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Everything Everywhere All at Once is a remarkable movie 

Densely packed with comedy, action, and drama

It is a grand multiversal adventure

And also an intimate familial story

In the film, an ordinary working-class mother

Is tasked to save the world from being destroyed

To do that, she must channel the talents

From different versions of her across the multiverse

From a sign spinner

To a kung fu superstar

And, in the role of the multi-dimensional mom

Is the heart and soul of this movie

The legendary Michelle Yeoh

One of the trinity of 90s kung fu stars

But did you know, Everything Everywhere

Was originally meant to be a Jackie Chan movie?

From its humor to its fighting style

You can definitely see how that would work

But I think we can all agree that

Michelle is the superior choice

Because in most movies, Jackie is just acting as himself 

"Jackie, kick it"

"Jackie again?"

Michelle Yeoh, on the other hand

Is an actress of thousand faces

She was a Bond girl

A politician

A geisha

And many more

Sometimes, her characters are so different from each other 

You can barely recognize her

Heck, she's in the MCU

Twice

That's why we all love her in the role

There's no other actress who embodies the multiversal kung fu mom

Better than Michelle Yeoh

Today, let's take a look at the career of this living legend 

An actress whose career looks crazier

Than the multiverse movie she acted in

This is the thousand faces

Of Michelle Yeoh

[The Thousand Faces of Michelle Yeoh]

[Chapter One]

This is Michelle's first acting gig

A commercial with Jackie Chan

She entered the film industry as a pageant queen

Which means she was already typecasted as a pretty woman

Just like most women in action cinema at the time

Michelle was aware of that 

And actively requested to be in fights, just like the men

"We should get the equal opportunity to be where they are" 

"Or get to where they are"

Luckily, the then newly formed D&B films needed something new 

To set their films apart from the competition

So, they cast two newbies:  

Michelle Yeoh and Cynthia Rothrock

And began producing a female lead modern action film

Yes, Madame

With her background in dancing and sports 

Michelle proves to others that she can not only do it 

She can do it better than most

That is her, doing the stunts

The film caught the audience off guard

With slick actions performed by not one but two women

What a statement

But that's enough about the action 

Let's, instead, take a look at Michelle's character

In the film, she plays a cocky police inspector 

"I cut my hair short"

"I was tan"

This is her first starring role, 2 years after her pageant victory 

And she already looked nothing like her commercial appearance 

She was in her 20s, and she was already a chameleon actress

Yes, Madam was a great success 

Launching the career of both its starring actresses

Michelle would continue working with D&B films

Starring in 3 more movies

Rocking the same short hair look in Royal Warriors

And Magnificent Warriors

From beauty queen to inspector 

From ballet dancer to a Gatling gun-wielding badass 

Even this early in her career

Michelle actively fought against stereotypes

And prove to the world that she can be whoever she wants

This, however, could've been Michelle's entire career 

Back then, it was common practice

For Hong Kong actresses to get famous in the industry

Retire early, marry young, and have children

Michelle Yeoh was no exception

She married the head of D&B films in 1987

And would retire from acting

But as we all know, that's far from the end of the story

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[Chapter Two]

In 1991, 4 years after their marriage

Michelle Yeoh and her  then-husband officially divorced

The reason was never disclosed

But that's not important to us anyway

Michelle immediately returned to acting

Both as a form of distraction and as her passion

Having previously worked with Stanley Tong

Michelle was invited to be in the next Jackie Chan movie

And that movie is none other than the biggest movie of that year

Police Story 3

"Personally, it was a very important movie at that time" 

"Because I had 'retired' from the film business for about 4 years" 

"Police Story 3: Super Cop was my first comeback"

Michelle stars as inspector Yang 

A Mainland Chinese police officer

Who goes undercover to bust a drug cartel

Instead of the feisty young woman persona

Michelle looks much closer to her signature look today

An imposing lioness, not to be trifled with

Yet underneath her stoic look

She's also a bit of a prankster

When she sets up Jackie to be beaten up by her soldiers 

From this smile, you can tell there's a devious heart 

Underneath her no-nonsense appearance

Up until this point

None of Michelle's roles demand much dramatic acting

But you can still see her talent shines through

Even in small details

Behind the scenes, Michelle also deserves much respect 

She continued doing a lot of stunts

Bigger, better, and more dangerous than ever

The film propels Michelle's career to a new height

She went from a retired B-list action star

To the highest paying actress in Hong Kong

An S-tier icon, right next to Jackie and Jet Li

For the next decade, Michelle would star in a wave

Of female lead action films

In Heroic Trio, she teamed up with Maggie Cheung and Anita Mui 

To fight against imperial loyalists

And the film is every bit as awesome as it sounds

In Holy Weapon

Michelle is one of the seven maidens

Who fight against Japanese pirates

Yes, they are all female team-up movies

These films put a very strong emphasis

On the power of femininity

Which is another thing Michelle pushed for

From her first starring role

Michelle made it clear that she wants to be strong as a woman

Instead of a woman posing as a man

"I don't want to look like [a muscle man]"

"She has to maintain a sense of femininity"

Michelle's fight changed the landscape of Hong Kong cinema

And gave other actresses a much wider range of roles to play with

By the mid-90s 

Michelle had been in a wide variety of roles with different looks

Their personalities, however, don't differ greatly

They are all the same confident kung fu fighting warriors

It's not very challenging

Which clearly is not how Michelle Yeoh lives her life

So, Michelle would expand beyond kung fu movies

And begin acting in more dramatic roles

In Ah Kam 

Michelle plays a Mainland Chinese martial artist

Who seeks a career as a stunt double in Hong Kong

With director Ann Hui at the helm

Michelle was given a lot more room to play with her characters

And you can definitely tell

In this scene, she approaches Sammo for her first stunt job 

Rather than her usual confident and arrogant attitude 

Michelle is a fish out of water

Look at her hands

She's nervous but excited

And there's a naive innocence behind her demeanor

You can see what kind the person she is

Before she left the Mainland for Hong Kong

The Soong Sisters is another high profile drama she starred in 

In this historical drama 

Michelle plays the eldest sister of an influential family 

Who helped established the Republic

And later, the People's Republic of China

From a loving yet stern lady of the family

To the leader of a political movement

To an aging woman leading the fight against the Japanese invasion

For the first time, Michelle proves herself as a competent

If not an excellent drama actor

With or without action

Her career in action and drama would collide 

In her most career-defining role so far

In Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

What can be said about this movie that hasn't been said before?

Let's put it this way

For this movie, Michelle has to learn proper Mandarin

Perform wire works

Fight with no less than four different weapons

And acting alongside the legendary Chow Yun-fat

It was a very demanding film

But we all saw that movie

And we can all agree that Michelle Yeoh pulled it off

Like no one else can

Michelle plays a peasant-class warrior woman

Who's too bounded by traditional Chinese morality

And struggles to face and express her own desire

This reserved, and cold demeanor

Is her most understated performance yet

Look at this moment, where her love confesses to her 

See that subtle smile, see how happy she is 

But then self-doubt, shame, and fear begin to appear as well

Her smile changed back to a polite one, a fake one

A battle unfolded in her heart

All expressed through her subtle and masterful acting

Crouching Tiger's success made a name for Michelle

On the international stage

People around the world saw her versatility

Naturally, she'd be the next global sensation

[Chapter Three] 

It was the mid-90s, and the world was caught by the kung fu mania 

Hong Kong filmmakers were bringing the art overseas 

And the Matrix would cap off the decade by revolutionizing the industry 

Naturally, the next Bond film will have to have some kung fu, too

Barbara Broccoli, who produced

Every single Bond movie since GoldenEye

Pushed for stronger female  characters in the franchise

And for Tomorrow Never Dies

They wanted someone who can be Bond's equal

And who else can equal Bond in terms of badassery

Other than Michelle Yeoh?

I remember watching this movie on TV as a kid

(And yes, I watched Bond movies as a kid)

I was absolutely mesmerized by Michelle Yeoh's aura

It's actually pretty rare to see Michelle

Playing a traditionally sexy female character

But she pulled it off effortlessly

Yet, she also appears in action-appropriate attires

Functional clothes like a pair of sneakers 

You mean she doesn't fight in heels?!

It's almost like she's not just there to look good

While not the most beloved Bond film