Michelle Yeoh

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Michelle Yeoh during the 2007 Cannes Film Festival

Michelle Yeoh (actually Yeoh Choo Kheng , Chinese  楊紫瓊  /  杨紫琼 , Pinyin Yáng Zǐqióng , Jyutping Joeng 4 Zi 2 king 4 ; born August 6, 1962 in Ipoh ) is a Malaysian actress of Chinese descent whose ancestors originally came from Fujian Province . In the late 1980s and 1990s, she was one of the most famous female movie stars in action and martial arts cinema in East Asia with films such as Yes, Madam , Royal Warriors , Police Story III and Wing Chun . Through her role as a Chinese agent in James Bond 007 - Tomorrow Never Dies , she made her breakthrough to international star in 1997 and was then seen in several well-known films, including Tiger & Dragon (2000), The Geisha (2005) and The Mummy: The Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (2008). In 2011, she played the Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi in the biographical film The Lady . In 2008, Roger Spottiswoode (who was also responsible for Tomorrow Never Dies ) gave her another role in his film The Children of the Silk Road .

Life

In her childhood, Yeoh lived in Ipoh, Malaysia. Her parents are descendants of Chinese immigrants and her father worked as a lawyer . Yeoh was considered a tomboy and engaged in numerous sports , particularly swimming , diving and squash . From the age of four, she also received ballet lessons and also studied piano and calligraphy in her childhood .

At the age of 15, Yeoh was sent to boarding school in England and later attended the London Royal Academy of Dance , majoring in ballet. However, her dream of a ballet career was shattered when she fell badly in a practice class and injured her spine .

She then gave up ballet and received a bachelor's degree in “Creative Arts” with a minor in acting in 1982.

Yeoh actually planned to continue her education in England, but she entered her mother in 1983 without her knowledge in a beauty contest and she was - for her completely surprising - elected Miss Malaysia of 1983.

The following year she "officiated" as Miss Malaysia, d. H. as a goodwill ambassador for your country. In this context, she met the businessman Dickson Poon in Hong Kong , who hired her for two commercials, where she performed with Chow Yun-Fat and Jackie Chan .

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Yeoh during the 2009 Cannes Film Festival

Poon also hired her in 1984 for a role in Sammo Hung's action comedy The Owl vs. Dumbo , which was produced by D&B Films, Poon's recently established film studio. Here she still had a typical female role without action. However, she watched with envy as Sammo Hung and other action scenes filmed and also wished she could play such roles.

D&B Films gave her the chance and in preparation for the next film she practiced kung fu intensively . In 1985 she appeared in a cameo role in Jackie Chan's and Sammo Hung's action comedy Tokyo Powerman , in which she had her first fight on camera.

In Yes, Madam (aka Police Assassins 2 , German title: Ultra Force 2) (1985), Yeoh had her first big appearance together with Cynthia Rothrock . She played a fearless policewoman and did numerous stunts. Yes, Madam was a great success with the public and influenced the gender balance in Hong Kong: "The solid showdown at the end between the police duo and two macho villains escalates into a battle of the sexes." (Ralph Umard: Film without borders, p. 261 ) With Yes, Madam Yeoh became known in one fell swoop and this film was the beginning of the "Girls With Guns" genre and the film series In the Line of Duty , in which in Hong Kong more than 100 other police films with a similar plot pattern Women in the main roles emerged. The two leading actresses took on different roles: "While the charming Michelle interrogates her witnesses with reason and patience, the arrogant Englishwoman (played by Cynthia Rothrock) tortures her victims with brute force and feminist slogans." (Ralph Umard: Film without borders, p . 261)

Royal Warriors (aka Police Assassins , German title: Ultra Force ) (1986) was a sequel to Yes, Madam with more action sequences. In Magnificent Warriors (1987), Yeoh played a pilot who smuggled arms across the front lines during the Japanese occupation of China and supported the resistance movement against the Japanese.

Due to injuries, she had a "normal" acting role without any action elements in the following film, Easy Money (1987).

In 1988, Yeoh married the producer and multimillionaire Poon and gave up her film career at his insistence.

It wasn't until after her divorce in 1992 that Yeoh made her comeback as an action actress with the film Police Story III . The film became a huge success with the public and other roles were not long in coming.

In the following years she appeared in a variety of wuxia films, including The Heroic Trio (1993), Executioners (1994), Butterfly & Sword , Wing Chun and together with Jet Li in Tai Chi Master . She also starred in the action films Holy Weapon , Wonder Seven , Ah Kam and Project S , as well as in the drama The Soong Sisters .

In 1997, Yeoh played the Chinese Colonel Wai Lin in the movie James Bond 007 - Tomorrow Never Dies next to Pierce Brosnan . Yeoh is considered to be the strongest and most active Bond girl that ever appeared in the series about the British secret agent. It contributed significantly to the modernization of James Bond, who was criticized in the 1980s for his sexism , among other things . The international breakthrough did not materialize, however, contrary to expectations, Yeoh did not receive any film offers from Hollywood despite appearing as a Bond girl .

It was not until 2000 that she achieved renewed international success with her portrayal of the swordsman Yu Shu Lien in the wuxia film Tiger & Dragon .

In 2005, Yeoh appeared in the film adaptation of the novel Die Geisha, produced by Steven Spielberg , in the role of the prominent geisha Mameha . The film sparked controversy in both the Chinese and Japanese regions, almost to the point of scandal, as all of the main Japanese characters were portrayed by Chinese actresses (Michelle Yeoh, Gong Li , Zhang Ziyi ).

In the biopic The Lady (2011), Yeoh played Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi. The film was released on September 12, 2011 at the Toronto International Film Festival, and the German theatrical release was in April 2012. In connection with this film, she was able to visit Aung San Suu Kyi, whom she portrayed, but was refused a second visit. The actress was prevented from entering the Yangon airport and was expelled immediately. Even before the film was released, Michelle Yeoh was "blacklisted" according to information from well-informed circles.

Remarks

  • Height : 165 cm
  • Name : She partially used the name Michelle Khan in her first films. It wasn't until 1997 that she was continuously known as Michelle Yeoh.
  • Kung Fu Style : Yeoh learned her Kung Fu in preparation for certain film roles. In contrast to Jackie Chan, for example, she has no formal martial arts training. However, she has been training for at least two decades. Her teachers were mainly Lam Ching-Ying and Corey Yuen. That is why she did not develop an individual style, although she learned many Taijiquan movements for the film Wing-Chun and Tiger & Dragon .
  • Stunts : Yeoh doesn't do all of the stunts in her films herself, but she does the most spectacular and difficult ones, including jumping through a pane of glass with her head while simultaneously fighting two villains in Yes, Madam and Jumping a motorcycle onto a moving train in Police Story III . Due to injuries or other causes, she was partially doubled in the films Tomorrow Never Dies , Ah Kam and Magnificient Warriors .
  • Languages : Yeoh speaks five languages. She grew up speaking English and can also speak Malay as well as partly Hokkien , a Chinese dialect from Fujian Province , from which her ancestors come. During her time in Hong Kong, she learned Cantonese and from 2000 also Mandarin Chinese , in which Tiger & Dragon was filmed.
  • Marriage : After her divorce from Poon, she married the US doctor Alan Heldman in 1999 . However, this marriage only lasted six months. She is currently in a relationship with the former Ferrari team boss in Formula 1 and current FIA president Jean Todt .
Jean Todt (left), Michelle Yeoh (center) and the mayor of Pierrefort (right) in front of house number 15 on Jean-Todt-Straße

Filmography (selection)

Awards

  • 1999: Excellence in Acting CineAsia Awards
  • 2001: International Star of the Year
  • 2001: Datuk Paduka Mahkota Perak
  • 2001: Best Film Actress Ethnic Multicultural Media Awards (EMMA) Magnificent Warriors
  • 2001: Best Actress Ammy Award
  • 2002: Montblanc Arts Patronage Award
  • 2002: The Outstanding Young Persons of Malaysia
  • 2002: The Outstanding Young Persons of the World
  • 2002: Best Co-production Film (as producer)
  • 2002: Producer of the Year
  • 2003: International Actor of The Year
  • 2004: The Asian Film Award
  • 2004: Best Co-production Film (as producer)
  • 2005: Rainmaker Award
  • 2006: Best Action Actress of 100 Years of Chinese Film History
  • 2007: Knight of the Legion of Honor
  • 2012: Officer of the Legion of Honor

literature

  • Kho Tong Guan: Yeoh Chu Kheng, Michelle . In: Leo Suryadinata (ed.): Southeast Asian Personalities of Chinese Descent: A Biographical Dictionary, Volume I & II . Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2012, ISBN 9789814345217 , pp. 1347-1350
  • Ken E. Hall: Michelle Yeoh . In: Garry Bettinson: Directory of World Cinema: CHINA 2 . Intellect Books, 2015, ISBN 978-1-78320-400-7 , pp. 71-73
  • Lisa Funnell: Warrior Women: Gender, Race, and the Transnational Chinese Action Star . Suny Press, 2014, ISBN 978-1-4384-5249-4 , pp. 31–57 (chapter Transnational Chinse Mothers: The Heroic Identities of Michelle Yeoh and Pei Pei Cheng )
  • Rikke Schubart: Super Bitches and Action Babes: The Female Hero in Popular Cinema, 1970-2006 . McFarland, 2012, ISBN 978-0-7864-8284-9 , pp. 123-143 (chapter Beautiful Vase Made of Iron and Steel Michelle Yeoh )
  • Nancy Stair: Michelle Yeoh. The Rosen Publishing Group, 2001, ISBN 978-0-8239-3520-8 .
  • Edward L. Davies: Encyclopedia of contemporary Chinese culture. Routledge, 2004, ISBN 978-0-203-64506-2 , p. 971.
  • Yingjin Zhang, Zhiwei Xiao: Encyclopedia of Chinese Film. Taylor & Francis, 1998, ISBN 978-0-415-15168-9 , pp. 382-383 .

Web links

Commons : Michelle Yeoh  - collection of images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Michelle's dream of living as a prima ballerina was suddenly ended by a back injury she sustained while training at school . Retrieved May 17, 2011.
  2. ↑ The biography of Burma's resistance fighter Aung San Suu Kyi gave Michelle Yeoh the role of her life . Retrieved May 17, 2011.
  3. ↑ The Malaysian actress was intercepted at Yangon airport and sent back "on the next plane" . Retrieved June 29, 2011.
  4. ↑ In the second half of the year, a film about Burma's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi is due to hit theaters. Michelle Yeoh plays the leading role in it. Now the Hollywood star has been prevented from entering the Southeast Asian country. . Retrieved June 29, 2011.
  5. ↑ The former Miss Malaysia was never allowed to travel to Burma again. "It is now on a blacklist," said another official. . Archived from the original on July 1, 2011. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved June 29, 2011.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.rp-online.de
personal data
SURNAME Yeoh, Michelle
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Yeoh Choo-Keung
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Malaysian actress
DATE OF BIRTH August 6, 1962
PLACE OF BIRTH Ipoh , Malaysia