Brosnan and Yeoh?

That's right, particularly if a viewer is willing to watch the current James Bond adventure, Tomorrow Never Dies, with a sense of political and cinematic perspective. Consider this: Bond, played by Pierce Brosnan, is a British government agent. Wai Lin, played by Michelle Yeoh, is his Chinese counterpart. To the Yanks who make up most of 007's English-language audience, this is probably no big deal. But China and England have a history of colonialist conflict dating back more than a century--a history that was fully resolved only when England returned Hong Kong, the last vestige of Her Majesty's onetime Asian empire, to the People's Republic last summer.

Cinematically speaking, there may be even deeper resonances in the rather chaste Brosnan-Yeoh lip action that brings down the curtain on TND. Yeoh made her reputation as a star in the action-obsessed Hong Kong film industry, which has taken plenty of aesthetic cues from the Bond franchise. You want similarities? Here's a quick comparison of TND to Supercop (1993), Yeoh's most famous Hong Kong film in the West. In both movies, Yeoh plays a Chinese government operative paired with a more Westernized partner (Brosnan in TND; Jackie Chan in Supercop). Both films take place on multiple Asian locations, involve international intrigue, and feature gargantuan action set pieces in which an extended motorcycle chase climaxes with hero and heroine being menaced by the whirling blades of a helicopter. The one big difference: Tomorrow Never Dies sports a typically megalomaniacal Bond villain in Jonathan Pryce, who plays a thinly veiled caricature of Australian media magnate Rupert Murdoch.

James Bond Sequelizer Tomorrow Never Dies Review Supercop Review

Then there's the flip side of the Brosnan-Yeoh smooch--the debt current Western action films owe to Hong Kong. Though largely a cult phenomenon, Hong Kong's no-holds-barred approach to one of Hollywood's most worn-out genres has reinvented the form in the States. Meanwhile, the leading lights of the Hong Kong action renaissance--from Jackie Chan to John Woo to Tsui Hark--have trekked to Hollywood to shake up the system with their own very different way of doing things (with admittedly mixed results). Now it's Yeoh's turn, and she seems delighted to have the opportunity. A Malaysian by birth, and a beauty queen before she became Hong Kong's leading action heroine, Yeoh speaks flawless English and has the poise of a born film star.

If Tomorrow Never Dies does as much for Yeoh's career as some observers think it will, she may be poised to accomplish the one stunt even Jackie Chan has yet to pull off: making a successful transition from East to West. The jury is still out, but the possibility has been sealed with a kiss.