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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
True Legend is the extraordinary journey of a man, a martial arts hero, whose greatest dream is to create a unique school of martial arts.
All his life, Su Can has been pursuing the summit of martial arts. There are two things he holds dearest to his heart: the dream of creating a unique kind of martial art that will pass on to generations; and his beloved wife. Su has a happy family and his wife is the joy of his life. But owing to a twist of fate and his own stubbornness, Su’s perfect life begins to fall desperately apart.
On the surface, Su now appears as a crazy beggar getting drunk every day. He wanders from town to town, becoming a man without any purpose in the eyes of others. But all through his spiritual exile, his dream for the highest peak in martial arts is still alive. The harsh conditions of life have not dampened his determination to perfect his skills. He conjures up scenes where he combats the legendary God of Wushu, with whom he refines his skills and achieves a peace of mind.
Meanwhile, the Heilongjiang Province, where Su resides, falls under foreigners’ rule. One day a crisis happens that threatens the life of his young son – the only person Su still cares about, and his last remnant of human hope. At the critical moment, the flame of life is re-ignited in Su. He lets out the utmost strength that has lay dormant in him during his devastated time, and it becomes the strongest school of fists that the martial arts world has ever known.
Film: True Legend
Release date: 24th September 2010
Certificate: 15
Running time: 115 mins
Director: Yuen Woo-ping
Starring: Chiu Man-cheuk, Zhou Xun, Michelle Yeoh, Feng Xiaogang, Andy On
Genre: Action/Drama/History/Martial Arts
Studio: Optimum
Format: Cinema
Country: China
Film: Tai-Chi Master
Release date: 26th April 2010
Certificate: 18
Running time: 91 mins
Director: Yuen Woo-ping
Starring: Jet Li, Michelle Yeoh, Chin Siu-hou, Fennie Yuen, Yuen Cheung-Yan
Genre: Martial Arts/Comedy
Studio: Cine Asia
Format: DVD
Country: Hong Kong
Two of Asia’s more impressive acting let alone martial arts exports teaming up with a director whose credits include Jackie Chan’s Drunken Master and The Matrix surely couldn’t fail.
The orphaned Junbao (Jet Li) and Tianbao (Chin Siu-hou), who he befriended as a child, have grown up together as monks, getting themselves in many comical high jinks along the way. Whilst both are exceptionally talented martial artists, Junbao is far more carefree than the determined Tianbao who enters a competition for promotion within the Shaolin’s ranks.
Winning his final bout with ease, Tianbao grows enraged when his opponent cheats and tries to attack him with a concealed weapon. Despite being the innocent party, his subsequent actions are frowned upon, and when Junbao stands by his friend they are both expelled from the temple that has been their home for so many years.
Now on their own, the duo enter a poor village which is being terrorised by a corrupt governor and his army. The kind-hearted Junbao of course sides with the rebels who want to steal from the wrong doers and give back to the poor, whilst the ambitious Tianbao opts to join the military ranks, bringing the duo into direct conflict. You know the rest…
If there’s a familiarity to the synopsis, it’s understandable - the story has been recycled and adapted on countless occasions within this medium. Li’s character following his old master’s philosophies and training to do good, his close friend turning against those ideals out of greed to do bad - although the swift switch from competitive to cold-blooded and merciless tyrant is hardly given plausibility here. Still a familiar romp with unrealistic character shifts is not the be-all and end-all with a classic martial arts movie – it’s how well they deliver in the action stakes.
Unfortunately, that’s the film’s biggest failing. The fighting, no doubt impressive feats of physical endeavour, are overly excited; the speed and busyness rendering well executed moves unimpressive as you barely take in lightning speed feats amongst a plethora of bodies (Li taking on a whole army with a bamboo stick sounds a lot better on paper). It doesn’t help that the more impressive and better executed martial arts scenes are delivered early on, with Li and Chin turning their everyday chores into sparring bouts, and their expulsion from the Shaolin is not without first witnessing some fantastic pole assisted ass kicking, as the duo take on countless pupils (whose development has, of course, been dramatically impinged in comparison) within the temple’s confined space. However, whilst the film can never match yet surpass these early highlights, the lack of any bone-crunching impact coupled with the excessive and unrealistic use of wires (people are flown around the screen with minimal grace) does it no favours – even if augmenting the film’s intentional comedic aspect.
It’s not uncommon for Asian martial arts flicks to balance out the violence and forcefully delivered philosophical messages (Li also develops ridiculous ‘super powers’ through his understanding of Tai-Chi that eventually rebalances his mental state) with a deep running current of humour, but roping Jet Li in on the fun was a bad move. Massively miscast, the jokes fall flat, he looks visibly uneasy on screen, and it all adds to the mess. It doesn’t help that the filmmakers seem keen to make comment on some fairly serious subject matter – alcoholism, for one, mocked throughout.
Li is not only unable to display the intensity that’s made him a household name with both eastern and western audiences, he’s embarrassed. When the filmmakers decide to mock mental health problems (he goes insane after his old chum gives him a proper hiding), we have him stumbling around pretending to be a duck - it hits a real low point. This is not funny; it’s a dark subject matter that is made all the more depressing when delivered in such an unsubtle and dim-witted manner.
As mentioned, there is more than one actor here who has made their impression internationally, but Michelle Yeoh is woefully underused – and you have to question the merits for her inclusion in this story, given that her kidnap is swiftly remedied and is not used to crank up the tension or intensity as the film draws to a close. Thankfully, there is restraint, and no ill conceived romantic developments put the brakes on a film whose single credit is that it runs at a brisk enough pace to enjoy as mindless throwaway fodder – as you’ve just been privy, it’s not a good thing to think too hard about what you’ve witnessed.
Despite the pedigree of those involved, this is a disappointedly amateur offering, whose production was already dated by the time of its original release. You really will have to switch the lights off to enjoy the mayhem. DH
