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Wai Lin as a James Bond regular?
I was reading Roger Ebert's review of Tomorrow Never Dies and he mentioned the idea, and when I thought about the possibility I got very excited. Wouldn't it be fun if they had Wai Lin as Bond's permanent Chinese contact? I don't expect a lot of people to go along with this because 1. it's not what Fleming had in mind 2. she's a woman and we 'already have Moneypenny' 3. Wai Lin doesn't rank very high on the Bond girl list (which puzzles me, because Michelle Yeoh played her with so much spunk). I'll admit I don't like it when Bond girls are completely up to Bond's level in the fighting department and everything, but Wai Lin is a different case because her camaraderie with Bond felt so natural. Besides, he could always use more international allies. :D
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Comments
Luckily, the producers of the Bond films have always been smart enough not to fall into the trap of exploiting secondary characters. Someone like Wai Lin doesn't even have the baggage to work either as the lead in a spin-off or as a returning character.
Let's see about a spin-off. Martial arts expert, working for the Chinese secret service. Who here in the West cares about her adventures? Also, female superheroes or superagents or whatever hardly ever work on their own. Sure, Joss Whedon and J.J. Abrams managed to keep a few of them successful for a while but if Angelina as Lara Croft hardly got two films made and if Jennifer Gardner and Halle Berry couldn't please us in Electra and Catwoman, why would people be interested in Michelle Yeoh as just some random female spy? Even if some talented storywriter gave her great material, the appeal simply isn't there.
As a returning character in a Bond film? That would only make sense if China got involved every single time. Take Leiter. Unless the US are involved, Leiter is absent from a Bond film. Perfectly logical, wouldn't you say? Of course it wouldn't be too difficult to find small links with Chinese politics. E.g. Le Chiffre could have been at the service of Chinese terrorists at one point, Quantum may have recruited some Chinese hot shot, the Silva case brings Hong Kong into the mix, Moon/Graves poses a threat to China too, ... Then again, there's only so much China we here in the West care about. Though we like the exotic flavours in our Bonds, it's the British perspective we're focusing on first and foremost.
But would we like a return of Jinx perhaps? She's American after all and America, unlike China, is closer to home for most us. Well, the problem with jinx is twofold. A) Her DAD gig wasn't exactly well-received by Bond fans and critics alike, B) thanks to CR we have Leiter again, a character that does appear in the Fleming novels, that does work well with Bond, that does not cast a strange sort of shadow over Bond. For let's make no mistake, there are crowds out there who care more about Halle Berry than they do about Pierce Brosnan or even Daniel Craig.
Every new Bond film brings its share of new Bond girls / women with it. And we like that; it's part of the excitement of a new Bond film. Returning ladies get in the way of a new eye pleaser.
I vote no.
My initial knee jerk reaction is to say 'Dear Christ that's the worst idea I've ever heard' but a Blofeld or Dr No origin story? That might be watchable I suppose. Maybe.
But if you're seriously suggesting expanding the current universe then that is an awful idea. Anyone up for Rory Kinnear Tanner spinoff? I thought not. We just have to hope that they don't mistakenly think the bland Naomie Harris is a roaring success and decide to adapt the MP diaries.
Why? I thought Jinx was terrible as well, but what do people have against Wai Lin?
I know there's no real opportunity of this happening because yes, Michelle Yeoh is too old, but why would a returning (female) secondary character à la Felix Leiter be so bad? I prefer to keep the series very British in origin too but I really don't see the harm in adding contacts in different countries.
Also I never mentioned the idea of a spin-off. I'm against spin-offs when it comes to any franchise - especially Bond.
Do you really think the public are going to come out to see a Felix Leiter film?
No familiar comfort blankets of gunbarrel, Bond theme, gadgets, Astons, 'shaken not stirred' - just a fairly average CIA agent.
What is there for an audience to get excited about exactly? Or even Bond fans? Fleming never fleshed out the character's background so do we really want to see P&W's take on Felix for a whole film?
If we assume they wouldn't reboot Felix again to Fleming's blond haired Texan and leave Jeffrey Wright in the role then I suppose the best we might get is another Clear & Present Danger but I think that's pretty unlikely frankly. I remain to be convinced that this whole idea could be anything other than pretty awful.
The only vaguely conceivable way this could work is, as @Campbell2 says above, if it is the villains.
A Blofeld and SPECTRE Begins could maybe have been a standalone film but that's about it and SP seems to be covering that ground already thankfully.
No doubt one day after Babs and MGW die and the studio gets control it will happen at some point but hopefully by then the bubble will have burst on this whole 'expanded universe' sausage factory of churning out film after film about ever more incidental and peripheral characters.
But maybe I'm being too negative - lets bring it on and in a decade when the barrel has been scraped we might end up with a Victor Tourjansky's drunk Italian tourist origin story which I for one would pay good money to see!
While she was serviceable in TND, I didn't find her all that interesting or charismatic either (compared to all the Bond women/girls we've had over the years), so I don't see why it's necessary to specifically continue her character in future movies - but that's just my personal opinion.
Only to a certain extent. Returning characters are played by different people.
I see no reason to thoroughly feminize the Bond series at all (I'm aware of the fact that it's a male fantasy, and I don't mind that, nor would I want to ruin it) but I don't understand the heavy opposition against another returning woman. We'll see how Spectre plays out but I'm afraid without Dench it will feel like there's a gap in the series, because MI6, for example, is gonna be all-men again.
Indeed.
There is not heavy opposition to another returning woman. There's opposition to the insipid Wai Lin returning because it would be utterly pointless (and incidentally nonsensical in the Craig reboot era). A crap idea is a crap idea - it's nothing do with gender.
It seems to me you are saying this is a good idea not because it would improve the series but because Bond films don't currently pass the Bechdel test? Sounds suspiciously like affirmative action to me.
Clarkson where are you? England needs you!
My initial point wasn't really about gender, but my response to what @DarthDimi said was. If there's a supporting character (male or female) who has great chemistry with Bond then I think adding another regular is an idea worth exploring.
I don't know why people appear to be so agitated over the issue - as if the producers would ever even consider this; obviously they won't!
Let me point you to exhibit A: The Jinx
spinoff got as far as a script and it was only the studio that canned it not Babs and MGW who were well up for it.
So I think people getting agitated when awful ideas like this are mooted is perfectly understandable considering how close we came to Armageddon with the Jinx Movie.
All that is necessary for evil to triumph is that good men do nothing.
But then again, I was never defending a spin-off in the first place. And it's not like I have a direct telephone hotline with Broccoli and Wilson or anything. Even though I wasn't around when the Jinx thing happened, it's likely that someone might have been somewhat excited by the idea whilst the studio was entirely focused on profit alone. They probably realized a female action hero wouldn't make money, which is true, and since financial matters will always be the final consideration for big studios, I doubt they will do anything rash. Either way, I find fear of what might happen an inadequate reason why not to argue about ideas.
Genius.
No problem.....I can expand. Michelle Yeoh is neither a good enough actress nor particulary (by 007 standards) attractive enough to gain the lead role.
I would watch the Adventures of Mr Wint and Mr Kidd. Sounds like a great dark comedy.
I genuinely think this could be a winner. A Netflix exclusive like Better Call Saul.
BCS is on AMC?
I would never have thought of that, but it'd be a brilliant casting.
Maybe Nick Stahl.
I do think Yeoh is a good actress, but Wai Lin is at best average as a character. She can be summed up in two lines, if that: martial artist Chinese spy. Even her gender is secondary! Bland Bond girl if there's one.