Michelle Yeoh

Michelle's career began as a beauty queen- Miss Malaysia 1983. Winning this title helped her land her first on-camera work in Hong Kong- a wrist watch commercial with Jackie Chan! Adopting the screen name Michelle Khan, her first appearance in a film was a non-action role in "Owl vs. Dumbo"(1984). It wasn't until her second movie, "Yes, Madam!"(1985) that Michelle was given the opportunity to prove how talented she was. Originally, Michelle was supposed to be doubled by a man for all her action scenes in "Yes, Madam!". Michelle had other ideas, and she convinced the producers to let her do her own stunts. Michelle had studied to be a ballerina, and her experience in dance proved useful in learning the martial arts skills needed for the screen. With her performance in "Yes, Madam!" a star was born. Michelle proved that she was perfectly capable of handling action scenes and looked great doing it.

After "Royale Warriors", Michelle made two other films, then retired, giving up acting for married life with producer Dickson Poon. The marriage didn't work out, and after michelle got divorced she decided to make a comeback. Previously billed as Michelle Khan, she now would be known as Michelle Yeoh. Her first film after she came out of retirement was the aforementioned "Police Story III"(1992), where she gave Jackie Chan a run for his money. She starred in a lot of "period" martial arts films "Tai-Chi Master"(1993) and "Wing Chun"(1994) and the fantasy/sci-fi "Heroic Trio"(1993), but no real gwg flicks(They were on their way out by the time she came back to the movie scene). The closest she has come to doing GWG style action in her post-retirement career were "Project S"(1993, AKA Super Cop 2) and, although it's not a Hong Kong film, "Tomorrow Never Dies"(1997). In Project S she reprises her Inspector Yang character from "Police Story III". This could have been a gwg film, as it was made to capitalize on the popularity of her character from "Police Story III. However, she has to share a lot of the screen time with other talented martial artists, so the focus isn't totally on her. For me, though, the real reason to watch this movie is to see Michelle. She has some good fight scenes, especially the one at the end with a 7-foot tall guy! Having Michelle co-star in "Tomorrow Never Dies is one of the best things the movie has going for it. Her Wai-Lin character is quite similar to the strong female roles she played in her GWG films. For once, a female character is on equal footing with James Bond(OK, she did have to be rescued by Bond at the end, but you can't have everything). Michelle's action scenes in "TND" are in the same spirit as the GWG films, as evidenced by her martial arts sequences and the two-fisted sub-machine guns she wields. It may seem tame by Hong Kong standards, but it gave western audiences a taste of that GWG-style action.