From Ballet to Bullets She Has Been a Ballerina, a Beauty Queen, an All-Action Film Star and a Bond Girl — and at 46, Michelle Yeoh Still Begs to Do Her Own Stunts
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
14 生活時尚 S T Y L E WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 7, 2009 • TAIPEI TIMES Michelle Yeoh From ballet to bullets She has been a ballerina, a beauty queen, an all-action film star and a Bond girl — and at 46, Michelle Yeoh still begs to do her own stunts BY Ryan GILBey THE GUARDIAN, LONDON a jaunty rap at the door, conditions and natural hazards that attracted her There’s and in bounds Michelle to Far North, she says. But then it’s probably a Yeoh. She’s on springs, despite just having breeze to work under constant threat of polar arrived in London after stops in Paris, Taiwan bear attack when you’ve acted alongside Vin and Hong Kong. But perhaps that’s not surpris- Diesel, as Yeoh did in Babylon AD. ing: from her earliest action films, energy has “On Far North, we were always aware of always characterized her work. being at the whim of Mother Nature,” she We meet in an apartment where glossy copies says. “She’s the biggest star in the film. But of Variety magazine are strewn around us, their I had always longed to go to the North Pole, covers trumpeting potential Oscar contenders and the best time to go somewhere is when such as Frost/Nixon and The Reader. Yeoh, 46, you’re working on a film. You can roll up your is no stranger to that world. After impressing sleeves, get to know the people. That’s what I as the Bond girl Wai Lin in Tomorrow Never did — I spent time with the locals, I hung out Dies in 1997, she went on to star in Crouching with them, soaked them up, watched how they Tiger, Hidden Dragon (臥虎藏龍), Ang Lee’s (李 move and sit, with their legs slightly spread, 安) Oscar-winning martial-arts love story of their shoulders hunched. They don’t have 2000. It was one of the big gestures but their biggest non-English movements are basic, language hits of all time. refined, pure.” But the film she has She says that the come to discuss is more role itself took her “to mesmerizing than most dark places most of of the titles likely to be us can’t get our heads vying for Hollywood around. We were all doorstops, the living together on a boat, mesmerizing Far North, an ice breaker, with directed by the British all this jaw-dropping filmmaker Asif Kapadia scenery around us — and shot on Svalbard, all those miles and miles in the Arctic Ocean of nothing.” above Norway, the most She says that northern settlement in last word as if she the world. particularly savored Yeoh plays Saiva, it. You sense that Far who passes her days North, like her role in in the icy wasteland Danny Boyle’s 2007 hunting animals with science-fiction thriller her companion, Anja Sunshine, came as (Michelle Krusiec), and something of a tonic reflecting on a life that after the big-budget has been cursed ever productions she’s done since a shaman declared Malaysian actress Michelle Yeoh made her name as an — from Tomorrow she was bad juju. action star in Hong Kong. Her newest endeavor took Never Dies to Memoirs Wandering the plains her to the most northern settlement in the world, of a Geisha (“Two- one day, who should Svalbard, in the Arctic Ocean. PHOTOS: AGENCIES and-a-half hours in she find curled up on makeup — every day!”) the ice but Sean Bean. Many women would to the recent Mummy threequel, Tomb of the consider this a boon. But once Bean has thawed Dragon Emperor. out, his presence jeopardizes the women’s “It’s so important for me to do my own relationship, with unsettling consequences. stunts,” Yeoh says. “The sense of achievement “When I got the script,” Yeoh says, “I is so immense. But the studios don’t want to thought: either my agent wants to kill me or take the risk. ‘You’re an actor, actors don’t do he’s telling me I need a challenge.” She gives stunts!’ And if they do let you do anything, they an emphatic laugh. Like all her films, Far North wrap you in so much cotton wool it takes away was hugely physically demanding. the fun anyway.” Yeoh, who made her name as an action Yeoh, who was born Yeoh Chu-Kheng (楊紫 star in Hong Kong in the early to mid 1990s, is 瓊) to an affluent Chinese-Malay family in Ipoh, probably the actor of her age most likely to be Malaysia, has always been interested in using found begging a director to stuff the insurers her body to express herself. “Body language is and let her perform her own stunts. While Far more fascinating to me than actual language,” North might seem worlds away from movies she says. “Before you get into the mind, you such as Police Story 3: Supercop (警察故事3:超級 have to inhabit the physicality. Body language 警察) (memorable for one particularly awesome is a great way of speaking.” motorcycle leap on to a moving train), what they have in common is the sheer stamina each has required of her. Indeed it was the harsh CONTINUED ON PAGE 15 [ TECHNOLOGY REVIEW ] eveloping games for major fee (US$100 per year), but after that the powerful, incorporating a state-of-the- consoles such as the Sony game will be available on Xbox Live in art graphics processing unit, or GPU, as DPlayStation, Microsoft Xbox and the Community Games section. well as a multi-core central processing Nintendo Wii has traditionally been the This is a quantum leap in terms unit, or CPU, which makes it more or domain of professionals. Independent, of console development support and less the same power as a PlayStation student or hobbyist game developers a very exciting one too — the only 3 or high-specification PC. The fact have always been more or less locked barrier to entry left is the skill set that XNA Game Studio can output an out from the exciting world of console required. Developing games is never Xbox 360 version and a Windows PC development. To work on the big going to be easy per se, considering version with no extra effort further machines requires enough clout and a commercial game requires simplifies the process — not to mention funds to afford development kits and programmers, artists, musicians the ability to also output for the Zune licenses and secure an agreement. But and 3D modelers — each of these handheld — as usually companies Microsoft has completely obliterated Fancy designing your is a career in itself. However, for will take at least half a year to move these barriers to entry with a solution own game for the Xbox? existing independent game studios their console games over to the PC or called XNA Game Studio. PHOTOS COURTESY OF MICROSOFT (or hobbyists) who are developing for vice versa, and a lot longer to make a XNA Game Studio 3.0, released mobile phones, personal computers, handheld version. just over a month ago, is a completely etc, already, XNA could be the perfect In conclusion, Microsoft’s free set of tools for creating computer solution. Since it supports the very XNA Game Studio has virtually no games. Touted as “easy-to-use, Java-like and already popular C# drawbacks if you already have some approachable tools for hobbyists, programming language, as well as all of knowledge in programming or game academics and indie game developers,” the de facto standards in 3D graphics, development. If not, the abstraction XNA is able to produce commercial- Game Studio. This means that once development, publishing and independent studios should be able level has simplified things more than grade games for the Xbox 360, a game is accepted and processed, it distribution. It has removed all costs to move over to using XNA relatively ever, meaning there has never been a Windows PC and even the Microsoft will be available to anyone who has from the process and given developers painlessly. The main incentives for better time to dip your toe in the water. Zune handheld device. an Xbox 360 linked to the Internet. a top-notch set of tools and a decent doing this, of course, are access to the Considering the price tag of zero and Once a game has been developed, Developers who submit games can cut of the profits. So what’s the snag? global market, high profit share and the wealth of tutorials on the Net, it’s it can be submitted to Xbox Live, select their own price (or make their Well, there really isn’t one to speak of effortless distribution, all of which are surely worth checking out. an online gaming and entertainment game free) and receive 70 percent of — developers will need an Xbox 360 handled by Microsoft. service run by Microsoft, as a the proceeds from sales. machine to ultimately play test and For aspiring game designers there — GARETH MURFIN IS A FREELANCE “Community Game,” a new section of Microsoft has now opened up submit their game, and they will need to has never been a better time to start. DEVELOPER AND CONSULTANT Xbox Live for games made using XNA the world of commercial game pay the XNA Creators Club membership The Xbox 360’s hardware is incredibly WWW.GARETHMURFIN.CO.UK.