Michelle Yeoh Kicks Ass

by Cláudio Alves

It's been a month since Michelle Yeoh won the Best Actress Oscar for her work in awards juggernaut Everything Everywhere All At Once. As one of the folks who believed she deserved that honor above Blanchett's much-lauded sTÁR turn, the moment was joyous beyond its undeniable value as a representation triumph. And yet, even watching the thespian's clear emotion when accepting the statuette, the full context of the win eluded me. Prior to this victory, Yeoh was a familiar face from various Hollywood projects and, of course, the masterpiece that is Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. However, to my great shame, her Hong Kong action career remained undiscovered.

Taking cues from the Criterion Channel's "Michelle Yeoh Kicks Ass" collection, I celebrated the one-month anniversary of her historical Oscar win by getting to know another side of our reigning Best Actress champion. It was an eye-opening experience…

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Yeoh with the good timing

by Nathaniel R

Michelle Yeoh in "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon"

How's this for campaign timing? While Oscar nominations are announced January 24th (next Tuesday - final predictions right here tomorrow)  Voting on the actual winners doesn't take place until the first week of March (Oscar night is March 12th). In that crucial month inbetween the nominations and the ceremony, look what's coming back to theaters -- CROUCHING TIGER HIDDEN DRAGON (2000) in a 4K restoration! That's right. Michelle Yeoh's other Oscar-worthy Lead Actress performance will be back in theaters on February 17th. Cate Blanchett (TAR) will be hard to beat in Best Actress this time around but this can't exactly hurt the cause to make history in voting for Michelle Yeoh (Everything Everywhere All At Once); awards races never happen in vacuums and feelings about whole careers and historical precedent also often enter the room. No Asian actress has ever been nominated for Best Actress and thus no Asian actress has won*... 

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The Best Costumes of 2000

by Cláudio Alves

Before we say goodbye to 2000 and move forward to the next Smackdown year, 1946, I'd like to take a look at the Best Costume Design Oscar race. Take it as a digestif to our coverage. In any case, this specific lineup offers a remarkably comprehensive overview of some of the category's favorite elements and most glaring blind spots. As always, period work dominates, though there's also space for fantasy and contemporary narratives, intersections of fashion and costume, as well as a non-English-language movie. The nominees were… 

• Anthony Powell, 102 Dalmatians
• Rita Ryack, How the Grinch Stole Christmas
• Jacqueline West, Quills
• Janty Yates, Gladiator ★
• Tim Yip, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

First up, let's look at the period films and, more specifically, our victor.

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"Crouching Tiger" and the Foreign Language Films of 2000

In preparation for the next Smackdown Team Experience is traveling back to 2000. 

Juliette Binoche and Jack Valenti announcing Best Foreign Language Film.

by Juan Carlos Ojano

Coming into the 73rd Academy Awards, the results of the Foreign Language Film category must have felt like the biggest lock of the night (this writer can only assume based on hindsight since he was only a five-year old bébé at the time). Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was the perfect storm when it hit American audiences. The film came from an established filmmaker, Ang Lee, who had made several critical and commercial hits in English and otherwise, the storytelling was tailored to better suit Western sensibilities, it featured international stars known to the English-speaking film market, it received rave reviews and enormous box office returns, and it was both partially funded and widely distributed by a major American studio...

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"Parasite" and the other most popular foreign film hits of our lifetimes.

by Nathaniel R

In lieu of the traditional box office charts for the holiday weekend, it's time to marvel yet again at how leggy Parasite (2019) continues to be. After its Oscar win a week ago it doubled its screen count and is expected to take in over $5 million this weekend once the actual money has been counted. So let's take a look at the very biggest international hits since box office stats began to be a commonly reported thing. Which foreign films were the all time biggest hits (since the late 80s)? For clarity we're talking about films that weren't in English but also weren't from the US which removes Mel Gibson's weird dead language projects like Passion of the Christ and Apocalypto, Clint Eastwood's Iwo Jima, and the recent Lulu Wang hit The Farewell among a few others. 

THE 25 HIGHEST-GROSSING INTERNATIONAL
FOREIGN-LANGUAGE FILMS
IN DOMESTIC RELEASE (1987-2019)

01 Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon (Taiwan, 2000) $128
10 Oscar nominations including Best Picture. 4 wins. There will never be another subtitled hit as big as this one but what a glorious film to find up top. 

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