Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon Film

A Review of Director Ang Lee’s Martial Arts Action/Romance Epic

Sep 15, 2008

In this cinematic triumph that won over 40 Awards, Chow Yun Fat, Michelle Yeoh and Zhang Ziyi lead the cast as Master choreographer Yuen Woo Ping works his magic.

In 1991, Tsui Hark’s Once Upon a Time in China re-invented the martial arts genre, taking charge of the status quo and organizing it into a more sophisticated body of work.

In 2000, Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon took that organization and used it to it’s fullest potential.

The Green Destiny Sword Drives the Plot of Crouching Tiger

Set in the late eighteenth century, the story begins with legendary warrior and Wudan master Li Mu-Bai (Chow Yun Fat), who is weary of wielding the equally legendary Green Destiny sword. He gives it to fellow warrior Yu Shu-Lien (Michelle Yeoh) to hand over to an old friend in Beijing.

Shu-Lien later meets Jen (Zhang Ziyi), the aristocratic and tenacious daughter of a governer, who admires Shu-Lien’s adventurous life. When the sword is stolen it becomes apparent that Jen harbours her own desires to lead a life of adventure, rather than submit to her arranged marriage.

However, Jen has been secretly tutored by a criminal known as Jade Fox (Cheng Pei Pei), who has a bloody history with Li Mu-Bai.

Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon Cast

The role of a ‘Master’ in any martial arts film is rarely demanding, requiring poise and stoicism more than emotion and character. Chow Yun Fat plays the role to it’s utmost, full of said poise and stoicism, with a script that has more than enough room to bring a largely unexpressed, emotional undercurrent to the surface (Mu-Bai and Shu-Lien, as warriors living by certain codes, are forbidden from expressing their mutual affections).

Michelle Yeoh, in particular, is finally placed in a role – and film – of a quality worth her abilities as an actress. Yeoh is elegant, powerful and, along with Chow Yun Fat, captures the perfect balance of formality against emotional toil.

Besides these two veterans came the little-known Zhang Ziyi. There was, apparently, some unrest amongst martial arts fans against Ziyi’s casting, citing many other, more capable, female martial artists for the role. The question was, however, could they act? The camera clearly loves Ziyi and the girl certainly can act, as well as do everything that’s physically required of her. The film made her an instantly recognizable face in the West and an eminent star.

Also contributing are Cheng Pei Pei, another veteran of Eastern cinema, as Jade Fox and Chang Chen as ‘Dark Cloud’ Lo - Jen’s secret lover and feared bandit. Both support the main cast very nicely, with Chen playing a kind of Eastern ‘Jack Sparrow’ with a lot of charm and humour.

Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon Production

Having recently posted an article on Pan’s Labyrinth, it is easy to draw production comparisons between these very different films.

They were both budgeted at under $20 million; they are both period-set stories that have fantastical elements; that are both blessed with great casts; cinematography that is second to none; great music scores and a director working at his very best. The results are also similar, because Crouching Tiger, like Pan’s Labyrinth, is one of the best that cinema has ever produced.

Peter Pau’s cinematography, particularly, is astounding, working with grand and glorious landscapes, intricate costume designs and even-more intricate action sequences. The music by Tan Dun may also be the best ever provided to a martial arts film and is guaranteed to get the blood racing.

Ang Lee brings all this together to unforgettable effect, creating a movie that involves the martial arts, but is not ruled by it. He makes the bold decision of a lengthy flashback to introduce Jen’s rogue lover, Lo, which adds a lot to the film as an Epic and to the character of Jen.

It’s also nice to see a few more ‘traditional’ aspects of asian fight-films thrown in, involving some cheesy script and humour, supplemented by overly bold posturing.

The Choreography of Yuen Woo Ping

Yuen Woo Ping has worked on a lot of films, including Fist of Legend, Iron Monkey, Twin Warriors, the Matrix and Kill Bill films, to name a few.

What helps distinguish the martial arts aspect of this film is a stronger sense of context within the story, which was one of Ang Lee’s goals. In the film’s first major sequence, the context is as much about keeping the opponent grounded and retrieving the stolen sword; in other confrontations we have a master berating the student, barely trying as he does; also Jen’s self-glorifying display – really just to avoid paying for her food – is another mismatch with less than lethal intention.

There is only one sequence in which the gloves, so to speak, come off and the combatants – Yeoh and Ziyi – give it their all. Even then, there is context to the sequence, with Ziyi wielding the unstoppable Green Destiny sword. Add to that the pulsating drums of the music and some of Yuen Woo-Ping’s most inspired choreography and you’re left watching just over four minutes of an action scene so dazzling, intense, and graceful that you don’t dare blink until it’s over.

Clearly, high enough praise cannot be given to all involved, including Zhang Ziyi and Michelle Yeoh, with the latter having undergone knee surgery before shooting began.

Summary

Following in it’s wake, films like House of Flying Daggers and Hero were targeted at continuing the trend, without reaching the same level of story-telling and so falling short.

Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon is uniquely beautiful, moving and epitomizes what cinema is all about. So for the love of all that is Holy in your life, do not watch this movie dubbed!

The copyright of the article Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon Film in Asian Films is owned by Michael Pantazi. Permission to republish Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon Film in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.