Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)

CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON (2000)

WO HU CANG LONG (2000)

A Film Review

Copyright Dragan Antulov 2004

In 1970s it was very common for reviewers and film scholars to

describe kung fu films as "easterns". This wasn't very surprising

because kung fu films and westerns had many things in common.

They were set in very specific locations during very specific time

periods (19th Century West, pre-modern China), they had archetypal

plots, they revolved around almost ritual forms of violent action and

their characters followed specific set of rules and values - alien to

modern audiences. Both westerns and kung fu films also had to fight

to earn the respect of serious film scholars. Westerns, having a better

head start, at least in Western world, succeeded first by being

recognised as art, first by critics going gaga over Sergio Leone's work

and later by Academy voters. Kung fu films, on the other hand, had

to fight xenophobia and bias. Finally, after Tarantino's successful

promotion of Hong Kong cinema, kung fu genre got its proper

recognition through CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON,

prestigious 2000 kung fu drama directed by Ang Lee.

The plot, based on the novel by Chinese author Wang Du Lu, is set in

early 1800s China, during the reign of Qing Dynasty. Li Mu Bai

(played by Chow Yun-Fat) is an expert swordsman and martial arts

master who spent all his life fighting bandits and other evildoers. He

decides to retire and dedicate himself to meditation, but before that

he must entrust his famed Green Destiny sword to Sir Te (played by

Lung Sihung), his old friend in Imperial government. The task of

delivering sword is given to Yu Shu Lien (played by Michelle Yeoh),

female martial arts master and his old comrade. When the sword

finally gets to Sir Te's palace, it is stolen by mysterious thief endowed

with superb martial arts skill. Li Mu Bai is convinced that the theft

was committed by Jade Fox (played by Cheng Pei-pei), bandit queen

who had killed his master many years ago. He comes out of

retirement, starts to investigate and learns that the thief is Jen Yu

(played by Zhang Ziyi), daughter of important Imperial official. She

embraced martial arts in order to escape her tightly-controlled and

etiquette-bound life of aristocrat for the sake of the adventurous

lifestyle he had briefly experienced with Lo "Dark Cloud" (played by

Chang Chen), young desert bandit.

Made as international co-production, CROUCHING TIGER,

HIDDEN DRAGON had 15 million US$ of budget, which was

unprecedented sum for kung fu films. The success of the film was

also unprecedented for this sort of films. It was the first foreign (and

subtitled) film to earn more than 100 million US$ on American

market, it was worshipped by critics and, finally, it received plenty of

prestigious film awards, including "Oscar" for Best Foreign Language

Film. After CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON kung fu films

finally broke out of exploitation cinema ghetto and became legitimate

form of cinema.

Reason why many critics ignored their prejudice against kung fu

genre might be found in the reputation of this film's director.

Taiwanese-born Ang Lee is one of the world's most respected

filmmakers. Throughout his career, Lee showed incredible ability to

handle different genres- romantic comedies, westerns and dramas -

as well as different settings - modern-day Taiwan, early 19th Century

England, Civil War Midwest and early 1970s America. CROUCHING

TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON was, on the other hand, more personal

project for Lee. Stories of ancient China and its larger-than-life

mythical heroes were part of Lee's youth. When the opportunity

came, he was more than willing to invest all of his energy and talent

to pay proper respect to that magical world.

Lee's talent was well-matched with the talents of his collaborators.

Script by Tsai Kuo Jung, Wang-Hui Ling and James Schamus had to

solve one difficult problem - how to remain faithful to the rules of

kung fu genres and deliver action-packed drama while paying

attention to the audience not so familiar with social norms and

lifestyles of ancient China. Scriptwriters wisely chose to rely on Lee

and his superb directorial skills to guide audience through seemingly

boring scenes of character and plot exposition. Lee was fortunate

enough to gather diverse but very talented cast. Chow Yun-Fat,

arguably the best known actor of them all, built his reputation in the

roles of over-the-top gangsters; here he delivers very subdued but

powerful performance in the role of near-mythic figure who must

suppress his emotions. Michelle Yeoh is also wonderful as his partner

- woman torn between duty, common sense and suppressed feelings.

Two of them are great, but the most formidable roles belong to actors

less known to Western audiences.

Cheng Pei-pei, who used to be big star of 1960s kung fu films, is

given great honour by being cast in the role of Jade Fox. Although

her character doesn't appear in many scenes, she is very effective.

Jade Fox is film's chief villain, but Cheng Pei-pei makes that character

complex and even allows audience to sympathise with her to a

certain degree. Chang Chen is also good in seemingly thankless role

of handsome bandit who steals spoiled aristocrat's heart. But the

film's greatest discovery comes in the form of Zhang Ziyi, young

dancer who took the hardest role in the film and delivered a truly

memorable performance. Ziyi's character represents total opposite of

Li Mu Bai and Yu Shu Lien - while they are unhappy because they

can't escape constraints of tradition and duty, she rebels against

social norms only to discover that such a path also can lead to

unhappiness and cause misery to everyone around her. In her role

Zhang Ziyi displays wide variety of emotion - passion, admiration,

fear and deep anger - and combines it with her athletic abilities that

are as impressive as her godlike beauty.

Another important ingredient of CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN

DRAGON can be found in the fight scenes. They were

choreographed by Yuen Woo Ping, expert whose Hong Kong fame

had received global dimensions following his work on THE

MATRIX. Here he isn't aided by CGI and employs more traditional

Hong Kong techniques of wireworks instead. The result is series of

really magnificent fight scenes. Those scenes are so well-staged that

the audience easily accepts characters gliding through air. The most

magnificent of those scenes occurs at the very end, when two

characters face each other at the treetops. This display of awesome

but deadly abilities is well matched by ethereal beauty of natural

surroundings. In this scene, just like in many others, film benefits

from the wonderful musical score by Tan Dun. Haunting,

melancholic sounds are accompanied by brilliant cinematography of

Peter Pau. The film sounds and looks greatest in the scenes that

depict something rarely seen in budget-constrained kung fu films of

the past - natural beauties of China. The audience unaccustomed to

the epic scope of kung fu films is going to be awed by the deserts,

mountains and forests. After watching this film, people who don't

know much about China will begin to grasp how vast that country

really is.

Although their work isn't perfect (a scene or two is little bit

overlong), people who made CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN

DRAGON can be proud of their achievements. They made an

entertaining, powerful and marvellous film that restores viewers'

faith in the artistic potentials of modern cinema industry.

RATING: 9/10 (++++)

Review written on June 11th 2004

Dragan Antulov a.k.a. Drax

http://film.purger.com - Filmske recenzije na hrvatskom/Movie Reviews in

Croatian

http://www.ofcs.org - Online Film Critics Society

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X-RT-RatingText: 9/10