the film), Sandy dealing with voodoo magic this time and the rest of the gang playing a joke on him, at least when they are not trying to get in the pants of Wang Yi-ching, whose evident sensuality Hung and DPs Arthur Wong and Johnny Koo take as much advantage as possible of. Apart from Rosamund Kwan, however, the rest of the female actresses, also get to show their fighting abilities, with Michelle Yeoh taking part in a judo exhibition involving Sandy and Frangolin. (Panos Kotzathanasis)
Buy This Title
2. Yes, Madam (1985)
Directed by Corey Yuen, and produced by Sammo Hung, who also appears in a cameo in the film, “Yes, Madam” sees Michelle Yeoh as Senior Inspector Ng who teams up with Inspector Carrie Morris (Cynthia Rothrock) to get a hold of microfilm which has been taken unknowingly by low level thieves Asprin (Mang Hoi) and Strepsil (John Shum). “Yes, Madam” sparked up a series of sequels under the “In the Line of Duty” umbrella and it is said to have started the “girls with guns” subgenre. In the year of its release the film was the 21st-highest-grossing film in Hong Kong and Mang Hoi won an award for Best Supporting Actor at the 5th Hong Kong Film Awards.
3. Magnificent Warriors (1987)
Inspired by Indiana Jones, “Magnificent Warriors” is a David Chung's Hong Kong martial arts action adventure film, set in the 1930s amidst the Second Sino-Japanese War, starring Michelle Yeoh stars as Chinese secret agent Fok Ming-ming fighting the Japanese troops with the help of a Chinese rebel and another stranger. Lightweight, fun, jam-packed with action and Michelle Yeoh at the peak of her action-star career.
Buy This Title
on Terracotta
4. Police Story 3: Supercop (1992)
The violence of the criminals along with the action scenes containing more explosions and gun fights, this aspect is, in some way, connected to Michelle Yeoh‘s character, whose performance at times even outshines Chan's, and already establishes the actress as a very different action persona than her male counterpart. Her character's professionalism and ideological foundation makes for an interesting foundation, whereas Chan as the hero is again busy rescuing the damsel in distress. If you concentrate on Yeoh's dialogues, Yang's exchanges with her HK colleague, you will certainly notice not only her firm understanding of that particular character, but also her intelligence as an actress, which she would further develop in future projects. In conclusion, “Police Story 3: Supercop” is an impressive and very entertaining action feature. Its set pieces and especially Michelle Yeoh‘s performances make the third entry into this popular franchise a must-see for genre aficionados. (Rouven Linnarz)
Buy This Title
on Terracotta
The Heroic Trio (1993)
Considering the people involved in the movie, with Johnnie To directing, Anita Mui, Michelle Yeoh and Maggie Cheung starring as the titular trio, and Anthony Wong as one of the key villains, and with a script that is filled with martial arts action plus a plethora of CATIII elements, one would expect that “The Heroic Trio” would be the quintessential HK action film. However, a number of faults in the script and a couple of other issues prevent it from becoming so, although the entertainment it offers, at least for the most part, is undeniable. (Panos Kotzathanasis)
The Heroic Trio 2: Executioners (1993)
Shot in the same year with the original, “Executioners” included the same cast (Maggie Cheung, Michelle Yeoh, Anita Mui, Anthony Wong), and Johnny To in the director's seat, having added though, Sean Lau and Takeshi Kaneshiro in the cast, and Chin Siu Tung as co-director (action director in the previous one), thus boasting an even more impressive collection of names. Furthermore, and although the issues with the narrative continued, the sequel seems to have toned them down significantly, while Michelle Yeoh, this time, definitely rises to the occasion. (…) Her desperate efforts to protect the President against foes that are stronger than her is one of the best aspects of the film, with particularly her fights with the Colonel being among the most intense and agonizing.
The Stunt Woman (1996)
Featuring a number of iconic Hong Kong actors, including protagonist Michelle Yeoh, Sammo Hung, Michael Lam and Richard Ng, “The Stunt Woman” has a very interesting premise, of following the life of a female stunt woman, in an semi-biographical path considering that Yeoh also worked in that capacity, but in the end, fails as a whole. That Yeoh was injured seriously during a stunt involving jumping off a bridge probably was one of the reasons for this, since the production had to be rushed afterwards, but the main issue here seems to be the writing and the direction. Let us take things from the beginning though. (Panos Kotzathanasis)
Buy This Title
by clicking on the image below
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)
The cast's brilliant acting is what holds the film together and sees it not get lost in the technical brilliance. Chow Yun-fat as Li Mu Bai is a dutiful warrior who must keep his love for Shu Lien (Michelle Yeoh) a secret as it is the honourable thing to do, due to certain events. The interactions between these two warriors subtly explore the titular idiom. Mu Bai is the one who seems in control and is the only one who can hold his own whilst facing a warrior wielding the Green Destiny. I love his scene in the bamboo forest fight where he takes on Jen Yu.
Buy This Title
Everything Everywhere All At Once (2022)
What saves the title in the end is firstly the acting, with Michelle Yeoh being amazing to watch, and Stephanie Hsu as Joy and Jobu following close behind in an equally impressive performance, while Ke Huy Quan as Raymond and Jamie Lee Curtis round up the excellent job done in acting and casting. Secondly, is the amazing job done in the editing by Paul Rogers, not only on the very fitting frantic pace, but also on the occasional sudden cuts that become both part of the story and the style of humor here, and one of the main ingredients of the tripping the title offers. Lastly, the combination of FX with Amelia Brooke's art direction and Larkin Seiple's cinematography result in a true eye candy that also highlights, through the amount of different settings, how much work was involved in the movie. (Panos Kotzathanasis)
Buy This Title
on Amazon by clicking on the image below
