Wai Lin is a fictional character in the 1997 James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies, portrayed by Michelle Yeoh. The character, the first ethnic ChineseBond girl, has received critical acclaim, being widely regarded as one of the best Bond girls in the series. Kin-Yan Szeto, author of The 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 had established in Hong Kong cinema."
Appearances
Film
Wai Lin is a spy for the Chinese People's External Security Force in the rank of colonel and skilled in martial arts. She first encounters Bond when she is sent to investigate the disappearance of stealth material from a People's Liberation Army base which is connected to media mogul Elliot Carver, who plans to start a war between China and the United Kingdom. She later learns that Bond was sent by MI-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. , author of Lost in Transition: Hong Kong Culture in the Age of China, wrote that the film and its promotional materials "incessantly highlighted" the character's "Chineseness".
Other appearances
In the film's novelization by Raymond Benson, Wai Lin has an entire chapter devoted to introduce her character, detailing "her involvement with the Chinese People's External Security Force, 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." In the 1999 video game adaptation of the film, Wai Lin is both a playable and a non-playable character. A one/sixth scale action figure of her was released by Sideshow Collectibles in 2001. In early scripts for Die Another Day, Wai Lin was to make a return, aiding Bond in Hong Kong. However, this idea fell through so Wai Lin was replaced by Chinese Intelligence agent Mr. Chang.
Reception
The character was very well-received. After the film's release, Wai Lin proved so popular with fans and critics that MGM abortively considered developing a spin-off film based on her. Life named Wai Lin the 11th best Bond girl of all time. In 2010, Entertainment Weekly ranked her as the seventh best Bond girl, calling this "savvy Chinese agent" one of the few "womn of color to match wits with 007" and "the first one you could take seriously." In 2012, the International Business Times included Michelle Yeoh as Wai Lin among the top ten "most stunning" Bond girls of all time. She was also included on the list of the 20 best Bond girls by Virgin Media, who called her "an equal match for Bond", as well as on a similar list by 3MMM. MensXP.com ranked the "sexy and stern at the same time" Wai Lin as the seventh top Bond girl of all time; 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;" and Rope of Silicon ranked her as 20th, calling her "fantastic" and opining Yeoh "will never be forgotten as a one-time Bond girl." UGO.com 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!"
