| Wai Lin | |
|---|---|
| James Bond character | |
 Michelle Yeoh as Wai Lin in a promotional photo forTomorrow Never Dies | |
| Portrayed by | Michelle Yeoh |
| Voiced by | Larissa Murray(1999 video game) |
| In-universe information | |
| Gender | Female |
| Affiliation | Chinese Intelligence |
| Classification | Bond girl |
Wai Lin (Chinese:林慧;pinyin:Lín Huì) is a fictional character in the 1997James Bond filmTomorrow Never Dies, portrayed byMichelle Yeoh.
Kin-Yan Szeto, author ofThe Martial Arts Cinema of the Chinese Diaspora: Ang Lee, John Woo, and Jackie Chan in Hollywood, wrote that the actress's "persona" was the "tough martial arts/action heroine [Yeoh] had established inHong Kong cinema."[1]
Wai Lin (Michelle Yeoh) is aspy for theMinistry of State Security of the People's Republic of China with the rank ofcolonel and skilled inmartial arts. She first encountersJames Bond (Pierce Brosnan) when she is sent (under disguise as aXinhua News Agency reporter) to investigate the disappearance of stealth material from aPeople's Liberation Army base which is connected to media mogul Elliot Carver (Jonathan Pryce), who plans to start a war between China and the United Kingdom. She later learns that Bond was sent byMI-6 to work on the same case. The two initially believe they have been ordered to kill each other, but eventually develop a wary mutual trust when they are both captured by Carver. Bond grows to respect her when she playfully, but firmly, rejects his attempts at seduction. Bond and Lin sneak about Carver's private ship and they work together to destroy the ship and disable a missile that was targeted at China. She and Bond then give in to the mutual attraction they had both been fighting during the mission.
Stephen Yiu-Wai Chu [zh] (朱耀偉), author ofLost in Transition: Hong Kong Culture in the Age of China, wrote that the film and its promotional materials "incessantly highlighted" the character's "Chineseness".[2]
In the film's novelization byRaymond Benson, Wai Lin has an entire chapter devoted to introduce her character, detailing "her involvement with the ChineseMinistry of State Security, her training, her skills, and many other facets of her life that made her a real person. Her relationship with Bond is also much more realistic."[3]
In the 1999video game adaptation of the film, Wai Lin (voiced by Larissa Murray) is both aplayable (Mission 9: Market District,Saigon) and anon-playable character (Mission 10: Stealth Boat,Hạ Long Bay).[4]
A one/sixth scaleaction figure of her was released bySideshow Collectibles in 2001.[5]
In early scripts[6] forDie Another Day, Wai Lin was to make a return, aiding Bond inHong Kong. If this had happened, Wai Lin would have been the second Bond girl to appear in two films, following Sylvia Trench (Eunice Gayson) inDr. No andFrom Russia with Love. However, this idea fell through so Wai Lin was replaced by Chinese intelligence agent Mr. Chang (played byHo Yi) in the finished film.[7]
The character was generally well-received.Life named Wai Lin as the 11th bestBond girl of all time.[8] In 2010,Entertainment Weekly ranked her as the seventh best Bond girl, calling the "savvy Chinese agent" one of the few "wom[e]n of colour to match wits with 007" and "the first one you could take seriously."[9] In 2012, theInternational Business Times included Michelle Yeoh's Wai Lin among the top 10 "most stunning" Bond girls of all time.[10] She was also included in the list of the 20 best Bond girls byVirgin Media, which called her "an equal match for Bond",[11] as well as in a similar list byTriple M Melbourne.[12]
MensXP.com ranked the "sexy and stern at the same time" Wai Lin as the seventh top Bond girl of all time;[13] Fandomania ranked her as the second best Bond girl, stating that she was "the right type of Bond Girl at the right point in action cinema’s evolution."[14]UGO noted that "Bond actually grows to respect the Chinese agent after she playfully but firmly spurns his romantic advances – one of the very few Bond Girls to pull that off!"[15]
| Preceded by | Bond girl (main sidekick) 1997 | Succeeded by |
