Film: Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon
Release date: 18th June 2001
Certificate: 12
Running time: 115 mins
Director: Ang Lee
Starring: Chow Yun-fat, Michelle Yeoh, Ziyi Zhang, Chen Chang, Sihung Lung
Genre: Action/Adventure/Drama/Fantasy/Martial Arts/Romance
Studio: Sony
Format: DVD
Country: Taiwan/Hong Kong/USA/China
Winner of four Oscars, including Best Foreign Language Film, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon has taken its place as an iconic piece of martial arts cinema. The film follows three central characters as they battle over the right to possess a sacred sword and prove themselves in the eyes of their superiors. To do so, each must search for a deeper understanding of themselves and their desires.
The movie begins with Master Li Mu Bai (Chow Yun-fat) relinquishing his sword, the Green Destiny, to his old friend Yu Shu Lien, so that she can pass it on as a gift to Sir Te (Sihung Lung).
In Bejing, Lien meets a fellow guest of Sir Te’s, a young and beautiful girl named Jen (Ziyi Zhang) who is desperate for an escape from her regimented aristocratic lifestyle.
When the Green Destiny is stolen by a highly skilled mystery attacker, Lien becomes determined to reclaim the sword and regain her honour. However, she begins to suspect that Jen is not all she appears to be.
From here, the film moves through a number of interconnecting subplots, involving Jen’s romance with a rugged horseman from the plains, Lien’s growing realisation of her feelings for Li Mu Bai, and Bai’s own desire to avenge his master’s death at the hands of the allusive assassin, Jade Fox. Through numerous action scenes, we see the Green Destiny changing hands as each character must confront their own doubts, fears and failures in order to prove themselves worthy to possess the sacred weapon…
Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon promises much and delivers on a number of levels. The performances by the three leads are excellent, especially Ziyi Zhang who portrays Jen with a perfect mix of naïve excitement and growing maturity. Her impressive performance lends the character believability that keeps the fantastical elements of the film grounded in emotional depth. Her energy is perfectly balanced by the strong, commanding presence of Michelle Yeoh, whose air of dignity and reserve make the scenes between the two the best in the film. Yeoh brilliantly captures her character’s restraint and humility when in the presence of Yun-Fat. The latter is superb while on screen, being wise and powerful but maintaining a fragility that makes his character interesting. He is, however, sadly underused.
The Oscar-winning cinematography is awe-inspiring. The sets, ranging from mansions to city streets and taverns, are wonderfully incorporated into the landscape. It is the sequences in the desert and mountains, however, which are truly breathtaking. They are perfectly complemented by Tan Dun’s score, which encapsulates the epic grandeur of the scenery and likewise received an Academy Award. The design of the film, including its props and costumes, create a convincing vision of the historical world in which the action unfolds, and the attention to detail and majesty of visual ambition is carried through to the movie’s numerous action sequences.
One of the major pioneers of wire-work martial arts – perhaps best seen in western films in The Matrix trilogy – the film’s fight scenes unfold like beautifully choreographed ballets. The combatants float and leap between rooftops and trees, performing mind-blowing flips and summersaults, mixing fantasy and poetry as they fight. However, while at first the sequences are thrilling and mesmerising, the film resorts to action too often, and by the finale, they have lost some of the wonder they first evoked. Furthermore, the graceful movements mean the fights rarely reflect a sense of danger or pain that makes action sequences thrilling, but Tan Dun’s rhythmic, percussion heavy score elevates, and saves, many of the sequences by creating tension and excitement.
The film’s major issue is its tone. Ang Lee’s direction is generally impressive, but it, along with the script, seems to fluctuate between different moods, sometimes uneasily. At times, the film is an emotive romance, superbly coupled to a contemplative, philosophical meditation on duty and desire. However, in some scenes (such as Jen’s tavern brawl) the film suddenly shifts into slapstick comedy with weak jokes and on into a fantasy-western. Sometimes these digressions are lengthy, and while excellent in their own right, they mean the film loses momentum. When the finale comes, therefore, it feels disappointingly underwhelming. The lack of focus on a single protagonist – something which has worked in some films – is not entirely successful here, and contributes to the film appearing slightly muddled and ambiguous.
A visual triumph with compelling performances, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon has much to be admired. While it does not move easily between differing emotions or genres, there is nonetheless something for everyone in the film’s beauty, action and emotion. Not quite the masterpiece many credit it with being, it remains a curious watch which, at times, is richly rewarding. CD
