Beauty vs Beast: Tiger vs Dragon
Monday, September 10, 2018 at 3:00PM Jason Adams from MNPP here, hoping against hope that Michelle Yeoh's name doesn't get lost among all the brand new Oscar contenders currently dominating our thoughts thanks to the ongoing Toronto Film Festival; they might be fresh playthings but Crazy Rich Asians as Nathaniel just reported is still dominating the box office, so let's keep Yeoh's heat going.
And what better way than to use this week's "Beauty vs Beast" glance back at her previous greatest role, that of the love-stricken bad-ass Yu Shu Lien in Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. She faced down an ignorant but loveable upstart that time around to, with Zhang Ziyi embodying all fiery desire as the thief and shit-kicker Jen Yu.
PREVIOUSLY Our Hammer vs Cavill battle kept itself pretty tight but Armie came out on top (I hear he's into that) with 52% of your vote - said Matt:
"Well, Armie Hammer wants to wrestle. So....yeah."
Reader Comments (17)
Oh man... asking us to choose is cruel. What's a gay-ass actressexual to do?
Michelle Yeoh deserved an Oscar nod for this. It's OK though - she'll get one this year.
Michelle Yeoh. Always, Michelle Yeoh.
Team Yu Shu Lien all the way.
Cavill seems like a stealth, closet pig bottom so Hammer's coming out on top makes sense.
Not fair, this is like a gay sophie's choice. Torture.
God lord the memories of seeing this in the theater. I was just giddy during their first fight scene, and just about every moment of the movie. Pure cinematic joy! Anyway, I voted for Shu Lien. I'm a sucker for some honorable, restrained longing.
As Asian Chinese, most of us thot tt Yeoh was super awkward in her dialogue delivery n wooden (maybe its deliberate?) in her emotion display. Before this film, she was primarily an Action Film star in Asia.
So it's a no brainer tt the MVP n breakout star is Ziyi Zhang, who was the runner-up to Best Actress at both the Golden Horse n HK Film Award. She lost to the sublime Maggie Cheung for In The Mood for Love, on both counts.
Claran, thanks for your post. Some people in the western part of the world keep saying how great M Yeoh was in Crouching when they didn't quite get the wooden accent/language/delivery. I don't blame them. I would not have understood whether an actress nailed a language foreign to me at all. Having said that, she's MVP in CrazyRichAsians.
Claran - I have heard that before about Yeoh in the film from Chinese friends of mine, but not knowing the language myself it's never been an impediment for me personally. I think she displays plenty of the right emotions through her face. Those eyes! I giess in a wau experiencing foreign language performances can be akin to what you key in to with silent film performances, in some ways. It's like, right this second I'm watching a dubbed giallo and there are plenty of performances I've seen in films of this sort in this way that I love too. But I guess it's just a different experience.
I'm a native Mandarin speaker myself (from Taiwan), and I would disagree with Claran. Michelle Yeoh spoke with a noticeable accent, but her emotions shone through in every line. Zhang Ziyi spoke perfect drama-school Mandarin, but she was flat and unengaging--her line readings were clearly readings. And honestly, Zhang has this problem in all of her Mandarin films.
For what it's worth, Ang Lee said in his book (published in Taiwan) that the original plan was to dub Michelle Yeoh with a professional Mandarin voice actor, but once they actually saw the performance they immediately decided to use her natural line readings.
I'm also a native Mandarin speaker and I have to disagree with John. Her pronunciation was flat and tone-deaf and accent a major distraction. In fact, I would dare say her line readings were worse than Chow Yun Fatt's. Almost every Mandarin-speaking critic I've read called her out (albeit unfairly if you were to list all actors past whose language delivery fell into the same category), Besides, we sometimes perceive verbal constipation for angst or a wooden delivery for being stoic. I guess we'll have to agree to disagree.
Michelle Yeoh's performance is sublime.
As a native Mandarin speaker, I am in John's team. I think Michelle Yeoh's accent in that movie doesn't matter as the story is set in ancient China. She is brilliant in that movie because her face has conveyed depth of emotion even without dialogue.
I have to agree with Claran and Jan. It wasn't just her accent but her intonation and pronunciation were largely off. To those who are unfamiliar with my native language, there are 4 tones to every spoken character. If you say a word with the incorrect tone, it may mean something else altogether. It can be disastrous!
For what it's worth, there was a Chinese review pointing out a roster of words mispronounced or given the wrong intonation by both Chow and Yeoh. I can't seem to find it now but it's quite funny actually.
Don't get me wrong, I like Yeoh a lot. I think she's a down to earth person because during a TV interview with the cast of Crouching Tiger, she and Chow poked fun at each other's linguistic missteps in that movie. Of course, Ang Lee was rather gracious not to mention politically correct to say both his actors did REL:ATIVELY well in their Mandarin after a slew of reviews that followed the film's release.
Both ladies deserved Oscar nominations if you ask me (although I don't speak the language at all), but here I have to lean on the side of Yu Shu Lien, if only because every time I watch the film I can't help but want to watch her school that little brat.
This movie makes me so giddy every time I watch it.
Yeoh's face as she wields that sword above her head as she first faces off against Zhang...
I still get shivers.
"Bring it, bitch."
Without her, this movie wouldn't be half of what it is, and with her, it's heart crescendos.
Easy choice.
I tink the most emotional part for me is the ending, when Jen Yu asks her lover to make a wish n then flew off the cliff to her waterly end. She finally u/stand alas too late the hollowness of being No. 1 in the puglistic world n she knew Li Mubai's death will be too much on her conscience to bear in her remaining days...
And Ziyi Zhang nailed it perfectly! To tink this is only her 2nd film n she was not even Ang Lee's initial choice.