Asian filmmaker of the year looks back on journey to Hollywood as she returns to her roots with "It's My Time"
BUSAN — Oscar winner Michelle Yeoh sees a bit of herself in the Busan International Film Festival.
Both started out in Asia but set their sights on the wider world. Three decades on, both have more or less made it.
"Like the Busan International Film Festival, I have come a long way," Yeoh said at Wednesday's press conference at Busan Cinema Center. "We started here in Asia with the hope of going global — to share our films and our culture with the rest of the world. I hope in some small way we have achieved this."
Few are better placed to say that than Yeoh, a trailblazer for Asian actors at nearly every stage of her career. Hong Kong actioners such as "Yes, Madam!" (1985) made her a star across the continent early on; "Tomorrow Never Dies" (1997) and "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" (2000) took her global.
The crowning moment came in 2023, when she became the first Asian to win the best actress Oscar with "Everything Everywhere All at Once." Earlier this year, she received the honorary Golden Bear in Berlin, also a first for an Asian woman.
Yeoh's ties to the port city go back to 2002, when she attended the festival's project market as a producer; this is her first trip back since 2011. At Tuesday's opening ceremony, the festival honored her with its Asian filmmaker of the year award, in recognition of her contributions to Asian cinema.
"Cinema is so very much part of my life that I don't know what I would do without it," Yeoh said. "It has given me so many unexpected pleasures — so many places, people, memories. Honestly, it's given me a larger life than I could have ever imagined."
Her success was hard-earned, given the uphill battle she faced in Hollywood. For all her stardom in Asia, what awaited Yeoh overseas was an industry that saw her through a much narrower lens.
"When I first went to Hollywood, my biggest shock was to be told that I'm a minority," she said. "There are so many Asians around the world, and I'm considered a minority. And of course, there were not that many roles, and the roles were very stereotypical."
Starring opposite Pierce Brosnan's James Bond in "Tomorrow Never Dies" (1997) did little to change that. "I thought the doors would be flung open," she said. "But the roles that came to me were still very, very difficult. A woman would be in a particular place: a Chinese restaurant, a Korean restaurant."
"I strongly believed that if we endorse the stereotypical roles that come to us, without a real, proper backstory, then we only promote that kind of image," she said.
This time, Yeoh brings "It's My Time" to Busan, a film she both stars in and produced. Based on a true story, the Chinese sports drama casts her as a 70-year-old nursing home resident who finds a new lease on life in the Rubik's Cube.
"I was very challenged when I took this role, because I play someone much older than I actually am," she said. "But what we really want to highlight is: Never give up. No matter at what age, there's always the possibility of new opportunities for you."
It also amounts to something of a homecoming for the Malaysian and Chinese star after years working in English-language projects, as her first Chinese-language film since her 2023 Oscar win.
"I spent quite a few years trying to build the bridge from the East to the West, and now from the West to the East," she said. "Hopefully the bridge will just stay there, and I'm able to cross over."
And could that bridge lead to Korea one day? Yeoh seemed more than ready for it.
"Oh my goodness, yes. How long do we have?" she said. "I think the biggest one that I really look forward to is director Lee Chang-dong, of 'Possible Love.'"
moonkihoon@heraldcorp.com