When media giant CMGN broadcasts details about a volatile incident between British and Chinese forces in the South China Sea hours before they could possibly have been known, M (Judi Dench) sends Bond (Pierce Brosnan) to Hamburg to investigate CMGN's president, the Murdochian media magnate Elliot Carver (Jonathan Pryce). Through information provided by Carver's wife (and Bond's ex-flame) Paris (Teri Hatcher), Bond discovers that the mad mogul engineered the incident in order to spark war between China and the UK, which would provide his network with both a media bonanza and a postbellum promise of exclusive broadcast rights from a new Chinese government. Rushed into production after the success of GoldenEye, and absent the guiding hand of long-time Bond producer Albert Broccoli (who died shortly before the release of the previous film), TND suffers noticeably from a case of too many cooks in the kitchen — but it offers a strong foil for Bond in high-kicking Chinese agent Wai Lin, played by martial-arts superstar Michelle Yeoh (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon).