Michelle Yeoh reveals that she initially thought director Ang Lee's idea for one fight scene in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was a joke. Yeoh is a well-known figure in the world of action cinema, having starred alongside Jackie Chan in Supercop 2, in addition to appearing in movies like Tomorrow Never Dies, Gunpowder Milkshake, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, and, most recently, Everything Everywhere All At Once. One of Yeoh's most memorable roles, however, was Yu Shu Lien in 2000's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
Directed by Lee, who would soon after go on to direct Hulk starring Eric Bana, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon tells the story of Master Li (Chow Yun-Fat) and Shu Lien's quest to recover Green Destiny, the sword of a fabled warrior. The film is renowned among fans of action cinema for its wuxia style and its complex and impressive fight choreography. Yeoh would return as Shu Lien in a Netflix sequel, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny, which was released in 2016, but the film is largely considered to have failed to live up to the same standard set by the original.
In a new career retrospective video for GQ, Yeoh reflects on her time making Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, revealing that she initially thought Lee was joking when he described one particular fight scene to her. The scene in question, which is a highlight of the film, features Yeoh facing off against Jiao Long in a room lined with rows of various bladed weapons along the walls. Check out Yeoh's full comment below:
"[Lee] was so fascinated, he wanted to try out every single form of martial arts and every weapon there was. I thought he was kidding me when I first walked into where he was prepping for all the research he was doing, I seriously thought he was kidding until I walked onto the set on the final sequence and all the weapons were there and he said, 'I want you to use all of them.' I'm like, 'You're kidding, right?' But he was not. He never jokes around with things like that."
The fight sequence is one of the most memorable and intricately choreographed in the whole film and is widely remembered for the sheer number of weapons that Yeoh uses throughout. Yeoh starts off with a sword but, after her opponent breaks it, she then graduates to a spear and then a handful of other bladed weapons until, finally, Yeoh's character emerges victorious. The scene speaks to the talent not only of Lee for being able to so clearly capture the action and the drama but to Yeoh's ability to perform the various fighting styles required of her.
While also known for more dramatic roles, Yeoh is one of the most well-known action stars of the last thirty years, standing alongside the greats like Chan. Chan himself once remarked during the filming of Supercop 2 that Yeoh's stunts were overshadowing his own and that he constantly needed to try to top what she was doing. Although the sequel didn't quite live up to the high bar set by the original, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon remains one of the all-time great martial arts movies and a perfect example of Yeoh's extraordinary talent for fight choreography.
Source: GQ