Summary
Michelle Yeohis one of the most celebrated martial arts stars of all time, and it’s no surprise that she’s been able to cross fists with some truly legendary names in the action movie genre. Originally a model with a background in dance, Michelle Yeoh became a symbol of female kung fu as she built her career as an actress, frequently collaborating with some of the most famous stars around to hone her natural talent. Many ofMichelle Yeoh’s best fightsfeature recognizable faces in the martial arts and action movie space.
In many cases, these big names are more famous in their native Chinese box office markets, becoming noteworthy for their prolific number of classic Hong Kong martial arts movie features. On more than one occasion, however, Yeoh has crossed fists with action stars who have made it in the West, Yeoh falling into a similar category herself. Whether it’s within an obscure Wuxia movie or amongthe cast of an Oscar-winning blockbuster, Michelle Yeoh has done battle with many significant actors, coming out on top more often than not.
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8Jet Li
Jet Li wins
Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperormight be ranked as the lowliest amongthe Brandan FrasierMummymovies, but the film did at least present a thrilling fight scene between two martial arts icons. Widely regarded as one of the most iconic Chinese martial arts stars of all time in both the East and West, Jet Li’s name needs little introduction.Li appears as the titular Dragon Emperor inMummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, and engages with Michelle Yeoh’s Zi Yuan in an age-old battle for the secret of immortality.
Both fighters give the final climactic duel their all, crossing swords in the midst of a chaotic war between hundreds of terracotta warriors and undead soldiers raging around them. Sadly, Jet Li’s Emperor proves too much for the sorceress to handle, and he manages to land a sinister final blow. Luckily, Zi Yuan is at least able to steal his prized cursed dagger from his person during the fight, which the surviving heroes then use to put a stop to his reign of mummified tyranny once and for all.
7Wang Xueqi
Michelle Yeoh wins
Wang Xueqi might not be a very recognizable figure to American audiences, but the Chinese actor and martial artists has a hallowed career, spanning 25 years of action movies and dramas. Wang Xueqi joins Michelle Yeoh in the cast of the 2010 Wuxia epicReign of Assassins, directed by John Woo. Wang Xueqi stars as The Wheel King, the tyrannical leader of a bandit gang plaguing China’s Ming Dynasty. He sends a series of assassins to kill a defector, Yeoh’s Drizzle.
As far as swordplay goes, it’s hard to beat Michelle Yeoh
When each assassin fails one-by-one, The Wheel King himself comes face-to-face with his former comrade, engaging her in a momentous showdown. The two do feverish battle with swords to a seeming standstill, with neither able to truly get the upper hand. Eventually, Drizzle is able to leverage her mastery of sword techniques to find a gap in The Wheel King’s defense, fatally wounding him, though not without sustaining heavy injury herself. As far as swordplay goes, it’s hard to beat Michelle Yeoh.
6Simu Liu
Simu Liu was a great choice for the lead of aMarvel Cinematic Universe movie, already cutting his teeth on sci-fi action in the kaiju disaster blockbusterPacific Rim.InShang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Liu got the chance to literally learn from one of the greatest martial arts performers, Michelle Yeoh, who plays the titular character’s aunt, Ying Nan. Seeking to defeat his father, the villainous Xu Wenwu, Shang-Chi enters a sparring match with Ying Nan in order to discover how his mother was able to do so.
Michelle Yeoh’s Ying Nan is able to gracefully dance circles around Shang-Chi’s aggressive kung fu, clearly inspired by years of intense training under his callous father’s oversight. Just as it seems Shang-Chi might get the upper hand, Ying Nan taps in to the mystical aerokinesis her kung fu allows her to generate, knocking her nephew flat on his back into the dirt with ease and poise. Even if this was more of a lesson than a fight,it still demonstrated the strength of Michelle Yeoh’s character.
5Sammo Hung
Sammo Hung Wins
One of the most pivotal figures in the Hong Kong martial arts movies of the 70s and 80s, Sammo Hung is a legendary cinematic fighter known for his brute strength and massive size. Often playing characters that exaggerate his natural proclivities, Hung got the chance to tussle with Michelle Yeoh as early as 1985’sTwinkle, Twinkle Lucky Stars,the final installment of theLucky Starstrilogy. Therein, Michelle Yeoh stars in one of her earliest roles as a judo teacher.
Used to men underestimating her skills, Michelle Yeoh seeks an opponent to demonstrate on. Looking past the crowd of eager volunteers, Yeoh invites Sammo Hung’s Kidstuff up to the front of the class, inviting him to take her down. Much to her surprise, he is able to do so, not through sheer strength like she anticipated, but by skill.Hung’s clever reversal in this scene proves that he’s not a lumbering brute relianton his weight class, but an accomplished martial artist who happens to enjoy the benefits of his size.
4Jamie Lee Curtis
It might seem erroneous to refer to Jamie Lee Curtis as an action star at first glance. But considering the increasingly combat-oriented nature of her appearances intheHalloweenseries, Curtis was no stranger to action scenes by the time she got to star in one opposite Michelle Yeoh inEverything Everywhere All at Once.Here, Curtis plays an office worker for the IRS named Deidre that gets possessed by the film’s multiversal villain, charging after a scared and confused Evelyn still coming to grips with her dimension-hopping abilities.
Evelyn begins the fight with a lack of confidence, being helpless to the terrifying advance of Jamie Lee Curtis' Deidre. Just as a vicious-looking flying knee is about to land, however, Evelyn is able to get out a heart-felt “I love you” to her attacker, providing her with a window of improbability thatallows her to tap into the martial arts skills of herself in another universe. In the end, Deidre’s weight is used against her, and Evelyn diverts her tax-advisor-turned-assailant straight through a painful-looking pane of drywall.
3Max Zhang
Draw
A Chinese actor and wushu athlete, Max Zhang originally got his start on another Michelle Yeoh film,Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, working as a stunt double. Eventually, his career grew enough to bag a leading role in theIp Manmovie spin-off,Master Z: Ip Man Legacy.The film picks up whereIp Man 3left off following the defeat of Zhang’s Cheung Tin-chi, a fellow Wing Chun master. Tin-chi leads a bleaker life after his defeat by Ip Man, leading to him getting into trouble with a local gang.
Eventually, this brings Tin-chi into conflict with Michelle Yeoh’s Tso Ngan Kwan, a high-ranking crime syndicate member. The two face off in the midst of a hectic fight in a restaurant, eventually engaging each other.Kwan wields a sword while Tin-chi is forced to make do with an improvised weapon,a metal pipe. While both fighters are able to match the others' flurry of blows, neither definitively gets the upper hand before some alarmingly close gunshots force them to break up their duel.
2Zhang Ziyi
Interestingly, it was Zhang Ziyi’s proficiency in her on-screen fight with Michelle Yeoh that arguably landed her name in the annals of martial arts movie royalty. Once a dancer and model, like Michelle Yeoh, Zhang made the pivot to action movies with amazing skill as Jen Yu inCrouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.Here, she engages Yeoh’s Yu Shu Lien, a seasoned warrior who stands in Jen’s way when the fearsome Green Destiny blade begins to corrupt her personality.
One of thebest martial arts sword fightsof all time, the battle between Jen and Shu Lien is a fascinating contest of opposites. Jen’s raw strength and natural skill with the Green Destiny contrast with Shu Lien’s superior experience and proficiency with multiple weapons. NoticingJen’s habit of breaking her weapons, Shu Lien ends the battle by bringing her sword downon Jen’s neck while allowing it to shatter, putting Jen at the mercy of the veteran fighter.
1Norman Chui
Not to be confused with Ip Man’s signature martial arts style,Wing Chunis a Hong Kong action flick from the 90s that stars Michelle Yeoh as the titular character. A classic tale of a simple tofu shop owner learning martial arts to fend off vile bandits, Michelle Yeoh’s Wing Chun strengthens over the course of the film via her multiple encounters with the criminal known as Flying Chimpanzee. They clash several times throughout the film, confounding Wing with his infamous “cotton belly” technique.
InWing Chun, he’s decisively defeated by one ofMichelle Yeoh’s many powerful characters
In their final clash, things don’t go so smoothly for Flying Chimpanzee. Having learned a secret technique capable of overcoming the cotton belly, Wing Shun soundly ensures that her final encounter with Flying Chimpanzee is a victorious one, forcing him to live up to his name with a jaw-droppingly powerful final blow. Norman Chui is a versatile martial arts movie star in his own right, but inWing Chun, he’s decisively defeated by one ofMichelle Yeoh’s many powerful characters.
