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In the 80s and 90s, among the Hong Kong actresses such as Chung Chu-hong, Maggie Cheung, Lin Qingxia, Li Ka-yan, Kwan Zhilin, Yau Shuzhen, Carina Lau, Yuen Wing-yee and so on, Michelle Yeoh was only a second-tier figure in terms of appearance and acting skills.
However, the ingenious thing in the world is that when most of her peers retired on the big screen, Michelle Yeoh's acting path became wider and wider.
Until the arrival of the "first Asian Oscar actress".
It is not only a heavenly reward for hard work, but also an inevitable result of Michelle Yeoh's uniqueness.
The famous film critic Mei Xuefeng has disassembled the mystery for us in detail.
- Xu Yuan, editor-in-chief of the gun manuscript
Strong Michelle Yeoh
Text/Mei Xuefeng
About the author: Senior media person, digital product enthusiast, long-distance running and tai chi enthusiast. He was the founding editor of "Watching Movies, Midnight Show".
Self-control
Michelle Yeoh has always played a strongman, except for her debut film "The Owl and the Dumbo", in which she played a helpless teacher who was bullied by students at every turn.
The rest of the time, she is a brave cop or a warrior. Even when she appears with the strongest men, she is no less. In "Super Police" with Jackie Chan, she is a mainland policeman who can complete thrilling actions with Jackie Chan from birth to death, and in "Tai Chi Zhang Sanfeng" with Jet Li, she is not a weak female stream with Jet Li, but a heroic female hero. In the 007 series, which is the easiest to become a vase, she also did not become the bed playmate of the most habitual 007, but a Chinese agent who competed with 007's combat effectiveness and wisdom.
Even in those relatively literary films, Michelle Yeoh has always maintained a strong background. In "Akin", she is a woman who survives independently in an all-male martial arts practice, and she can't stand her boyfriend's half-heartedness, quietly leaving her relatively good life and returning to the extremely dangerous and turbulent career of dragon and tiger martial artists. In "Song Family Dynasty", she plays the old and heavy Song Ailing, when her two younger sisters are fighting because of men and political leanings, she is still trying to maintain the stability and balance of the entire family like a pool of deep water, in "Memoirs of a Geisha", she is the top of the geisha industry, she is completely different from Gong Li's Hatsu Tao, if Hatsu Tao is a fear that leads to aggression, then she plays Mahamei is confidence leads to tolerance.
In "The Owl and the Dumbo", Michelle Yeoh is just a vase character, but seeing Lin Zixiang doing tricks, she had the idea of becoming a "beating woman"
But these strong people she plays are not the kind of bohemian and willful people, they do not win respect by attacking the city, but by guarding their bottom line and are admired.
In short, Michelle Yeoh's toughness is not ostentatious, not aggressive. Among her contemporaries, Lin Qingxia has also shot many tough roles, but this toughness is completely different from Michelle Yeoh's. Lin Qingxia is based on her feminine charm, adding a touch of male flying. This flying point is like a beauty mole on a beauty's face, which is a contrasting decoration. Gong Li is also strong, her body exudes that queen-like majesty, and the instinctive courage of a female beast. And Michelle Yeoh's toughness is disciplined, you can see that her kind of control, is to retreat into progress, is not to intrude on others, but absolutely treat others who cross the line.
So Michelle Yeoh doesn't have that "usual" sexiness. The usual sexiness is nothing more than showing weakness or stubbornness. Showing weakness is to arouse the desire of the opposite sex to pity and control by showing his weakness, while stubbornness is to arouse the conquest desire of the opposite sex by exaggerating his own strength, and even arouse his inner secret pleasure of wanting to kneel at the feet of others and accept the whipping of others.
Michelle Yeoh, on the other hand, gives people a sense of affinity and distance, a sense of strength that is not aggressive, and a sense of warmth that belongs to the eldest sister looking at the little brother.
In Hollywood movies, Michelle Yeoh also often plays Asian elders or older sisters
The face of a middle-aged man
Michelle Yeoh has a middle-aged face, which was the same when she first debuted in her twenties, and also when she received worldwide recognition for "Instantaneous Universe" at the age of 60.
She is neither local, just like the early Gong Li full of a primitive unpolluted vitality, nor urban, just like Faye Wong's cold-eyed love and unique urban coldness and alienation. She is not intense, just like Zhong Chuhong's enthusiasm that can make every pore burn and sing at a glance, she is not cold, like Yuan Quan, you and her eyes like ancient wells look at each other, you seem to penetrate the prosperity of the world, and there is an eternal silence.
She was not born, just like Zhou Xun, the sense of purity in her body always made people have a kind of pity, afraid that she would be impregnated or even damaged by this world, and she was not the kind of worldly steaming, such as Ye Dexian or Mao Shunjun, the overly flexible eyes, containing too much firewood, rice, oil and salt, and the passion and calculation that came from it.
It is a face without extreme emotions, a face without clear drama. In her, you actually do not see the traces of becoming wiser due to the years, or being destroyed or even broken by the years, and her inside is like an inconspicuous but huge stone, silent but tough in the face of time.
This is also the reason why in addition to action martial arts films, it is difficult for her to become the first heroine in other movies.
Ordinary directors need actors with extreme tension, hoping that they will burst out with heart-wrenching emotions and infectious power. Only the kind of director who is more gentle and subtle, and can appreciate this more detailed and secret tension, can realize Michelle Yeoh's true potential.
So far, only three movies have really given her a real chance to be an actress.
They are "Akin" directed by Xu Anhua, "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" directed by Ang Lee, and the recent Oscar hit "Instantaneous Universe".
Michelle Yeoh showed her resilience to practice ballet during filming, and she refused to be a stand-in during the filming of "Akin", and was later injured in an accident and almost paralyzed
Acting is never invented, but discovered. When Michelle Yeoh and Hui Anhua and Ang Lee, who are known for their warmth and sullenness, met, her glorious side really shone.
Xu Anhua is best at filming the affection behind the blandness, the persistence behind the indifference, and the nobility behind the frivolous. What Ang Lee is best at shooting is the emotions that are heavily bound by moral laws, social rules, and self-expectations. These just happen to have a good resonance with Michelle Yeoh's own characteristics.
And these two people also very aptly unearthed the subtle complexity in her, the hidden sense of division that others are difficult to discover. This split stems from a person with excessive self-esteem, torn between her self-esteem and her emotional needs.
In "Akin", it is Akin, who is on the set, unable to complete the prescribed actions because of the menstrual event, and is unwilling to tell the truth even if he is scolded, because for a self-respecting person, the most fearful thing is to gain sympathy.
When she found out that her boyfriend was flirting with other women, she just tried to pretend to be calm and quietly left. A person with real self-respect is not willing to cry or even "shrew the street". Her insight into human nature makes her know the fragility of this kind of male and female emotions, and when the commonplace cheating happens to her, she is reluctant to let out that rare and strange roar. Her sensitivity to dignity also allows her to appreciate the importance of the dignity of others. She broke up peacefully, taking care of each other's decency, and more importantly, she didn't want to make herself the kind of person she didn't want to be.
Xu Anhua, probably the most uncurious director in the Chinese film industry, can shoot everything flat as water, so that it reveals the most real original appearance without any filters. Whether the other party is a talented woman such as Xiao Hong, or a revolutionary like "When is the Bright Moon", or even a warrior and emperor in the martial arts film "Book of Swords and Revenge". When she deals with Akin's inner emotions, she is also weightless, and Michelle Yeoh reflects her usual natural restraint in this film, so that this movie, which is not outstanding in Xu Anhua's sequence, still has a sad and open-minded bland affection.
And in "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", Ang Lee gave Michelle Yeoh a real emotional outburst.
Ang Lee is the real number one sadomasochistic master in the Chinese film industry, whether it is "Eating Men and Women" or "Brokeback Mountain", we can see the tension between the pervasive social norms like air and the lust that rolls in the ground like magma, Michelle Yeoh's Yu Xiulian, who forgot the shackles of her famous and decent and everyone's identity at the last moment of Li Mubai's death, and the sad cry intermittently told the emotions hidden in the heart for many years that could not be digested.
Yu Xiulian's forbearance in "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" is in strong contrast with Yu Jiaolong's willfulness
The director of "Instantaneous Universe" is not as delicate and humanistic as the Xu Anhua and Ang Lee we just said, but the subject matter they shot secretly coincides with Michelle Yeoh's temperament.
It tells the story of a middle-aged woman whose years of embarrassment and mundane life become more and more intolerable, her equally mediocre husband becomes more and more abhorrent in her impatient eyes, her rebellious daughter is simply unwilling to follow her own wise advice, the nitpicking tax official only wants to find fault in her mountain of bills, and the always tough heroine still wants to find a perfect way out of the leaky situation.
This is a real movie that can fully express Michelle Yeoh's talent, which has her old profession, that is, kung fu, but also has complex emotions that are almost impossible for her: mourning her daughter's misfortune, anger at her husband, bending to her father, enduring the humiliation of tax officials, and moving forward inertia about the intolerable but inertial life of petty life. This is the fullest character Michelle Yeoh has ever encountered, but it is also about repression. It's just that this depression was handled by the director.
In this flamboyant-looking movie, Michelle Yeoh's performance is still consistent and calm, without the inferior circus-like performance of squeezing eyebrows. It is also this performance with a great sense of life that makes the overall mood of the film firmly fixed in a very realistic atmosphere, even if its subject matter and style are fantastic.
Michelle Yeoh said that "Instantaneous Universe" is the movie she has been waiting for
These three films really discover the drama in Michelle Yeoh, which is a dramatic conflict between abundant emotions and abundant rationality, a conflict between the suppression of self-esteem and intense emotions, and the conflict between the face with traditional Chinese characteristics and the strong consciousness of independence and autonomy that belongs to modern women.
This may also be the reason why she has never really had a pure love movie, she is not the kind of person who puts all the value of life on others, not the kind of person who regards love as all in life. The same is true in real life, she and Jackie Chan are friends who can joke about Jackie Chan as "male chauvinist pigs", she is the only actress who can hook up with Jet Li, she does not have the same scandal with male stars as other actresses, they all get along more like buddies.
Self-esteem, in essence, is also a kind of "selfishness", self-esteem people are people who think that self-completion is more important than anything else, people who think that independence is better than attachment to others, no matter how noble this attachment is. Self-esteem is a strong urge to be who I am and not to be anyone else. From this point of view, Michelle Yeoh also has such a slight similarity in the film and in reality.
When Hong Kong's "beating women" career was in its glory, Michelle Yeoh married wealthy businessman Pan Di Sheng, but three years later she ended her marriage and returned to film
The most enduring transformation
Just look at the current situation of Michelle Yeoh's contemporaries, and we can see her special.
Zhong Chuhong, Lin Qingxia, Kwan Zhilin, Li Jiaxin, Qiu Shuzhen and even Maggie Cheung have all withdrawn from the film industry. In addition to Maggie Cheung, other stars, we all see a fixed pattern, marrying a businesswoman, marrying a husband and teaching children, the acting career looks more like a stage of life, or a ladder of life, and the ultimate culmination is to complete the class leap, become a member of the super-rich family, and enjoy the admiration of others.
In comparison, Maggie Cheung looks more like a hardcore literary young woman, who has reached the apex on the road of acting, looking around blankly, and then becoming an avid rock fan, tirelessly stimulating music fans and her movie fans with her wild voice.
From Hong Kong to the mainland to Hollywood, Michelle Yeoh continues to find her place on the world stage as contemporaries move away from the screen
And Michelle Yeoh, who has consistently made movies, still shows no signs of retirement, and the flamboyant love history of some female stars is not so prominent in front of her film career, although she is married or dating rich tycoons, such as Pan Disheng, such as Ferrari's president.
Because she did not regard marriage with a wealthy family as her ultimate ideal, it has always been her constant pursuit to improve or go to a higher level in her career.
It is also this dedication to her career that has led to the news that she has repeatedly performed dangerous actions and been injured, whether it is flying over the top of the train on a motorcycle in "Super Cop", or flying off a bridge in "Akin" and damaging her spine.
In a way, she reached the highest peak that a star can reach.
When the 007 crew found her, Michelle Yeoh's first reaction was "Do you want me to play the female Bond?"
In business, Starstar is always at the top of the value chain. Whether it is Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Donnie Yen or now Wu Jing, they are the highest-grossing ones in their era. But on the other hand, because of the attribute of action, they have always seemed a little thin in the attribute of actors, and they are at the bottom of the value chain of art. And their transformation road is actually relatively difficult. Because the material returns are high and relatively fixed, it is difficult for film companies to be willing to risk them, and at the same time, the huge fame and fortune also make the willingness to transform stars without too strong ambition insufficient.
Of course, this desire for transformation has always existed, such as Jackie Chan, who once spent a lot of money to direct and act in "Miracle", wanting to prove that he is also a good actor. For example, Jet Li, in "Huo Yuanjia" and "Cast Name" before he claimed to have withdrawn from the film industry, only began to show signs of an excellent actor.
"Super Cop" with Jackie Chan in 1992 is actually the perfect springboard for Michelle Yeoh's comeback
Michelle Yeoh's transformation path has been the most intentional and lasting, as well as the most successful.
As a beating girl, she first left Hu Huizhong, Li Saifeng, Oshima Yugali, Nishiwaki Michiko, Rovlo and others behind with a fighting performance, becoming the first female star fighter. Then he has successively cooperated with Jackie Chan Jet Li and even 007 Pierce Brosnan, becoming a female warrior to compete with these world's most famous action heroes.
But at the same time, she followed the steps and quietly filmed "Akin", "Song Family Dynasty", "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and "Memoirs of a Geisha", until this movie like "Instantaneous Universe" that tested her acting skills.
This unhurried patience and naturalness testifies to Michelle Yeoh's unchanging ambition, as well as the non-utilitarian nature of this ambition.
Michelle Yeoh's film career is an inspirational film, a story of a person whose ability is not particularly good from the perspective of fighting, and who has become the first female star with her own life and diligence; It is the story of a woman whose acting talent is not high, and with persistent trials and opportunities, she eventually becomes an excellent actor.
This relative purity comes from both her personality and probably her native family. She was born into a wealthy Malaysian family and survival was never an issue. Independent self-fulfillment that does not belong to anyone has such a high position in her heart.
Editor/Xu Yuan
Typesetting/Yako
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