gkanai's Full Review: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Please note in Jan 2001: "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" has just become the highest-grossing foreign-language film ever shown in America.
CAUTION: Spoilers ahead in this review!
The movie that stole the show at Cannes, The Telluride Film Festival, and the People's Choice Award at the Toronto Film Festival (which last year chose "American Beauty" as it's winner) has finally opened in limited release in the US. And what a masterpiece it is! It was the first time in I can't remember how long that I went to the opening night of a film and I have to say it was well worth it!
Let's take an overview of what Ang Lee brought together for this film:
Not only two of the top leading actors in cinema (Chow Yun-Fat and Michelle Yeoh), but also one of the leading male heart throbs of Chinese cinema today (Chang Chen), and the 1960's female martial arts star Cheng Pei-Pei, and clearly the brightest female rising star (Zhang Ziyi).
Let's not forget music by Tan Dun, cello solos by none other than Yo-Yo Ma, and theme song performed by Hong Kong pop superstar Coco Lee.
Mix in the incredible beauty of the seldom-appreciated Chinese wilderness be it the Gobi Desert or the bamboo forests.
Finally add in martial arts director/choreographer extraordinaire Yuen Wo Ping and clearly an innovative mix of martial arts and computer graphics editing.
Any other director could have been overwhelmed by the scope or the vision of this film and Ang Lee himself explained that this film was a dream of his that he knew could not have happened without his previous work on movies like "Sense and Sensibility", "The Wedding Banquet", "The Ice Storm", and his earlier work.
I believe that Ang Lee has really redefined himself as a director, as well as the genre and focus of martial arts film, as well as the status of Chinese cinema. Most importantly, Lee has continued the celebration of women as the main protagonists- notably in a film where martial arts plays a leading role.
Cinema scholar Owen Gottlieb writes, "Chinese Fifth Generation film-making did this [women as protagonists] long ago - starting when the Beijing Film Academy reopened it's doors (1978?) after the Cultural Revolution ended."
"The films of Zhang Yimou (Red Sorghum, Raise the Red Lantern, Jou Dou, Story of Xiu Jou) , Chen Kaige (Yellow Earth, others), and many other Fifth Generation center on the struggle of women as the protagonists -- as a representation of China's own struggle," Gottlieb writes.
I hope to see more and better movies centered around Asian women (either fighting or not) and not specifically the men in action films. Lee's vision, to balance the beauty with the action, the females over the males, tragic endings and epic film-making, is completely inspired and calls back to decades older Wuxia novels and movies.
Crouching Tiger celebrates the women in the film more than the men, and does it convincingly within the scope of the martial arts action-adventure epic (which has been overwhelmed by male leads for the past few decades.) The "3 generations of female martial arts actresses" (Ziyi, Yeoh, and Cheng Pei-Pei as "Jade Fox") represented in "Tiger" are a testament to Lee's having re-balanced the martial arts movie. The women can be the focus of the film and can have significant character development, maybe even moreso than the men, to the benefit of the entire film. The restaurant scene alone cemented the fact with me (and the rest of the audience who were cheering with Jen) that Zhang Ziyi can be the successor to Yeoh if she wants to be.
Critics keep on making references between action choreographer Yuen Wo Ping and his work on "The Matrix." While those 10 minutes of "bullettime" were certainly memorable and important to the movie, Yuen has been directing martial arts movies since 1978 and has worked with ALL of the stars of Hong Kong cinema including directing Jackie Chan (see his brilliant performance in "Drunken Master"), Jet Li ("Last Hero in China", "Tai Chi Master" and "Fist of Legend"), Michelle Yeoh (in "Tai Chi Master"), Sammo Hung ("The Magnificent Butcher" and "Eastern Condors") and new superstar Donnie Yen (in "Iron Monkeys.") Much credit is due to John Woo and his brand of HK action cinema, but Yuen deserves as much if not more due to the quality and quantity of the movies he has directed or choreographed. I hope that "Crouching..." will bring Yuen Wo Ping the credit in the West that he deserves.
The new female lead playing opposite Yeoh, Zhang Ziyi, is a complete revelation. I was stunned by her beauty and her movements. There were too many amazing fight sequences to pick out a favorite, but the sequence between Shu Lien (Yeoh) and Jen (Ziyi) was so inspiring. There was one image from that fight sequence shot from above as the two actresses were twirling like tops- it was like two disks of blurs spinning right next to each other with the odd fist and foot striking out from time to time.
Another scene I was mesmerized by was the fight in the restaurant when Jen totally kicks everyone's butt all over the place. There was one part of that scene which was reminiscent of "The Killer" where the Chow Yun Fat character is walking through an apartment killing people with his twin pistols. The cinematography was similar enough that I was reminded of the similarity of the scenes.
I'd like to make sure that readers understand that Ang Lee went to great lengths to separate the Wudan martial arts in this movie from the more popular Shaolin style that has been popularized by Hong Kong cinema in the past few decades. The scene where Bo, the guardsman of Sir Te, is immobilized by Jade Fox and then released from immobilization by Li Mu Bai by hits on acupuncture points is specific to the Wudan school of martial arts and is done to disrupt the flow of "chi" within the body. Also, the wire-work flying in the movie was not just fantasy. Wudan practitioners of Tai Chi were said to attain levels where one could fall from great heights and land safely as a cat as well as jump much farther and higher than non-enlightened people. Even the choice of the poisoned needle as the vehicle for Li Mu Bai's demise was chosen because it was a common weapon in the Wudan arsenal. Many people describe Shaolin as the "outer" fighting (thus more flamboyant and better for movies), and Wudan as the "inner" fighting where the challenge is to control your own body and emotions and chi.
A few professional critics were sorry to see the unfulfilled love between Li and Shu Lien. Due to the” Giang Hu” (the parallel underground society of thieves and knights) and their “Wuxia” (martial chivalry) lifestyle, Shu Lien and Li could not have had a fulfilled love. In the West we come to expect that from our leading characters but I believe that Ang Lee's portrayal was much more accurate. For Shu Lien and Li, their choices to become warriors meant that they couldn't have been lovers. That's why Li's decision to end his Wudan lifestyle was so important; it signalled the fact that he wanted to fulfill his love for Shu Lien. In fact his love for her was so strong he couldn't attain the highest levels at Wudan because his feelings for her got in the way. In many ways, the portrayal of the love between Shu Lien and Li Mu Bai was more powerful than the "kidnapping" fantasy between Lo and Jen due to the fact that they loved each other privately within the bounds of their duties as warriors and their status.
Because I went to see the movie twice in it's opening weekend in New York City (packed houses both nights) I overheard many people gushing enthusiastically over the film afterwards. Many people were questioning the suicide of Jen at the end of the film- why she had to die. I believe that Jen knew that to honor Shu Lien and the promise Jen made to her, she had to kill herself because she set in motion (with the first theft of the sword) the events which led to Li Mu Bai's untimely death. It was her duty to close the circle of death that surrounded the Green Destiny.
If you love this film as I do, you owe it to yourself to see it in the theaters more than once. When you see it the second time through, you can appreciate so much more of the cinematography and other nuances because you don't have to concentrate as much on the subtitles.
Finally, unless you read Chinese, the title has to be explained. The title came from the Wang Du Lu novel that was adapted by Lee and Schamus. Jen's name has the word Dragon in it as she hid her abilities to the world. Lo is the Tiger, as he is young and rash and wild.
PLEASE TAKE A MOMENT TO RATE MY REVIEW and write me a comment too - thanks!
Known for making films about familial relationships director Ang Lee surprised everyone with his martial arts epic CROUCHING TIGER HIDDEN DRAGON. Base...More at Family Video
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