Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon

This is another one of those films which I was looking forward to watching. This was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture in 2000, losing out to Gladiator, and was, for all accounts, fantastic. It’s completely in Chinese, and as a result it is not a light watch. The plot revolves around Li Mu Bai trying to recover his stolen sword from Jade Fox. He has the help of Yu Shu Lien (who is in love with him), who has to try and persuade Jen Yu to turn away from Jade Fox’s path of ‘bad’ and follow the ‘light’ of Li Mu Bai.

As Crouching Tiger was subtitled it made it a lot easier to follow, but you cannot turn your head away from the screen at all really, otherwise you miss a lot of the dialogue. Unless you speak Mandarin (which I studied in my first year of University, and now cannot remember), it is quite a tough film to follow. The plot is really good though, and it provides some intricate twists which keep you watching. There are several stories running throughout the film, and these are all very enjoyable. For example, forbidden love is a massive part of Crouching Tiger. Jen Yu has to wrestle with her arranged marriage despite being in love with another man, and Li Mu Bai and Yu Shen Lien have been in love for a long time, but were unable to express this for a variety of reasons.

The best part about Crouching Tiger though is, without a doubt, the fight scenes. As with many films, there is a massive build up to the ‘final showdown’ between the two good guys and the two bad guys. This sees Li Mu Bai blocking a large number of poisoned needles with his sword, which is just epic. However, more impressive is the scene where Jen Yu takes on near enough a whole building of fighters who all believe they can defeat her. This scene reminded me massively of the last scene in Kill Bill Vol. 1 (or more accurately, the scene in Kill Bill reminded me of this one). Also, the initial scene where Yu Shen Lien fights ‘the thief’ in order to gain back the sword is magnificent. The only thing that spoils most of the fight scenes for me is the graphics. Granted it was 2000 when the film was released, but the special effects of the characters jumping across rooftops and stuff is awful. In some cases I don’t think they even touch the roof before they jump. Now I know that the laws of physics are ever so slightly suspended in Crouching Tiger, but it would have been nice if the effects looked more realistic.

I thought that Jade Fox was an interesting character. To me she seemed to be portrayed as the archetypal ‘wicked witch’ as she looked a little bit older, a little bit more unkempt and a little bit more devious than any of the other characters. Naturally she is underhand, and displays none of the honour that Li Mu Bai possesses. Her use of poison is also very sneaky. Obviously this is the most shameful way to kill someone as they can’t face you or fight back, and Jade Fox is known to have repeatedly used this technique. Ironically enough it is poison eventually is her undoing. I thought though that her poisoning of Jen Yu was more interesting though. Jen lives a life where she is presented as the sweet innocent little girl, but has really been twisted by Jade Fox for most of her life. This is why she finds it so hard to commit to a life of learning under Li Mu Bai.

Having done some research for this blog (believe it or not, I do research these posts a bit) it seems that many people, particularly Chinese-speaking individuals, were annoyed about certain castings in this film. The fact that the four main actors speak with four different accents throughout the film, and are all from four different backgrounds, none of which include the Mandarin in which the film is spoken, is a bit of a problem. This is justified by Michelle Yeoh, who argues that her character comes from outside of the region and so didn't have to speak with the accent (Interview with Cinescape, 28/12/2000). However, if a film involving four Londoners was released in which the characters spoke with a Liverpudlian, Yorkshire, Birmingham and Newcastle accent then questions would be asked. After I researched this I thought that this was the main failing of the film, but seeing as I didn't pick up on it while watching it, it’s not that big a deal for me.

Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon was the first Chinese film to really ‘make it’. It has led to the rise of Chinese cinema, and as a result, other films have gained population, such as House of Flying Daggers. Any film that wins four, yes four, Academy Awards (Best Foreign Language Film, Best Art Direction, Best Original Score and Best Cinematography) cannot be ignored, and if you are going to watch any film from the Asian Cinema scene, this would have to be it I think.