Star gazing
Catch up on some of Michelle Yeoh’s greatest hits
How many actors can do intense drama and even-more-intense-kungfu? If you guessed one, you are correct.
Michelle Yeoh’s performance in “Everything Everywhere All at Once” has won her high praise — and it might win her the Best Actress Oscar on Sunday. Despite the 2023 blockbusters success, the movie only shows off a sliver of Yeoh’s talents. When you are ready for a deep dive on Yeoh’s best kung fu queens, most evil matriarchs, and strangest roles — yes, stranger than “Everything Everywhere All at Once” — check out these five offerings.
“Police Story 3: Supercop,” 1992
What’s the greatest movie of all time? Probably not “Police Story 3,” and yet… the final15 minutes are like nothing else in the history of cinema. Yeoh and Jackie Chan play, well, supercops, who close the movie trying to top one another. While Chan is typically considered the king of stunts, Yeoh’s work here is mind boggling — over a few short minutes she hangs off a van barreling down the highway, falls off said van onto a car before spinning to the hard pavement, and then crashes a motorcycle atop a moving train. Quentin Tarantino rightly called them “greatest stunts ever filmed in any movie ever.” Watch the sequence all month on the Criterion Channel, which is hosting a Yeoh film fest with seven other titles.
“The Heroic Trio,” 1993
The weirdness of “Everything Everywhere All at Once” has nothing on this film. Here is what (I think) happens in the movie: An evil demon steals a bunch of babies to turn them into monsters and/or a new Chinese dynasty while also forcing a dying scientist to make an invisibility cloak, but a feuding superhero, supervillain and super vigilante — played by Yeoh, Maggie Cheung, and Anita Mui — overcome their intertwining pasts to team up to thwart the demon’s plan. I know, right? Action, stunts, violence, gore, silliness, melodrama, early ’90s special effects, flashbacks, twists, love, and redemption get crammed into 87 minutes. Long hard to find, this one is also part of the Yeoh collection on the Criterion Channel.
“Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” 2000
The beauty of martial arts is often obscured by campy or dumb violence — think of Steven Segal bashing in heads with a pool ball. “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” popularized the idea that kicks and punches can have the grace of ballet, and that the kung fu genre can carry serious weight. Beaten by “Gladiator” for Best Picture at the 2000 Oscars, “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” is the superior film by almost any metric.
“Star Trek: Discovery,” 2017
If you’re looking a character that’s just straight up evil, check out Yeoh’s emperor Philippa Georgiou, or Mother of the Fatherland, Overlord of Vulcan, Dominus of Qo’nos,
Regina Andor, Philippa Georgiou Augustus Iaponius Centaurius. Over a couple seasons, this monstrous warrior queen plays both foe and friend to the crew of the Discovery. She can slice you with a sword or a stare.
“Crazy Rich Asians,” 2018
Ignore the title, if you can. Try and focus on how Yeoh — as the very rich, very powerful, very intimidating — matriarch Eleanor Sung-Young absolutely radiates frost before beginning to thaw with delicate tenderness in this silly and smart rom com. Also Awkwafina is in it and she’s a delight as usual.