Los Angeles, Aug 6 (IANS) Actress-director Michelle Yeoh has been crowned as the Asian Filmmaker of the Year for the upcoming 31st edition of the Busan International Film Festival (BIFF).
The festival honours an Asian film professional or organization for exceptional contributions to the advancement of Asian cinema, reports ‘Variety’.
Michelle Yeoh made her screen debut in Hong Kong action cinema with ‘Yes, Madam’ in 1985, and followed it up by ‘Police Story 3: Supercop’ in 1992 and ‘Wing Chun’ in 1994, helping redefine what an action heroine could be on screen.
As per ‘Variety’, she had an international breakthrough with ‘Tomorrow Never Dies’ in 1997 and ‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’ in 2000, the latter a rare non-English-language title to land both box-office success and critical acclaim worldwide.
She won the Miss Malaysia World contest at the age of 21 in 1983 and went on to represent Malaysia at the Miss World 1983 pageant in London where she finished at the 18th spot amongst 72 delegates from around the world.
After this, the actress started working in television commercials getting her break in a television commercial alongside the legend, Jackie Chan. Yeoh, who has stated that she had a limited proficiency in Cantonese, was informed during her initial Cantonese phone conversation with the production company that she will be working alongside ‘Sing Lung’. It was only after she entered the studio she realised that she will share the frame with Jackie Chan in the commercial and that ‘Sing Lung’ was the Cantonese name of Jackie Chan.
She went on to star in ‘Crazy Rich Asians’, ‘Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings’ and ‘Wicked’, before her turn in ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’ which fetched her the Academy Award for lead actress, a first for an Asian performer. The awards run also carried her to victories at both the SAG Awards and the Golden Globes.
–IANS
aa/