The rise and rise of our belle

WHAT did I say, what did I say? Back in May last year, I gushed over Tan Sri Michelle Yeoh in her best ever role in Everything Everywhere All At Once (EEAAO) and expressed the hope she would cop major international awards for her acting chops.

Well, folks, she did it! She won the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Comedy or Musical film, the second Asian to win in this category and the first Malaysian to do so.

I was over the moon because, as I mentioned in my May column last year, much as Yeoh is widely admired and respected, including being crowned the greatest action heroine of all time in 2008 by film review website Rotten Tomatoes, she had never won any significant industry award despite many nominations.

Now the honours and accolades are coming in fast and furious, and she is on talk shows, featured in magazine exclusives and in the news almost every day.

Even before she was presented the Golden Globe award on Jan 11, Yeoh had garnered Best Actress nods from a slew of US film critics associations, an honorary doctorate in fine arts from the American Film Institute and the Kirk Douglas Excellence in Film Award at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival.

But it was Time magazine naming her Icon of the Year in December that made us sit up with the rest of the world. Yeoh has surpassed the likes of internationally famous female stars of Chinese descent like Gong Li and Joan Chen and is a household name alongside Jackie Chan, Bruce Lee and Jet Li.

That is because she is arguably the Asian actress with roles in the most number of Hollywood movies and US TV series, such as Tomorrow Never Dies (in which she was lauded as the most intelligent and capable Bond girl), Memoirs of a Geisha, Crazy Rich Asians, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Star Trek: Discovery, and Witcher: Blood Origin.

Yet for all her many, many roles, EEAAO was the first in which she was the lead actress and it was truly her most brilliant performance to date. She plays immigrant laundromat owner Evelyn Wang with, as The New York Times put it, “grace, grit and perfect comic timing”.

To me, Yeoh is the irresistible heart of the quirky, multilayered EEAAO that made me laugh and cry.

With the immense positive buzz over Yeoh in EEAAO, interest in the film exploded among Malaysians.

Award-winning star: Yeoh in a scene from ‘Everything Everywhere All At Once’ with Stephanie Hsu (left) and Ke Huy Quan. — AP

When I watched EEAAO in the cinema in May, there were just three other people in the hall.

When my friend’s son caught it last month, it was a full house and the normally stoic young man was so moved by the story and acting, he cried like a baby, much to his mum’s surprise.

Yeoh’s win at the Golden Globes is seen as a major coup because the awards are seen as the precursors to the Academy Awards, the Western film industry’s Holy Grail.

Her chances are strengthened by her nomination for Best Actress at the British Academy Film Awards (Bafta), UK’s equivalent of the Oscars.

At the time of writing this column, the nominations have yet to be announced but all predictions say Yeoh will be nominated for Best Actress for the Oscars, together with EEAAO for Best Picture.

Whether she can beat the likes of other anticipated nominees like heavyweight Cate Blanchett in the dark psychological drama Tar remains to be seen, but she has the whole of Asia rooting for her.

Malaysians are justifiably proud one of our own is basking in the international spotlight, and our King, Queen, Prime Minister and ministers have sent her congratulatory messages on her Golden Globe win.

Even the Hong Kong government tried to muscle in on “our” success. Its Culture, Sports and Tourism Secretary, Kevin Yeung, in his congratulatory statement described Yeoh as a Hong Kong actor and got blasted for it by Malaysians.

It is true, however, that she first made her name and honed her acting and martial arts stunts in Hong Kong, as Yeung pointed out, and it is something our new government seems to have taken note of.

Communications and Digital Minister Fahmi Fadzil admitted in an online interview that Malaysia did not fully utilise Yeoh’s talent in the local film industry.

Instead she’s yet another example of the country’s brain drain and loss of talent, this time from the creative arts, and it is something he wants to change.

I think Fahmi is sincere as he has a background as a writer and actor before he joined politics.

But it will take steely political will to change the present set-up which makes it impossible for talents like Yeoh to grow into accomplished artistes if they remain in Malaysia. That is the hard truth.

That’s because Finas (the National Film Development Corporation Malaysia), the central government agency for the growth and development of the local film industry, has been guided by the National Culture Policy formulated in 1971 which was based on the principle that the national culture must be based on Malay culture with Islam as an important component and that only “suitable elements” from the other cultures may be accepted.

That’s what led to the talent drain that Fahmi referred to.

Many other Malaysian Chinese artistes like Fish Leong, Michael Wong, Angelica Lee Sin Je and Penny Tai left for Hong Kong, Taiwan or China where they found mega success.

So when Finas congratulated Yeoh on its Facebook page with the hashtag #FilemKitaCitraKita (our films, our representation), fans were quick to point out Finas had had no hand in Yeoh’s success.

Interestingly, former PM Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob launched the National Culture Policy 2021 (or Daken 2021) with the aim of creating a “developed nation of cultured people” that would be based on the five principles from his Keluarga Malaysia (Malaysian Family) slogan: inclusivity, togetherness, sense of pride, openness, and wholeness.

Words like “inclusivity” and “openness” sound exactly like what the creative industry needs – actually what the whole country needs – but it remains to be seen how Daken will be implemented or if the minister thinks the policy still requires work. After all, Keluarga Malaysia has now been replaced with Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s own motto, Malaysia Madani, with its own set of values and principles (which I am still trying to get my head around).

There is another factor that I must highlight because it clearly contributed to Yeoh’s Hollywood success: her fluency in the English language. That is how another Malaysian succeeded in Hollywood – Ronny Chieng, the comedian who is a senior correspondent on The Daily Show and had supporting roles in Crazy Rich Asians and Shang-chi.

There are many more factors and conditions needed for a nation to successfully create a film industry like the way South Korea did whereby it can market its content, services and talents internationally.

Among them are funding and the impact of censorship laws, but that would take another column or two to cover.

In the meantime, we can cheer on our belle, regardless of whether she wins an Oscar.

We will be seeing a lot of her as she has an impressive line-up of film projects in the pipeline, including Avatar 3 and 4, in the next few years. Michelle boleh!

The views expressed here are entirely the writer’s own.