There’s never a wrong time to revisit a classic movie, and the theatrical re-release of Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon offers the perfect opportunity to enjoy this spectacular and ground-breaking film once again. There’s much to admire in Crouching Tiger, but #1 on my list is its sheer exuberance and willingness to go big, over and over and over again. It’s a wuxia film given an upgrade thanks to Hollywood technology and an all-star cast, and the result feels as fresh as it did upon its first release in 2000. It’s also one of those films that begs to be seen on the big screen, and that’s not an opportunity that comes around every day.
The story, adopted from a 1940s serialized novel by Wang Dulu, is officially set in 19th century China. The real truth is that it takes place in a time and place as mythical as, say, the American West of John Ford or the between-the-wars English countryside so beloved of Agatha Christie. It also takes place in a land where the laws of physics can be suspended at will, which certainly adds an extra dimension to the many fight scenes, but also drops a clue about how to watch it. This is a movie not about naturalism but about heightened reality, and to really enjoy it you must be willing to enter into its world instead of expecting it to conform to yours.
There’s a lot of plot in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, just as there’s a lot of characters and costumes and scenery and love stories and treachery and fighting—let’s just say it’s a product of the maximalist approach to movie-making. As the film opens, Li Mu Bai (Chow Yun Fat) has decided to give up his fighting ways, so he asks his friend (who seems like she might be more than a friend) and fellow warrior Yu Shu Lien (Michelle Yeoh) to take his sword to an old friend, Sir Te (Lung Sihung). Of course, like all great swords, it has a name—Green Destiny.
Visiting Sir Te is Jen (Zhang Ziyi), a young woman of royal blood who would rather be a warrior than a wife, and soon gets to show her fighting skills. Then Green Destiny is stolen by a ninja-like thief, and Yu and Li set off to track it down. A mysterious character named Jade Fox (Cheng Pei Pei) is part of the story, and Jen adds in her own complication by falling for a “barbarian” warrior named Lo Xiao Hou (Chang Chen). His people ride horses and live in yurts, and his skin is notably browner than hers, so you can probably guess which ethnic group he’s meant to represent.
Crouching Tiger was well-received by both critics and audiences. It grossed over $213 million, including $128 million in the U.S. alone, making it the first foreign-language to break the $100 million mark here. Not bad on a $17 million budget. It was nominated for 10 Academy Awards, winning four: Best Foreign Language Film, Best Art Direction (Tim Yip), Best Original Score (Tan Dun), and Best Cinematography (Peter Pau). It also scooped up four BAFTAs and paved the way for more wuxia films to be marketed to Western audiences. So far so good, but I hope that upon this revival we can appreciate some of the aspects that seemed to have escaped the Academy’s notice the first time around—in particular the performances of the actors, who did not get a single Oscar nomination. #OscarsSoWhite isn’t just about the relative exclusion of African Americans, after all—talent exists in all racial and ethnic groups, and it’s past due for the Academy to recognize that. | Sarah Boslaugh
