15. MAGNIFICENT WARRIORS (1987)

Director: David Chung

Writer: Ken-Cheung Tsang

Starring: Michelle Yeoh, Richard Ng, Derek Yee, Ting-Shing Yee, Lowell Lo

A Hong Kong martial arts period piece set in the 1930s that casts Yeoh as a Chinese secret agent (think a femme Indiana Jones) who is sent to investigate the Japanese invasion and occupation of the country. It leads her to a town near Tibet and meetings with various fellow agents, con artists and princesses. It’s difficult to know whom you can trust, so it invariably turns to combat using fists and feet. Yeoh is young, lithe and quite the warrior, and the choreography here  is rather terrific, covering up the inevitable plot holes. Great action, too.

14. WING CHUN (1994)

Director: Woo-Ping Yuen

Writers: Elsa Tang, Wing-Fai Wong

Starring: Michelle Yeoh, Donnie Yen, King-Tan Yuen, Catherine Hung, Waise Lee

Some amazing fight choreography and wire stunts bolster this film from directing master Yuen, casting Yeoh as a tofu shop proprietor with a talent for combat. This time, she plays the Wing Chun of the title, and let’s just say she knows how to do kung fu with the best of them. Wing needs to use it to fend off bandits plundering her village. She’s the only person there with the guts to face down bad guys who have names like Flying Chimpanzee and Flying Monkey. A layer of sexism permeates the festivities, but it’s OK since we know Wing Chun will triumph in the end.

13. MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA (2005)

Director: Rob Marshall

Writer: Robin Swicord, based on the book by Arthur Golden

Starring: Ziyi Zhang, Ken Watanabe. Michelle Yeoh, Suzuka Ohgo, Togo Igawa, Mako, Samantha Futerman

After playing characters who are outwardly tough in her martial arts roles, Yeoh gets to portray someone here whose toughness is found mostly on the inside instead. She’s Mameha, an older geisha who takes over the training of young Chiyo, who eventually sprouts into Sayuri (the exquisite Ziyi Zhang) in this film based on the bestselling book about Japanese women of the 1920s and ’30s who were forced into servitude to entertain men but were not technically prostitutes. The film is a lush and stylish romantic epic that has its heart in the right place, if not always its head.

12. YES, MADAM! (1985)

Director: Corey Yuen

Writers: James Clouse, Barry Wong

Starring: Michelle Yeoh, Cynthia Rothrock, John Sham, Hoi Mang, Hark Tusi, James Tien, Dick Wei, Fat Chung

In this action comedy, Yeoh and Rothrock play hardcore Scotland Yard inspectors who are assigned to a case involving a couple of petty thieves who  just busted into a hotel room and steal the passport of a guy who has just been killed. The passport is embedded with valuable microfilm, an item greatly desired by a mob boss (Tien). So it goes in “Yes, Madam!”, an often amusing primer that vividly demonstrates why crime so rarely pays – especially when you’re  stupid as well as unlucky. Yeoh is particularly ferocious here as a bad-ass cop. You know the film means business when there’s an exclamation point in the title.

11. THE HEROIC TRIO (1993)

Director: Johnnie To

Writer: Sandy Shaw

Starring: Michelle Yeoh, Anita Mui, Maggie Cheung, Damian Lau, Yen Shi-Kwan

Crazy, chaotic and dazzlingly over the top, “The Heroic Trio” is a superhero movie in the same way an LSD trip is a night out on the town. It features Yeoh in a role that’s initially vaguely wicked. It finds her kidnapping babies as the so-called Invisible Woman for an Evil Master (Yee Kwan Yan) who plans to turn them into warriors once they hit adulthood. Her sister Tung (Mui) is a secret Wonder Woman, while her childhood friend (Cheung) is known as Thief Catcher. Together, they team up to beat Mr. Evil. The whole thing never takes itself too seriously, leading to a sublimely nutty viewing experience.

10. TAI CHI MASTER (1993)

Director: Woo-Ping Yuen

Writer: Kwong-Kim Yip

Starring: Jet Li, Michelle Yeoh, Siu-Ho Chin, Fennie Yuen, Cheung-Yan Yuen, Shun Lau,

Perhaps the greatest strictly action film of Yeoh’s career, “Tai Chi Master” marks the pinnacle of director Yuen’s career. (He’s the martial arts choreographer of the “Matrix” and “Kill Bill” films.) While it’s a showcase for star Li’s talents, it also demonstrates Yeoh’s incredible dexterity in a dramatic context. It’s ostensibly the story of two childhood friends (Li and Chin) who go their separate ways and are brought back together by the magic of Tai Chi. Some amazing fistic combat scenes paint this as a landmark effort of the martial arts genre, cementing Yeoh’s status as the queen of the Hong Kong thriller.

9. SHANG-CHI AND THE LEGEND OF THE TEN RINGS (2021)

Director: Destin Daniel Cretton

Writers: Dave Callaham, Destin Daniel Cretton, Andrew Lanham

Starring: Simu Liu, Awkwafina, Tony Chiu-Wai Leung, Ben Kingsley, Meng’er Zhang, Fala Chen, Michelle Yeoh, Wah Yuen, Florian Munteanu

Yeoh enters the Marvel Cinematic Universe in this supernatural journey of self-discovery, with newcomer Simu Liu (as the Shang-Chi of the title) getting a timely lesson in how to be a bad ass from his aunt, Ying Nan (Yeoh). She has an opportunity to show she still has the moves approaching her 60th birthday and, as a bonus, brings believable intensity to the wise elder role. The somewhat convoluted plot surrounds Shang-Chi’s requirement to confront his past after being drawn into the Ten Rings organization. Adding flavor to the mix is Awkwafina as Katy, a hotel valet and Shang-Chi’s best friend.

8. SUNSHINE (2007)

Director: Danny Boyle

Writer: Alex Garland

Starring: Cillian Murphy, Rose Byrne, Chris Evans, Cliff Curtis, Chipo Chung, Michelle Yeoh, Hiroyuki, Sanada, Benedict Wong, Troy Garity, Mark Strong

A sci-fi psychological thriller directed by Oscar winner Boyle (“Slumdog Millionaire”) and bolstered by a terrific cast led by Murphy, Byrne and Evans, with Yeoh close behind. Here, she plays a biologist among a crew of eight men and women who have taken to space in the year 2057 to save the Sun from burning out and ending life on earth as we know it as we know it. Things don’t go quite as planned, it’s safe to say, but Yeoh’s character Corazon remains relevant and focused throughout. The actress never flinched while facing down roomfuls of bad guys, and nothing so trivial as a dying fireball is going to faze her now.

7. TOMORROW NEVER DIES (1997)

Director: Roger Spottiswoode

Writer: Bruce Feirstein

Starring: Pierce Brosnan, Jonathan Pryce, Michelle Yeoh, Teri Hatcher, Ricky Jay, Gotz Otto, Joe Don Baker, Vincent Schiavelli, Judi Dench, Desmond Llewelyn

“Tomorrow Never Dies” asks us to imagine a world where someone like, say, Rupert Murdoch is bound and determined to use his media empire – say, News Corp. – to spark rancor between China and the West and light the match for World War III. It’s loads of fun, and Brosnan proves him self a eminently capable James Bond. But one reason he’s so convincing is that he has Yeoh by his side as Chinese secret agent Wai Lin to help stave off Armageddon. Yes, Michelle Yeoh was a Bond girl, which makes a whole lot of sense when you think about it. Pryce plays the Murdoch-like mogul with plenty of mustache-twirling panache.

6. KUNG FU PANDA 2 (2011)

Director: Jennifer Yuh Nelson

Writers: Jonathan Aibel, Glenn Berger

Starring: Jack Black (voice), Angelina Jolie (voice), Jackie Chan (voice), Dustin Hoffman (voice), Gary Oldman (voice), Seth Rogen (voice), Lucy Liu (voice), David Cross (voice), James Hong (voice), Michelle Yeoh (voice), Danny McBride (voice), Dennis Haysbert (voice), Jean-Claude Van Damme (voice), Victor Garber (voice)

The sequel to DreamWorks Animation’s “Kung Fu Panda” is a better movie than the first – darker, more dramatic and packing a greater wallop while maintaining the comedic heft and essential warmth of its predecessor. And what a voice cast it boasts, from Black to Cham, Hoffman to Oldman, Yeoh to Liu, Rogen to Cross. Yeoh plays the Soothsayer, a wise and aged goat who is blessed with the gift of “second sight.” The storyline finds Po (Black) as a Dragon Warrior determined to keep the Valley of Peace from falling into evil hands. It’s more complicated than that, but we feel good about everything as long as the Soothsayer is nearby.

5. THE LADY (2011)

Director: Luc Besson

Writer: Rebecca Frayn

Starring: Michelle Yeoh, David Thewlis, Jonathan Raggett, Jonathan Woodhouse, Susan Wooldridge, Benedict Wong

Yes, Michelle Yeoh can do politics, too, and look and sound darn good while doing it. In portraying Aung San Sun Kyi, the political leader of Burma who won the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize while under house in her native land, Yeoh proves a regal, stoic and powerful presence as her real-life character fights for a cause greater than herself. The movie charts Kyi’s relationship with her husband Michael Aris, played by Thewlis. Their love endures despite long separations and the slings and arrows of a hostile Burmese regime. A far different role than the actress was accustomed to playing, but she delivered with characteristic style.

4. SUPERCOP (1992)

Director: Stanley Tong

Writers: Edward Tang, Fibe Ma, Lee Wai Yee

Starring: Jackie Chan, Michelle Yeoh, Maggie Cheung, Kenneth Tsang, Wah Yuen, Bill Tung

Thirty years ago, no one did action comedy/drama like Chan, and he was never better than in this wild kung fu feature playing a Hong Kong police inspector who goes undercover to infiltrate a Chinese prison. From there, he turns on the sly, quirky charm to infiltrate a drug cartel at great risk to his general safety. He receives a major assist from Yeoh, playing a fellow undercover agent named Jessica Yang. Madcap mix-ups ensue, of course, along with massive number of bone-crunching stunts that look to have been done by the stars themselves. The result is an offbeat masterpiece of the genre, one that finds everyone (Yeoh included) having the time of their lives.

3. CRAZY RICH ASIANS (2018)

Director: Jon M. Chu

Writers: Peter Chiarelli, Adele Lim, based on the novel by Kevin Kwan

Starring: Constance Wu, Henry Golding, Michelle Yeoh, Gemma Chan, Lisa Lu, Awkwafina, Harry Shum Jr., Ken Jeong, Sonoya Mizuno, Chris Pang

Yeoh proved to be a scene-stealing wonder in this smash hit that was embraced by critics and audiences alike, your basic comedy-drama-romance based on a novel of the same name. It tells the tale of Rachel (Wu), an economics professor at NYU, who accompanies her boyfriend Nick (Golding) to Singapore for his best pal’s wedding. There, she’s force-fed Nick’s mega-rich family, including clawing tiger mom Eleanor (Yeoh), a domineering, powerful matriarch who says what she means and means what she says. She’s a ball of hardcore socialite intensity, a perfect chess player on the board that is “Crazy Rich Asians.”

2. CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON (2000)

Director: Ang Lee

Writers: Hui-Ling Wang, James Schamus, Kuo Jung Tsai, based on the book by Du Lu Wang

Starring: Chow Yun-Fat, Michelle Yeoh, Ziyi Zhang, Chang Chen, Sihung Lung, Pei-Pei Cheng, Fazeng Li, Xian Gao, Yan Hai, Deming Wang, Li Li, Suying Huang

While she had already been a star in Asia for 15 years by the time “Crouching Tiger” arrived, Yeoh became an “overnight” sensation in America thanks to her smoldering performance as Yu Shu Lien, lover and devoted comrade to Master Li Mu Bai (Yun-Fat), in this period piece set in 19th century Qing Dynasty China. The film is director Lee’s masterpiece, chock full of daring fight scenes and spectacular choreography that has the essence a virtual reinvention of the genre. It’s both pulpy and profound, artistic and surrealistic, fierce and fun. And again, Yeoh is a warrior’s warrior who is by turns empathetic and ferocious. Hers was an all-time Oscar snub.

1. EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE (2022)

Writer/Directors: Dan Kwan, Daniel Scheinert

Starring: Michelle Yeoh, Stephanie Hsu, Jamie Lee Curtis, Ke Huy Quan, James Hong, Tallie Medel, Jenny Slate, Harry Shum Jr., Biff Wiff

You have to love the description given the film by A24 in its marketing materials: “a hilarious and big-hearted sci-fi action adventure about an exhausted Chinese American woman (Michelle Yeoh) who can’t seem to finish her taxes.” Yes, it’s that, and so much more. It’s absurd and wild and gloriously, unapologetically over the top, a brilliant assault on the senses that grabs you by the eyes, ears and throat and never lets go. It’s also a career-topper for Yeoh, whose character Evelyn Wang is a laundromat owner exploring the multiverse who still knows how to kick ass. There has never been anything quite like this movie, or frankly even close. Yeoh’s incandescent, universally acclaimed performance brought her many awards, including an Oscar for Best Actress.