When it comes to martial arts superstars, Michelle Yeoh is on top of my list of leading ladies that I wished I could’ve put on the cover of our print magazine, Kung Fu Tai Chi, before we folded. I’ve been following her fanatically since YES, MADAM! (1985). Well, that’s not completely true. It wasn’t until 1992 when she won my total devotion. She played Inspector Jessica Yang in SUPERCOP, the threequel of Jackie Chan’s epic Police Story franchise. She was a revelation in that film – a refined elegant fighter who performed daring Jackie-level stunts with class and style. That’s when I became a full-fledged Michelle Yeoh fanboy.

And what a cinematic journey Yeoh has taken us on. From so many daring stunts in those early martial arts genre years, to the Oscar-nominated film SHANG-CHI AND THE LEGEND OF THE TEN RINGS (2021), and GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY 2 (2017) as one of the only actors who has played two distinct characters in the MCU, Yeoh has been a Bond girl in TOMORROW NEVER DIES (1997), a Japanese geisha in MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA (2005), the Nobel Prize winning Aung San Suu Kyi in THE LADY (2011), and so much more. Her EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE co-star, scream queen Jamie Lee Curtis, quoted a review on her IG that labelled Yeoh as “the Swiss Army knife of actors”. It’s a clever analogy because not only is Yeoh sharp as a blade and multifaceted, the previous film of EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE’s Double Daniel director team of Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert was SWISS ARMY MAN (2016).

EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE is a deep dive into the Multiverse, which has been trending with the MCU miniseries WHAT IF? and LOKI, and the upcoming DOCTOR STRANGE IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS. However, the MCU never owned the Multiverse. The concept was first postulated by philosopher William James in 1895 and is also discussed in cosmology and quantum mechanics. STAR TREK, the original series, explored it in the episode ‘Mirror, Mirror’ first telecast in 1967, and as any Trekkie today knows, Yeoh already gone ‘where no person has gone before’ exploring the complexities of the Mirror Universe in STAR TREK: DISCOVERY.

Today the Multiverse is trending. It’s an apt metaphor for our modern dilemma of divisiveness. Everyone seems to see a different world right now, and for many, these fractures feel irreconcilable. The internet has siloed us into extremism and alienation. EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE ponders these philosophical questions, but it’s only one aspect of this multifarious movie. It’s a rollicking rollercoaster and owns the multiverse like never before. It goes to so many surreal and unexpected places. There are great heartfelt moments, inclusive messages and philosophical inquiries, and yet is outrageously funny and absurd with great action and a lot of heart. It’s almost too much to take in. And no one better than Michelle Yeoh to take us there.

I was fortunate to attend the San Francisco premiere of EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE, held at the iconic Castro Theater, the same house where THE MATRIX RESURRECTIONS staged its world premiere last December. In attendance were Writer/Directors Daniel Scheinert and Daniel Kwan, Producer Jonathan Wang, Stephanie Hsu, Ke Huy Quan, and my heartthrob, Michelle Yeoh. In the Q&A after the film, Yeoh said “It seems I’ve spent the last 37 years of my career working towards this film.”

EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE is the most entertaining film I’ve seen in years. I can’t remember the last time when I laughed so much, had so many ‘feels’, and been so thrilled by the fight choreography in a film. Absolutely loved it. Michelle killed it. Jamie Lee killed it. Ke Huy Quan, returning to acting after a twenty-year absence killed it. James Hong, who MCed our magazine’s 10th Anniversary Gala, killed it. Even newcomer Stephanie Hsu killed it. Notably, Hsu replaced Awkwafina who had to exit the role due to a scheduling conflict. Had Awkwafina remained, it would’ve reunited her with Yeoh from when they worked together for SHANG-CHI. Nevertheless, Hsu owned it, potentially better than Awkwafina might have. I admire Awkwafina’s work, but she’s Awkwafina in every multiverse, whilst Hsu deftly negotiated the complex incarnations of her characters across the multiverses.

As martial arts themed films go, EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE is a whole new ballgame, a gamechanger on the level of THE MATRIX (1999). That being said, EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE is a difficult film to encapsulate and describe. A lot happens – enough to fill several multiverses. It's maverick filmmaking, so frenetic that might elude some viewers. If you reject the premise and opt out early, the film might just be a mess. But my guess is that most KungFuMagazine readers will enjoy it because it's so fresh, funny and heartfelt. Fans of the Kung Fu genre are tolerant of the absurd. Classic Shaw Brothers and Golden Harvest films expanded our awareness and stamina for the ludicrous, so long as the fights are good.

And the fights are great. Just wait for the trophy fight. It takes us someplace we never thought we wanted to go and comes out… well, I’m just going to leave it at that.

Fast Forward to the Fight Scenes

The fight scenes come fast and furious so there’s no reason to skip ahead. Early in the film, Quan kicks things off with his best Bruce Lee, swapping nunchucks for a fanny pack, and according to the two Daniels, Quan’s stunt double was only used for one cut. That’s just the start of some preposterous battles scattered throughout this entire film.

Beyond Yeoh’s veteran mastery of fight scenes (and we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention the appearance of a longstanding friend of KungFuMagazine Li Jing as Yeoh’s master in the Kung Fu multiverse (it’s Michelle Yeoh, so of course there’s a Kung Fu multiverse). That’s a tease for our Wushu readers), EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE deploys two of the hottest martial arts stuntmen in the business right now – the Le brothers, Brian and Andy. At the Castro Q&A, Yeoh lavished Le brothers with praise. “Bless our two brothers, Brian and Andy Le,” said Yeoh. “They learned martial arts from watching our films. When they came here, their parents didn’t have the money to say ‘Okay, you can go and learn Taekwondo or Karate or whatever it is. And they wanted to learn martial arts, so they watched our films, frame for frame, and that’s how they learned. So when I came to work with these two young men, I was very impressed. But I did say to them ‘those moves seem kind of familiar.’”

The Le’s, alongside Daniel Mah, formed Martial Club and launched their YouTube channel of choreographed fight videos in 2011. Their channel went viral and has since racked up over 100 million views. It caught the attention of noted choreographer Brad Allen, who tragically passed away in 2021, his final film being THE KING’S MAN. Allen tapped Andy Le to work on his penultimate film, SHANG-CHI. Le was one of Simu Liu’s trainers and was consequently cast as Death Dealer, the masked teacher of Shang-Chi. Prior to that, both Andy and Brian appeared in the wonderfully irreverent Kung Fu indie THE PAPER TIGERS (2020), acting in the roles of Fu and Boi respectively. And even more prior, Brian served as the stunt double for Nick Frost in INTO THE BADLANDS.

Brian and Andy served as the Fight Coordinators for EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE. They also appear as security guards, as well as ‘trophy’ and ‘bigger trophy’ which as I said before is a fight scene you just got to see to understand. It’s unprecedented. At the Castro Q&A, Yeoh confessed that throughout her entire career of martial arts movies, she’s never “played with that.”

Only Michelle Yeoh could've played Evelyn in EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE. It's a true tour de force for her. And we eagerly anticipated where the multiverse might take her next.