The Movies That Moved Me: Ang Lee’s CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON
I can’t remember when, at any point in time before 2000, that I last been to a movie theater for a foreign language film. I don’t think it ever happened, at least until Ang Lee’s 2000 wuxia pian adventure, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, rose to glory in the wake of the mid-90s Hong Kong crossover to the West.
I forget which theater I saw it at, but I remember the mark it left on me, for the stylish action and splendor, and of its casting of Chow Yun Fat and Michelle Yeoh, and actress Zhang Ziyi in one of her earliest roles at the time. Adapted from Wang Dulu’s Iron-Crane series of novels, Ziyi plays Jiaolong, the daughter of a rich governor, whose own secrets are uncovered in the dark of night when she sets out to steal a prized sword, handed to its benefactor from retired legendary swordsman, Li Mu Bai.
The incident gives chase to an emotionally gripping, psychological profile of a woman contending with patriarchy in the martial world, while yet to face her own unsettled past involving a rogue bandit she falls in love with. It all comes to a head when Jiaolong and Li’s martial sister and unrequited beloved, Mu Shu Lien, square off in an epic battle for the sword that preludes a climatic finish unmasking an enemy even deadlier than the sword itself.
Ang Lee’s sweeping vision, coupled with the screenplay, as well as Tan Dun’s crackling score and Yuen Woo-Ping’s masterful action direction mark one of the biggest milestones for martial arts action cinema for the last thirty years. It helps that Yuen’s pivotal work on the Wachowskis’ The Matrix played an intergral role in the film’s marketing, coinciding with the film’s appeal to kung fu fans in the West, and around the world, and for this, the film has eked in a place for itself as productive of one of the best wuxia fight scenes ever filmed of the genre.
To add, I wish I could say the same for its sequel, although with a new series in the works over at Prime Video over at Amazon from a different perspective, this could change. Who knows?
As for Lee’s award-winning epic from Sony Pictures Classics, I honestly hope I get to re-live the magic on the big screen again someday. Otherwise, there’s always physical media which I’m grateful for.
