The Complete Works Podcast

This week, Michelle Yeoh teams up with director Wong Jing on the absolutely insane wuxia action film HOLY WEAPON! Also starring Maggie Cheung, Damian Lau, Simon Yam and more, this one's got everything: insane action setpieces, wacky hijinks, unfortunate humor, gender-bending, a Voltron-inspired climax, and even an interlude where it just becomes THE EVIL DEAD. 

This week, Michelle Yeoh stars in BUTTERFLY AND SWORD, a 1993 wuxia which also features a couple of other Hong Kong superstars, Tony Leung and Donnie Yen! Inventive action, romantic hijinks, and a truly wild twist ending make this one to keep an eye out for - plus, Mike Smith gives his brief thoughts on an upcoming Nicolas Cage movie, BUTCHER'S CROSSING!

This week, Michelle Yeoh joins Hong Kong superstars Maggie Cheung and Anita Mui in acclaimed filmmaker Johnnie To's wuxia superhero movie, THE HEROIC TRIO! An Evil Master is kidnapping babies in a plot to name China's next emperor - and it's up to these three superheroines to kick, shoot, clash, throw dynamite, spin motorcycles in midair, and more in order to stop him! 

This week, Michelle Yeoh emerges from retirement and returns in a big way by taking on the co-lead role in a Jackie Chan movie - it's time to talk POLICE STORY 3: SUPERCOP! Featuring some of the most insane stunts of both stars' careers, SUPERCOP played a big role in both Jackie Chan and Michelle Yeoh finding success in Hollywood cinema later in the decade and ushered in Yeoh's Hong Kong comeback. 

This week, we're talking Michelle Yeoh's final film... or at least, it was her final film for a while. After suffering an injury on the set of MAGNIFICENT WARRIORS, Yeoh takes on a non-action role this time around. This time, she's starring as the lead in a Hong Kong-spin on THE THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR, 1987's EASY MONEY! After this, she retired from filmmaking for five years, so this was the last time audiences got to see Michelle Yeoh for a while. 

This week, we've reached the conclusion of our second "We Made It, Ma" Trilogy with 1987's MAGNIFICENT WARRIORS! Michelle Yeoh stars as a cross between Indiana Jones and Han Solo, aiding a small group of resistance fighters against Japan in pre-World War II. Is there any part of that sentence that isn't incredible? From the writing and directing team behind ROYAL WARRIORS, too!

This week, Michelle Yeoh teams up with Hiroyuki Sanada in David Chung's ROYAL WARRIORS! If you enjoy chainsaw fights, rolling tanks, minecart chases, and fishtanks breaking over people's heads... this might be a movie for you. This is *technically* considered the second film in the IN THE LINE OF DUTY series, and thus a sequel to YES, MADAM... but it isn't, really. Instead, it's its own unique brand of insanity that only '80s Hong Kong cinema can deliver!

This week, the Mikes reach Michelle Yeoh's very first starring role, a breakout hit, a movie that launched a subgenre, and just an all-out banger action classic - 1985's YES, MADAM! (aka POLICE ASSASSINS, aka THE SUPER COPS, aka POLICE ASSASSINS II). Michelle Yeoh pairs up with Cynthia Rothrock (in her debut film!) as two cops who get involved with crooked businessmen and low-level thieves... and naturally, kick their asses. Known for its truly extraordinary climax and incredible fight choreography, director Corey Yuen's YES, MADAM was Michelle Yeoh's first real chance to show what she could do onscreen. It all started right here, so let's dive in. 

This week, it's a transitional film for Michelle Yeoh - she gets her very first action scene in a quick cameo in the third film of Sammo Hung's highly successful LUCKY STARS series! This one's called TWINKLE, TWINKLE, LUCKY STARS and features iconic performers like Jackie Chan, Yuen Biao, and Andy Lau among its cast. Are the stellar action scenes enough to get us to power through the film's pretty icky sexual politics? Well, it's time to find out!

The Complete Works kicks off season 3 and begins a journey through the films of Michelle Yeoh - starting with her very first movie, 1984's THE OWL VS. BOMBO (aka THE OWL VS. BUMBO, aka THE OWL AND DUMBO). One of the first movies from D&B Films - who would produce all of Yeoh's movies in the 80s - and directed by Sammo Hung, Yeoh gets a surprisingly substantial supporting role for her first film. A movie complete with crazy fight sequences, a musical number, and a story about troubled teens, THE OWL VS. BOMBO has got it all!