| “ | I’d like to introduce you to a friend of mine: General Yang…Well, he is the man who financed Alex’s dig. We're in this together, cheek by jowl. | ” |
–Roger Wilson describing Yang., The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor | ||
General Yang was a Chinese militant general that, alongside others, served in a para-militant group dedicated to restoring the ancient Emperor Han to life, losing his life in the attempt of this goal.
Biography[]
Yang had devoutly served in a para-militant faction with the goal of returning the Emperor Han to life, following his resurrected master’s commands to the point of his own demise, as Yang believed that the Emperor could resolve the turmoil brought on by the Second World War that had left China in a state of trouble.
The Emperor[]
| “ | Soldiers! Soon, all our training and sacrifice will bear great fruit. It is my dream to raise our Emperor from his tomb. Only he can bring order out of this chaos. Soldiers, tonight our great battle begins! | ” |
–Yang addressing his troops., The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor | ||
Yang had learned that a young archaeologist named Alex O'Connell had discovered the means of finding the Emperor’s remains and so had anonymously funded Alex’s expedition to find the Emperor and his tomb, contributing funds as well for Alex’s professor, Roger Wilson, to bribe off the British Foreign Office into seeing that Alex’s parents, former spies for Britain, delivered the Eye of Shangri-La, an ancient artifact that would bring the Emperor to life once more.
In a paramilitary outpost situated in Western China, General Yang oversaw troops that trained for combat, and Yang himself reached the outpost to meet his second-in-command and lover, Colonel Choi. After saluting her superior, Choi revealed to Yang that the O'Connells had reached Shanghai and that their spy revealed that the O’Connells had the Eye of Shangri-La with them. Upon hearing this news, Yang ordered Choi to assemble their troops, and Yang himself spoke to them all saying that their training and sacrifice would pay off: Yang’s dream was to resurrect the Emperor Han from death, for he alone could bring China out of the chaos undertaken during the Second World War. Yang then declared that their great battle would begin that night.
Shanghai Museum[]
Yang and Choi had reached the Shanghai Museum to meet Roger Wilson, who had just been given the Eye of Shangri-La by Rick O'Connell and Evelyn O'Connell, while Wilson's student, Alex O'Connell, had recently found the sarcophagus of the Emperor, which took the form of a large stone chariot placed on display in the Shanghai Museum. Yang and Choi strode into the room where the O'Connells stood with Wilson, Yang stating that the O'Connells' work was not yet finished. Wilson then introduced Yang to the O'Connells at the point of a gun, revealing that Yang was the man that funded their son's dig to find the Emperor. Handing the Eye to Yang, Wilson was ordered by the general to search Rick. Wilson revealed that Yang had paid him enough money to bribe off the Foreign Offices, and as Wilson searched Rick, Yang held the Eye, musing that it contained water from the Pool of Eternal Life: with that, Yang ordered Evelyn to open the Eye, but Evelyn refused, knowing that the general would use it to bring the Emperor Han and his armies to life once again.
Rick spoke out against their actions, but Yang cut him off with a punch to the face while Choi disarmed Evelyn, and with both Rick and Evelyn unarmed, Yang pointed his pistol at Evelyn, ordering her to read the inscription on the Eye while Wilson pointed his gun at Rick, who he had ordered to open the sarcophagus of the Emperor. Despite Rick's protests that they would just kill him regardless of whether or not Evelyn read the inscription, Evelyn obliged, reading the words aloud, which stated that only a drop of blood from one who was pure of heart could open the Eye. Yang quipped that Rick was right as he pointed his gun and prepared to fire, but Evelyn protested loudly, standing in Yang's way. Yang noted that only the pure of heart would sacrifice their own life on the line for those that they loved. Rick worked on, prying open the lid while Choi removed Evelyn's glove and prepared to cut Evelyn's finger to obtain the needed blood, but Evelyn fought back, punching Choi hard in the face. Both women began to fight until Choi got the upper hand and cut Evelyn's finger, spilling the drops of blood onto the Eye: with that, the Eye opened and its blue diamond revealed itself. Rick finally managed to pry open the lid and Yang stepped forward with the Eye, declaring that once it touched the Emperor's remains, it would resurrect him, and with that, Yang ordered Wilson to kill O'Connell.
Before Wilson could fire, however, Alex swung down from the ceiling and kicked Wilson away. With him, an assassin named Lin kicked at Yang, knocking him off of the Emperor's sarcophagus and causing him to throw the Eye at a stone chariot driver on the sarcophagus. During the brawl, Lin looked into the sarcophagus and saw that it was a decoy, while the stone chariot driver cracked open, revealing the resurrected Emperor. The O'Connells fired at the corpse as it stood, breaking off its stony face, and as he returned fire, Yang proclaimed to the Emperor that he would serve him, helping him to become immortal. The Emperor responded that if Yang was lying that he would burn alive, allowing the general to mount the chariot with him and escape. As Yang climbed on, Wilson tried to climb on as well, but the Emperor instead heated his hand and chopped off Wilson's head. As the Emperor drove his horses through the walls of the museum, Yang continued to fire at the O'Connells. Yang and the Emperor raced through Shanghai, tearing through carts, crowds and the Rolls-Royce of Evelyn's brother, Jonathan Carnahan, who joined Rick and Evelyn as they cased after the Emperor in a truck. Jonathan helped Rick to shoot fireworks at the Emperor's chariot, though the Emperor rose out of the driver's seat of his chariot, kicked the first shot away into a streetcar, which exploded upon impact. Evelyn took a shortcut through the streets and cut in front of the Emperor's chariot, prompting Yang to fire at the truck as it drove ahead. As he fired the shots, Yang ran out of bullets and lowered himself down so that he could load more in. As Yang tried to fire back, Rick jumped out of the truck that Evelyn was driving to land on the Emperor's chariot, landing instead on one of the stony horses drawing the chariot, which he released from the reins and tried to ride, eventually succeeding in pursuing the chariot. The Emperor, however, regained control of his stone horse and caused it to drive Rick through the Shanghai streets.
The Emperor, after seeing the truck and chariot neck-to-neck, shot fire at a crate of fireworks in the back of the truck, igniting them and causing Evelyn to drive off. Alex and Lin, however, were still hanging onto the chariot, attempting to reach the Emperor and stab him with the only weapon that could kill him: the Dragon Dagger. While Alex shot at his opponents, Lin attempted to step forward and stab the Emperor but Yang shot her in the chest before she could; the Emperor, on the other hand, tore off his stony face and threw it at Alex, knocking him off the chariot. Alex, however, caught a chain on the chariot and climbed it back up. Yang, seeing a chance to hinder the attempts on the Emperor’s life, removed the pin connecting the horses and carriage, allowing him and the Emperor to escape. As they drove off in the chariot, Yang found the Eye of Shangri-La at his feet and picked it up.
Return to Base[]
After leaving Shanghai, the Emperor left with Yang to reach the training base, where Yang welcomed his master to the modern world, and the Emperor asked to know why Yang resurrected him: Yang stated that it was because he loved China and wished to lead it to its former greatness. The Emperor then asked what was in it for Yang, to which Yang replied that he wished to serve as the Emperor's general, but the Emperor angrily stated that the last general that had worked for him had betrayed him: Yang, however, calmly stated that he would not make that mistake. The Emperor, eying his cracked, stony state, stated that he would not be free of the curse until he was immortal, and Yang declared that they must find the Pool of Eternal Life, found by using the Eye of Shangri-La, which Yang presented to his master, who then regenerated more clay onto his skull, repairing his broken facade.
Battle of Shangri-La[]
After their rendezvous in the base, Yang and the Emperor left to follow the O'Connells and their allies, summoning a number of troops to lead up the side of the snowy mountain range where the Gateway to Shangri-La was hidden. The Emperor ordered Yang to prove his loyalty by clearing a path to the Golden Tower of the temple. Yang then handed the Eye to the Emperor and ordered his men to position themselves so as to fire at the O’Connells, who had already reached the temple. Yang had the troops open fire and fire bazooka shots at their opponents. Crossing the rope bridge to the temple, Yang led some of his troops to the ruins and ordered them to open fire before leading more troops to pursue the O’Connells as he ran and fired his own pistols.
During the battle, Lin ran out to the end of the temple and called out towards the mountains in a foreign language, summoning three Yeti, which began to kill off Yang’s troops as he ordered them to kill the snow creatures. As Alex ran into one chamber in the temple, Yang found him and kicked him hard in the chest before proceeding to beat on Alex with several kicks; though Alex tried to fight back, Yang proved too powerful with more kicks and attempted to choke off Alex by placing his foot on Alex’s throat. At that moment, however, one Yeti had found Yang, pulling him away and roaring loudly but Yang, showing no fear, retorted by punching the Yeti hard in the face: the Yeti then threw Yang away, leaving the general to roll down two flights of stairs.
The Emperor had reached the temple and was shot at by O’Connell and Alex before using his powers to cause the surrounding snow to become razor-sharp icicles protruding from the ground. After reaching the top spire of the temple, the Emperor had connected the Eye with the spire, illuminating the way to Shangri-La as Alex swung a roll of dynamite around, intending to blow it up. The Emperor had thrown his sword at Alex as he swung the dynamite but O’Connell knocked his son out of the way and ended up impaled by the sword before it shot back towards the Emperor, who caught it. The dynamite exploded, causing an avalanche which the Emperor forwarded with his powers to reach the temple, though Yang, having reached the top of the staircase once more, was knocked off and fell down, breaking his fall by holding onto one rung of the rope ladder to the temple, which had been severed in the avalanche. Shortly after, Yang climbed up the rope ladder as the Emperor called out that their destiny awaited them.
Kidnapping Lin[]
After O’Connell had been wounded, the Yeti had helped to carry him and the others up to the hiding place of Lin and her mother, the immortal Zi Yuan, where O’Connell was treated with waters from the Pool of Eternal Life, which halted his death, restoring him slowly to health, but the Emperor and Yang had blasted their way into the cave. Lin and Zi Yuan were forced out of the way while the Emperor entered the Pool of Eternal Life, emerging as a three-headed dragon, breathing fire and seizing Lin. The dragon had broken his way out through the cave entrance as Yang leapt up on his back and flew away with them.
The Emperor and Yang returned to the soldiers' encampment and Lin was taken away by soldiers with instructions from Yang that she be guarded. As Choi handed Yang his officer's cap, they both headed up to the front of their troops and awaited the Emperor's orders: the Emperor awoke his terracotta army and summoned Yang's troops to stand before him as he addressed them, stating that he would retake the Earth as his own. Unbeknown to the Emperor or his troops, Zi Yuan had taken the Oracle Bones, an ancient magical text, to the base of the Great Wall of China so as to bring the souls and remains of those whose lived had ended due to the construction of the Emperor's wall to life and punish the Emperor, along with his allies.
The Emperor had reached the wall and proceeded to enter its chambers to obtain his powers while Yang fought alongside his troops against Zi Yuan's skeleton soldiers before Choi, who was firing shots at the airplanes that had been called up to help the O'Connells, told him to get in the car with her so that they could catch the O'Connells, who were going to stop the Emperor from regaining power. Yang and Choi chased O'Connell and Alex, firing at them from their car before a missile had been dropped from an airplane onto their car, blowing it up.
Death[]
Yang and Choi escaped, however, from the car and reached Evelyn and Lin, whom they engaged in a fight in a chamber filled with giant wooden gears. Yang had Evelyn in a choking hold before Lin fought him off and Yang choked her as well: Lin, however, kicked Yang away. Yang had gotten to his feet and prepared to fight Lin once more but was kicked hard again in the chest by Lin as Evelyn helped trip him up: Yang fell into a set of wooden gears and was unable to escape as he was being crushed. Choi rushed up to help him out of the gears but could not; Yang told Choi to let go but she would not, and both were crushed to death in the wooden gears.
Personality and Traits[]
General Yang was a taciturn man that led a para-militant group of soldiers and had intended to return China to its former glory before the Second World War. A curt, calculating man, Yang could run the gamut from calm and collected to aggressive and harsh, but often kept himself reserved when facing either his troops or his enemies. Yang had no qualms about killing his enemies or harming those that stood in his way, but usually resorted to brute force when confronting an enemy. Though harsh, Yang was not without compassion, even love, for, among all others, his lieutenant, Colonel Choi, who lead the troops in Yang’s absence and had stayed loyal to their order.
A middle-aged Chinese man, Yang dressed in a grayish militaristic uniform, very similiar to the Nazi officer's uniform. It came complete with black leather gloves, an officer’s cap, sam browne belt, and a medallion bearing the symbol of his para-military group. He would also wear a thick dark coat and cap when in colder areas such as the gateway to Shangri-La. Yang kept his scalp shaved and had a thin moustache and goatee.
Appearances[]
- The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor(First appearance)
Behind the Scenes[]
General Yang was portrayed by Anthony Wong Chau-Sang.