by Nathaniel R
Michelle Yeoh in "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon"
How's this for campaign timing? While Oscar nominations are announced January 24th (next Tuesday - final predictions right here tomorrow) Voting on the actual winners doesn't take place until the first week of March (Oscar night is March 12th). In that crucial month inbetween the nominations and the ceremony, look what's coming back to theaters -- CROUCHING TIGER HIDDEN DRAGON (2000) in a 4K restoration! That's right. Michelle Yeoh's other Oscar-worthy Lead Actress performance will be back in theaters on February 17th. Cate Blanchett (TAR) will be hard to beat in Best Actress this time around but this can't exactly hurt the cause to make history in voting for Michelle Yeoh (Everything Everywhere All At Once); awards races never happen in vacuums and feelings about whole careers and historical precedent also often enter the room. No Asian actress has ever been nominated for Best Actress and thus no Asian actress has won*...
Ang Lee's 2000 wuxia masterpiece is tied with Bong Joon-ho's Parasite and Ingmar Bergman's Fanny & Alexander as the most Oscar-winning non-English language film of all time; They each won four Oscars in their year. It also shares the record of most Oscar-nominated non-English language film (with Roma) with 10 nominations in its year. Crouching Tiger's record breaking honors don't end at the Academy Awards. It remains the highest grossing "foreign" film ever released in the US with an astonishing $128 million from US theaters in its initial run. If you've never seen it on the big screen, trust us: do not miss the chance.
Michelle Yeoh's performance alone is enough of a reason to seek it out if you somehow have never seen it but the rest of the film is spectacular, too. In all directions.
Merle Oberon in DARK ANGEL (1935)
*The asterisked exception to Yeoh's history-making nomination (should it come to pass) is 1930s star Merle Oberon who was Best Actress nominated for Dark Angel (1935). Oberon was not known to be of Asian heritage at the time (her mother being mixed race). The 1930s were of course a far different time and actors regularly concealed or lied about any number of things about their life for reasons both frivolous (creating exciting personas) and deadly serious (racism).