Is Michelle Yeoh just not a good actress?

Her best stuff has been pretty good, but when you start analyzing it, you realize - it's not because of her acting.

It's because she has been paired with better actors, and even then, it comes down to her doing kung-fu and stunts pretty well.

She's like a mediocre shadow of Jackie Chan, who can actually act and sing much better than Michelle, and do kung-fu and stunts on higher leve, as well. Compared to Jackie Chan, Michelle Yeoh is... well... female? That's about it.

Jackie is better at everything else, especially including acting.

Having said that, Jackie Chan isn't the best of actors, his kung-fu is mostly theatrical wushu instead of anything street-applicable or impressive in that way, and the main reason he is fun to watch, is his creative way of fighting and amazing stunts, of course.

No one would watch a Jackie Chan or Michelle Yeoh-movie if you stripped away the kung-fu and stunts. I mean, honestly, who would watch Jackie Chan for his acting ability or the humor in those movies?

Oddly enough, the more 'american' movies have better humor, as the typical Hong Kong kung-fu movie humor is pretty childish, flat and slapsticky. The Rush Hour movies are better humorwise, but lackluster stuntwise, because hollyweird would not let easily big stars do something actually dangerous, and even then it's diluted.

So for the best mix, watch older hollywood movies for acting, older Jackie Chan-movies (made in Hong Kong) for amazing stunts and entertaining, creative fight scenes, Bruce Lee-movies for actual fighting ability and superb moves and learning something, more modern movies, like the Rush Hour series for better humor (though for actual comedy, there are much better movies, like Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery and Top Secret!, just to name a couple).

Michelle Yeoh-movies? Well, she has been in some Jackie Chan-stuff, and she starred in an old Hong Kong movie franchise called 'In the Line of Duty', which then also starred Cynthia Khan..