Review of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) by Manny C — 12 Jan 2011

In the final scene of Ang Lee's artistic triumph of a movie that is Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, one of the major characters makes a literal leap of faith by diving off of a mountain and into thin air. That scene is an apt metaphor for how you should approach this amazing film. Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is a heartfelt fable and displays the kind of film making that was seldom seen in the last decade. Lee, the Taiwanese-born director who has shown his versatile prowess in movies as varied as Sense and Sensibility and The Ice Storm, employs literally breathtaking storytelling, romance and martial arts inventiveness in one thrilling package. Taken from a novel by Wang Du Lu, and adapted by James Schamus, Wang Hui Ling and Taiwan film critic Tsai Kuo Jung the film is set in 19th century China, and Lee shoots on location in Beijing and The Gobi Desert, and makes movies come thrillingly alive again.

Ironically the movie begins with no action, just the action of roiling emotions etched on the faces of two lovers who have long kept their feelings for one another at bay. There's noble warrior Li Mu Bai (played with brilliance by Chow Yun-Fat, and then there's the machete-wielding Yu Shu Lien (the dazzling Michele Yeoh). Li is hanging up his sword, his 400-year-old blade known as Green Destiny, because it has not bred peace, only violence and sorrow. Both Yun-fat and Yeoh are terrific together, bringing a tenderness and intimacy to a relationship that has been delayed by a strict sense of honor. Shu Lien was once engaged to another man, Mu Bai's oath brother, who perished while saving her in battle.

That sets the stage. Chow Yun-fat comes up against three remarkable women. The Malaysian-born Yeoh is a force of nature, radiating grace, beauty and uncompromising strength. Then there's the beautiful Zhang Ziyi as Jen, the teenage daughter of a governor, who Shu Lien suspects of having stolen the Green Destiny. The two were once friends since Jen envies Shu Lien's life as a fighter. Ziyi is an explosion of force onscreen, a marvelous feat for someone who was only nineteen at the time of filming.

After Jen takes the Green Destiny, Shu Lien is chasing her all over Beijing's moonlit rooftops, shot spectacularly by Peter Pau, and set to Tan Dun's propulsive score. To see Jen climbing walls and leaping between buildings is to witness gravity defied, and Shu Lien follows with the same balletic ease, all choreographed masterfully by Matrix master Yuen Wo-Ping.

Then Jen goes sword to sword with Mu Bai himself, Green Destiny in her hand. 'The sword is just a state of mind' he tells her. 'Stop talking like a monk' she fires back. The deadly battle that ensues is even joined by police and Jen's governess (revealed to be Jade Fox, played by 1960's kung-fu film legend Cheng Pei-pei). Cheng, the third of the film's excellent trio of actresses, digs into her role with relish.

And overseeing it all is Lee himself. What makes this one of Lee's most remarkable films is his boldness and willingness to take chances, like when he dares to cut to a long flashback revealing how Jen, traveling alone in the desert, met Lo, a young bandit who schools her in the ways of love and tells her the tale of a boy who jumped from a mountain because he believed that a heart full of faith can make a wish come true. It's the same Lo who shows up before she's to marry, begging her to leave with him. Instead Jen ends up with the Green Destiny, battling Mu Bai in a bamboo forest, on branches that stand seventy feet off the ground. Movies don't get much more visually stunning.

The film climaxes in a cave where the various players settle scores, amidst a deadly array of Jade Fox's poison needles. But what really cuts deep is the combustible relationship between Mu Bai and Shu Lien, in their moments of emotional crisis. Both dig to astonishing depths, but it's Yeoh who leaves the most lasting impact. Hers is a role she beautifully instills with heart, passion and power, one that ranks up with Sigourney Weaver in Aliens and Uma Thurman in Kill Bill. In all, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is simply the best-acted martial arts film ever. Ten years later, it still soars.