Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon (2000)

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)
Chinese Title: 臥虎藏龍
Translation: Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon

Starring: Michelle Yeoh, Chow Yun-Fat, Zhang Ziyi, Chang Chen, Cheng Pei-Pei, Lung Hsiung, Gao Xi-An, Li Fa-Zheng
Director: Ang Lee
Action Director: Yuen Woo-Ping

 

It goes without saying that the phenomenal success of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was indeed just that: a phenomenon. The film raked in more than 213 million dollars worldwide on a modest budget (by Hollywood standards) of 17 million dollars. In the United States alone, it made over 120 million dollars in box office receipts, making it the most successful foreign film in the USA of all time right up to the present day. It was the first exposure to Chinese wuxia cinema that many Western viewers had, and an excellent counterpoint to the notion some of them might have had that all martial arts films were badly-plotted, questionably-acted affairs starring the likes of Steven Seagal, Chuck Norris and Jean-Claude Van Damme (not to mention their straight-to-video counterparts).
               The film was a critical darling, currently boasting a 98% Critics Approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, not to mention four Oscar wins (including Best Foreign Film) and another six nominations (including Best Director and Best Picture). The movie ended up winning over a hundred awards in numerous artistic and technical categories, plus 130 more nominations. The film inspired a slew of arthouse martial arts films—or “martial arthouse” films, as some have said--from other critically-acclaimed directors, like Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige, at least one of which will be dealt with in this book.
               Just to hammer home how much of a hit this was with critics, let’s go back to 2001 and see what people said. Of the action, Garth Franklin of the movie News site Dark Horizons said:

Now we come to the action and all I can say is HOLY COW. There’ll be lots of comparisons to The Matrix as it had fast kung fu and opponents able to do tall leaps on occasion, but [Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon] goes far beyond it. For starters throughout the scenes each opponent defies gravity pretty much every second, whether it be leaping from rooftop to rooftop on one jump or flying down the faces of hundreds of metre high waterfalls. Because its a fable, the gravity-defying spins and leaps actually fit with the story and give it a magical tone...Then there’s the fighting itself which is intense – easily 2-3 times faster than The Matrix and it flows far more naturally (you believe the moves are spontaneous whereas a lot of Keanu’s tricks felt rehearsed). Combined with a variety of weapons and you get some really good scenes – the highlights being the big rooftop chase scene between a thief and Yeoh (the first action sequence of the movie), and a REALLY intense fight between Zi-Yi and Yeoh in a training shrine about 2/3 of the way in. That last scene is about ten minutes long, extremely fast and is arguably one of the most brutal one-on-ones caught on film.

               And the technical aspects, William Gallagher of the BBC summed it up when he said:

You may never see a more beautiful movie - and certainly no more majestic film has yet been made. In a bizarre way it's reminiscent of Woody Allen's Manhattan, where the visuals are so striking as to flood your mind...It's impossible to forget, either, and you will find yourself weeks later dwelling on individual shots with the intensity you might pay to a painting.

               And finally, of the acting, Laura Clifford of Reeling Reviews said:

Chow [Yun-Fat] brings a maturity and dignity to his role as a Wudan master that reminds me of John Steed in the old "Avenger" TV series. When Li does battle with the athletic Jen, his movement is minimal and his physical control total. ...Otherwise, the performer provides a quiet, strong character that garners respect from all. Michelle Yeoh does a wonderful, understated job of portraying the intelligent, capable Yu Shu Lien. There is real pain in her face as she explains to the young Jen that independence has its price - a life full of loneliness. Yeoh is intriguing to watch in her action work, but she also garners sympathy with her sad acceptance of the cost of her independence. Zhang Ziyi, as Jen, steals the show with her beauty, grace and physical ability. I was struck, the first time seeing the young actress appears on the screen, with her resemblance to the great Chinese actress Gong Li. That is, until I found out that Zhang is also the discovery of premier Chinese director Zhang Yimou, just like Gong Li. Zhang has such presence on the screen that she stands toe-to-toe with her more seasoned costars.

               And yet, for all the success that the film enjoyed, one gets the feeling that it part of the reason was the time that it came out. By the final months of 2000, when it came to American theaters, The Matrix was still on a lot of people’s minds, with its techno-babble explanations for why martial arts fighters could break the laws of physics and insane visuals. Moreover, mainstream American audiences had been given a steady diet of Hong Kong action cinema: we’d already had four years of Jackie Chan’s Hong Kong output being released to American theaters, Jet Li had gotten his Hollywood introduction in the successful Lethal Weapon 4 and his Hong Kong output was starting to get local release, and both actors were finding some success on their Hollywood projects. Other successful films like Mortal Kombat (1995) and Blade (1998) very clearly were influenced by Hong Kong cinema in their action sequences as well.
               At the same time, the success of Roberto Benigni’s Life is Beautiful at the American box office meant that a foreign film could appeal to larger audience if it was both entertaining and marketed well enough. I also feel that the dearth of quality period fantasy films produced by Hollywood during the 1990s—where the most notable example was probably Dragonheart (1997)—meant that American audiences were ready for a great movie to take them to another “fairy tale” world filled with wonder, danger and bone-crunching action. After all, it was still a year before the Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings franchises hit the theaters.
               All this brings us back to the question: If all the stars were in the right place for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon to be a monumental success, how might the film had turned out had the source material been adapted by other hands during other periods? To do so, we will look at it had it been adapted by another director some two decades prior:

 

(Not quite what I'm reviewing, but ok)

The Gallant Sword of Wu Tang (1982)
Director: Chang Cheh
Writer: Ni Kuang, Chang Cheh
Producer: Runme Shaw, Mona Fong
Action Director(s): Kuo Chi, Lu Feng
Cast: Ti Lung, Kuo Chi, Kara Hui Ying-Hung, Candy Wen, Lu Feng, Lily Li Li-Li, Lo Meng, Chiang Sheng, Sun Chien, Johnny Wang Lung-Wei, Chu Tit-Woh

Synopsis: Wu Tang swordsman Li Mu-Bai (Ti Lung) has decided to retire from the wandering swordsman business and settle down with his love, Yu Shu Lien (Kara Hui Ying-Hung), who runs a security escort company. He accompanies Shu Lien to the capital deliver his infamous Green Destiny sword to an old friend in the Martial World, Sir Te (Johnny Wang Lung-Wei, in a brief non-fighting cameo). During the visit, Sir Te receives a visit from Governor Yu (Chu Tit-Woh) and his daughter, Jen (Candy Wen). Jen is enamored with both the sword and Li Mu Bai’s reputation as a swordsman, which she expresses would be better than marrying into the Goh Family. She steals the sword one evening and is confronted by Shu Lien, who bests her in combat, but is distracted by the arrival of another fighter—a Mongolian bandit named Lo (Kuo Chi).

Shu Lien suspects that Jen stole the sword, even though the thief was wearing a mask during the theft. While Li Mu Bai is visiting the governor’s estate, he notices that Jen’s lady-in-waiting is none other than the Jade Fox (Lily Li Li-Li), who murdered his master years before. He returns to the estate in the evening and challenges Jade Fox to a duel and comes to close to killing her, only for her to be rescued by a disguised Jen, who fights Li off with a special Wu Tang technique.

Later on, Jen returns the sword and is confronted by Li Mu Bai, who challenges her and defeats her. She agrees to abandon any hope of a life in the Martial World and marry Goh (played by Lu Feng).  Lo, who had known Jen when her father had presided over a province in the West, shows up and tries to convince her to run off with him. She refuses and sends him away. The next day, Lo crashes the wedding party and fights with Goh’s servants before being rescued by Li Mu-Bai and Yu Shu Lien. Li Mu-Bai takes Lo to the Wu Tang Monastery, where he teaches him swordsmanship and the Wu Tang style. At the same time, Jen flees from her wedding chamber, steals the Green Destiny a second time, and disappears. Jade Fox appears to Goh and offers to bring Jen back for him. She rounds up dozens of fighters from the Martial World and starts looking for Jen, who has gone into hiding at Shu Lien’s Security Company.

When Shu Lien discovers that Jen has the Green Destiny, she challenges Jen to a duel. The duel is interrupted by the arrival of the Jade Fox and her fighters, and Jen flees into a bamboo forest. She meets up with Li Mu-Bai and Lo, and they all team up with Shu Lien and her employees to fight Jade Fox, her cohorts, Goh and a contingent of Qing soldiers.

Comments: After working on numerous adaptations of wuxia novels from popular author Jin Yong, Chang Cheh turned to the works of Wang Dulu, more specifically the fourth novel in his famous “Crane-Iron” quintet. As Chang Cheh was still in his so-called “Venom Mob” cycle at this time, the main cast of The Five Deadly Venoms shows up for supporting roles, with genre powerhouse Ti Lung in the lead role. The result is one of Chang Cheh’s better late-period wuxia films, easily standing up to the likes of Sword Stained with Royal Blood and Legend of the Fox.

As would be expected when a large wuxia novel, there a lot of characters to follow, most of whom are introduced in the first 30 minutes of the film. Ti Lung leads the film as Wu Tang swordsman Li Mu-Bai, the sort of world-weary role he could do in his sleep by this point. Despite his desire to settle down with Yu Shu Lien, both Ti and co-star Kara Hui have precious few moments together. While Ti Lung can do romance when need be, his character mainly converses with the (supposed) woman he loves about the events of the story, only smiling and showing any real joy when sharing the screen with Kuo Chi, especially during their prolonged training sequence. Kara Kui Ying-Hung, a great action actress in her own right, is given little to do but look disdainfully at Jen from a distance and occasionally show off her martial prowess.

If you’ve seen other Chang Cheh films like Two Champions of Shaolin and Sword Stained with Royal Blood, you’ll know what to expect from Candy Wen: not so naïve as just childish and bitchy. In other words, most viewers will ask themselves what Lo ever saw in Jen, or why she’s allowed to live as long as she does. For Kuo Chi’s Lo to love Jen, he must have an unending supply of patience. Speaking of whom, Kuo Chi’s portrayal of the lovelorn Lo is more playful than romantic—he’d enjoy having her around as a companion than making love to her.

The other characters do a decent job with their roles, while excelling in the film’s numerous fight scenes. The exception is Lu Feng, who gives a strong performance as Goh, Jen’s betrothed. Those two don’t have many scenes together, but one gets the feeling that Goh likes the idea of having a young and attractive wife more than he likes Jen herself. Judging from his interactions with Li Mu-Bai and Lo later on, it’s easy to imagine them spending their time practicing kung fu together and Goh using Jen as an outlet for his extra energy, rather than anything resembling a romantic relationship.

Thankfully, the story itself is fairly easy to follow and is bereft of the usual surfeit of broken alliances, double-crosses and sudden introductions of new and integral characters that usually define these films. As expected, certain liberties are taken with the source material in the interest of the film’s running time, and I suspect that Chang Cheh also suggested changes in the script in order to meet his minimum requirement of male bonding sequences. The latter is especially obvious during the prolonged training sequence that takes up much of the second act, where Ti Lung’s Li Mu-Bai  teaches a curiously shirtless Kuo Chi the secrets of Wu Tang kung fu. One wonders why Li Mu-Bai  has forgotten about getting revenge against the Jade Fox at this point, but far be it from Chang Cheh to pass up a chance to have the male actors performing kung fu together while soaked in their own sweat.

It all comes to a head in the finale, however, when all the parties meet up in a bamboo forest for a typical bloodsoaked Chang Cheh kung fu free-for-all, with action directors Kuo Chi and Lu Feng pulling out all the stops. Cheh paints a gory tapestry of white—the color of the characters’ clothing, green—the bamboo, and red during this 15-minute frenzy of exotic weapons and red paint. Chiang Sheng and Sun Chien, who had been little more than background characters up to this point, step up to the plate as members of Shu Lien’s company, the former wielding a pair of Chinese maces and the latter letting loose his trademark kicks. Lo Meng, who plays Bo, Shu Lien’s assistant, has been a comic relief character up to this point, also gets in on the action, showing off his prowess with the three-pronged fork. Kara Hui shows up armed with butterfly swords, while Ti Lung and Candy Wen use more traditional straight swords, while Kuo Chi inexplicably shows up armed with circular sun-moon blades—why he is using them if his character was training with a regular sword?

The villains are bring a lot of color to the final showdown. Lu Feng, who plays Jen’s fiancé/husband Goh, once more shows us that he’s the master of pole-arms. This time, instead of a kwan do or a spear, he uses what is known in some circles as the “seven star long-handled knife,” but in others as the tridente-halberd. Lily Li, playing the villain, complete with a white wig, uses a walking stick with a retractable spear blade in it. The Jade Fox’s fighters, played by a number of familiar faces from other Chang Cheh films, use equally-colorful weapons like the melon hammer, bladed tonfa, hook swords, a monk’s staff and the two-section staff, among the more traditional spears and broadswords for the soldiers. As expected for a Chang Cheh film, nearly all of the cast is dead by the very end.

While the finale is easily the best and most varied fight of the film, many viewers may walk away talking about the massacre at the inn. After Jen flees from her new husband, the Jade Fox and her men show up at an inn where Lo’s men are staying. Thinking that Jen fled to be with her lover, the Jade Fox questions the men as to their leader’s whereabouts. When they refuse to tell her, a fight breaks out. The level of carnage on display rivals the finale to Boxer from Shangtung, as tables, chairs, bannisters and staircases are broken as the two groups of fighters battle it out. By the end, the entire band of Mongolians has been slaughtered, with gallons of red paint splattered all over the inn and stunt doubles’ bodies.

The movie ends on as somber a note as any Chang Cheh film: as the surviving characters survey the carnage before them, one of them points out that there is no such thing as “glory” or “greatness” in the Martial World. Those who are left alive part ways, leaving the camera to focus on the dozens of bloodied, mutilated bodies strewn about. For all the dramatic missteps the film makes along the way, that ending will probably stick with you for days.