Michelle Yeoh as Aung San Suu Kyi.

Most of the time, biographical movies draw the attention of serious movie buffs, since the real-life stories of athletes, actors, musicians and politicians, for instance, are sometimes more entertaining and inspiring than fiction.

When Besson announced his plan to make a biopic of Aung San Suu Kyi around two years ago, curiosity mounted on what the movie would be like.

Besson is an expert in creating femme fatale characters, really knowing how to entertain moviegoers through chilling action scenes.

Check out his portfolio. His directorial works include Leon the Professional, La Femme Nikita, The Fifth Element and animated franchise Arthur, while the stories and screenplays he has penned are Taken, The Transporter film series, From Paris with Love and Colombiana.

Besson has shifted gear for a while, moving away from super action and presenting the story of democracy and its icon Suu Kyi.

The Lady may be a drama, but it still pretty much shows Besson’s interest in putting a strong female character under the spotlight, in a different way.

For the vital leading role, he recruited Malaysian-born actress Michelle Yeoh, who rose to fame through her roles in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, James Bond’s Tomorrow Never Dies and Memoirs of A Geisha, to play the willowy Nobel Peace Prize laureate.

The Lady highlights Suu Kyi, the daughter of respected Gen. Aung San, an independence hero who was assassinated during the transition period in the mid 1940s.

The film tells of the beginning of Suu Kyi’s encounter with politics, starting with the day she arrived in Myanmar (Burma) from England to take care of her sickly mother before eventually being asked by a number of activists to lead a pro-democracy movement.

As a wife and mother of two sons, Suu Kyi was initially reluctant to become involved, but eventually agreed to join the campaign against the military junta.

The film then moves onto Suu Kyi’s political struggle to promote democracy in the country. She was under house arrest in 1990, before and during the general election in which her party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), won the majority of seats in parliament.

Besson tried to portray Suu Kyi’s determination and calmness in dealing with all the threats and intimidation by the military and to cover the historic moments of her life and the dangers she faced.

Aside from reflecting the political side of Suu Kyi’s life, the film is essentially more about love, focusing on Suu Kyi’s relationship with her husband, Oxford academic Michael Aris.

David Thewlis, who plays Professor Remus Lupin in the Harry Potter series, is an impressive match for Yeoh in his role as Suu Kyi’s husband and as Michael’s twin brother Anthony.

The couple was forced to live separately as Aris stayed in England to raise their sons by himself, while relentlessly struggling to have Suu Kyi released from detention.

The story becomes poignant when Aris is diagnosed with cancer in 1999 and was not allowed to visit his wife in Burma.

The Burmese authorities instead offered to let Suu Kyi return to England to be with her family, but told her she would never be allowed back into Burma.

Suu Kyi was torn on whether to choose her country or her husband and children.

Just as the audience starts to feel the thrill of the mounting political tension depicted in the film, their mood takes a different turn watching the romantic scenes, making the high-tension political parts seemed not so real yet powerful.

Fans of the charismatic Suu Kyi might divide into two sides over the movie, with some liking it and others not.

Yeoh attended the movie premiere in Jakarta on March 25, reflecting the spirit of Suu Kyi.

“The philosophy, this fight for democracy in a nonviolent way, I think this is something that we all, every single person, should aspire to support. Because if she can do it, there is great hope for humanity,” Yeoh once said during a press conference.

The Lady has also been screened at celebrated festivals, including the Toronto International Film Festival in Canada, South Korea’s Busan International Film Festival, Italy’s International Rome Film Festival and Doha Tribeca Film Festival in Qatar.

Verdict: The Lady is a moving drama that brings tears to the eyes with the heartrending love story between Suu Kyi and Aris, and thrill with Suu Kyi’s stirring political development.

— Photos courtesy of EuropaCorp —

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