Watchcast Schedule for March 2023: Hey Yeoh, Michelle!

Greetings, Nextlanders! It's Alex here once again to let you know what we've got coming up on the Watchcast. For the month of March we're going to be paying tribute to actress Michelle Yeoh, who just earned her first Oscar nomination (and wins at the SAG Awards and Golden Globes) for her role in Everything Everywhere All at Once. I've been a longtime fan of Yeoh's work going back to her early days in Hong Kong action cinema, and while we aren't going to be able to jam in every great movie she's been in this month, I think the five films we've chosen represent some great or at least important touchstones in her acting career. Here's what we've got lined up:

Monday, March 6th: DOUBLE FEATURE! Yes, Madam! (1985) and Police Story 3: Supercop (1992)

To kick things off we're doing our first ever double feature episode with a pair of Yeoh's Hong Kong classics. The 1985 action comedy Yes, Madam! represents Yeoh's first starring role after a couple of bit parts in smaller films, and she's teamed with another debuting martial arts actress who would go on to a very successful HK career in the great Cynthia Rothrock. They're the reason to watch this thing, even though they're really only in like half the movie. The other half is a slapstick comedy featuring a trio of thieves (played by HK stalwarts John Sham, Hoi Mang, and Tsui Hark) running afoul of an evil real estate guy who has one of the all-time great evil laughs in cinema. The half that Yeoh and Rothrock occupy is fantastic though, and the end fight is a straight-up all-timer that you've probably seen shared on social media once or twice. 

Supercop is Yeoh's only real team-up with action legend Jackie Chan (he shows up briefly in the sequel to this movie, Supercop 2, but that's much more Yeoh's movie), and easily one of the most kick-ass movies in either actor's filmography. The whole Police Story series is fantastic, but Yeoh adds another gear to the franchise and hangs with Chan's stunt work better than just about any other actor he's ever been teamed with. The original Chinese cut of this movie is the one we'll be watching, and it's available pretty much everywhere now. 

Monday, March 13th: Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)

I've described Tomorrow Never Dies as the straight up median of all Bond movies. One hundred percent the most mid of all Bonds. BUT! Mid does not mean bad. Mid is not loud, to me, but it's fine! Michelle Yeoh is absolutely one of the best actresses any version of Bond has gotten to share the screen with in recent memory, and while the movie doesn't give her a ton to do, she still owns the scenes she's in. Plus this marks her shift from strictly Chinese star to international action star, so it's an important moment for her. Jonathan Pryce is also sliming it up as an evil media mogul as only Pryce can, and this is probably the last time it felt like Brosnan was still having any fun as Bond as the movies started moving into grimmer (yet still dumb as hell) territory after this. Look, it's no GoldenEye, but most Bond movies don't even get close to that good. 

Monday, March 20th: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)

God, what a picture! Crouching Tiger is a movie I go back to once every few years and still find myself mesmerized by whenever I do. Part of it might be that I never got too deep into the wuxia genre prior to this film's release (I tended to lean more toward the John Woo flavor of Chinese cinema back then), so it felt like I was experiencing something wholly new (to me, at least). Ultimately, it's the spectacular fight choreography and sumptuous visuals that still resonate most with me, but the trio of Yeoh, Chow-Yun Fat, and Zhang Ziyi turn in fantastic performances as well. I haven't had a chance to check out the 4K edition of this yet, so I'm really looking forward to seeing how some of these scenes look with HDR. 

Monday, March 27th: Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022)

Holy crap, a new-ish movie! That's right, we're tackling Yeoh's most recent award-winning performance in this multiverse spanning story from The Daniels. Somehow I managed to not ever get around to seeing this one during either its theatrical run or when it went to streaming, and I don't think either Brad or Vinny has seen it either, so I'm really looking forward to see what everyone's been so excited about for the last year. I didn't love The Daniels' previous movie, Swiss Army Man, but I did appreciate the ways in which it was very weird. If this is even lightly similar tonally, I'm sure I'll have a good time. 

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And that's our schedule for March! Ain't a single movie on this list I'm not excited to chat about, and I think the guys are gonna love these. Hopefully you will too. As always, thanks for listening and watching along with us. See you at the movies!