Wuxia is a deliberate style of martial arts, Chinese fiction, and low fantasy that started out as historical fantasy literature before branching out into more diverse art forms such as Chinese opera, comics, TV dramas, films, animation, and even video games. It is an art form that forms part of the popular culture in many Chinese-speaking communities worldwide. It is considered a subgenre of martial arts movies but should not be confused with the genre in the strictest sense. Instead, it is its own thing, more closely tied to poetic dance than to martial arts.
Director Ang Lee was working from an adaptation of the novel Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, the fourth novel of five in the Crane Iron Pentalogy, serialized between March 1941 and March 1942. It had been adapted before on numerous occasions, including a Taiwanese television film adaptation from 1959, an unofficial 1967 Hong Kong film, and later a Taiwanese television series in 2001. But the most well-known version was Ang Lee’s film, released in early 2000. This version was immensely popular in the West, though it received a less enthusiastic response in mainland China, where it was looked at as inauthentic and trying too hard to cater to international audiences. Ang Lee’s attempts to introduce this art form, this genre, to American audiences alienated his film to a degree from many traditional Chinese audiences.
That did not stop Taiwan from entering the film as their official selection for the foreign language Academy Award, a nomination that it ultimately won. It also went on to be nominated for a further nine more Oscars, winning a total of four. This was a film that, for a while, became a must-watch movie. When I first came across it, it was on DVD and came with an English-language dub, though no one I knew wanted to watch it that way. Now, many years later, the only version I could find didn’t even offer the English version. That is for the best. Films like this need to be left with the original voices, the original acting, and subtitled for those who do not speak Mandarin. To watch it otherwise is just too distracting.
The film is set in 1778, the Qing dynasty, in China. Li Mu Bai (Chow Yun-fat) is a renowned Wudang swordsman, and his female friend Yu Shu Lien (Michelle Yeoh) heads a private security company. Though the two have long held romantic feelings for each other, Shu Lien had once been engaged to Mu Bai’s close friend, Meng Sizhao, before his death. Out of respect and loyalty for Sizhao, neither has revealed their feelings for each other.
As the film begins, Mu Bai is choosing to retire from his life of swordsmanship and asks Shu Lien to give his fabled 400-year-old jian sword “Green Destiny” to their benefactor Sir Te (Lang Sihung) in Beijing. Shortly afterwards, though, a thief steals the sword in the night and escapes, despite facing off against many, including Shu Lien, herself. The thief is traced to Governor Yu’s compound where the renowned villain Jade Fox has been posing as a governess to Yu Jiaolong “Jen” (Zhang Ziyi), the governor’s daughter who is preparing for an unwanted arranged marriage.
Soon Shu Lien figures out that the thief is actually Jen, who has taught herself in the art of Wudang, though she is undisciplined, yet very skilled. Jade Fox has also taught herself Wudang, though her skills are far inferior, and Jen has kept the deeper meaning of the art from her. Jen stole the sword for fun, not thinking about the consequences, and eventually returns it. Then she steals it again after her wedding, before it can be consummated. Around this time, it is revealed that she loves another, a bandit named Lo “Dark Cloud” Xiao Hou (Chang Chen), whom she met while traveling with her family in the desert. She pursued him when he stole something from her, and the two eventually fell in love. He returns before her wedding to convince her to run away with him, but she refused to leave with him.
What most people remember about this movie is the fantastical fighting elements, highly stylized sequences that make heavy use of wire work to allow the actors to literally float in the air as they move about the architecture or the open trees in pursuit of each other. This is, of course, the fantasy element of Wuxia martial arts, coming off the heavily Wuxia-inspired 1999 smash hit The Matrix. These moments are impressive and beautiful to watch, but they are just a small part of the overall picture. Those who only know this movie from clips of these fight sequences may be surprised at how little of it there really is.
Disney’s Mulan animated film brought to American audiences the idea that Chinese women were very limited in what they could do with their lives, not sharing in the freedoms the men held at the time. Just a couple of years later, we are seeing the same themes being put on display in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Jade Fox has become bitter and murderous because, as a woman, she was fit to be bedded but not to be taught the art of Wudang. She uses poison to kill Meng Sizhao and intends the same for Li Mu Bai. Poison, in this culture, is considered a coward’s weapon, one of dishonor. It is fitting, then, when Jade Fox makes her final attack on Li Mu Bai that he turns her own poisonous weapon back on her.
This film, at its heart, is a love story about people being kept from their love by tradition and the limitations their culture places on gender roles. Shu Lien and Li Mu Bai cannot be together, cannot even express their feelings because, even though Shu Lien never married Meng Sizhao, they were to be married, and his death is treated like she were his widow. Likewise, Jen doesn’t want to be married to the man her father has chosen for her; she would rather be free and with Dark Cloud, but that is not an option for her in this society. Though she goes through with the wedding ceremony, she flees shortly thereafter, ignoring the consequences of her actions. Eventually, she is reunited with Dark Cloud, where they spend a final night of passion together before she makes a drastic, perhaps fatal, decision.
That decision she makes in the final moments of the film is up for interpretation. During the flashback sequence where she and Dark Cloud first meet, he tells her of the legend of a man who jumped off a mountain to make his wishes come true. Because the man’s heart was pure, his wish was granted, and he was unharmed but flew away never to be seen again. Jen recalls this story before making her own wish and jumping off a mountain. The film ends with her floating down into the clouds, perhaps to her death. Yuen Wo-ping, the action choreographer who went on to direct a sequel sixteen years later, wanted Zhang Ziyi to return as Jen for that film, but she turned down the offer out of loyalty to Ang Lee. Clearly, it was considered that she hadn’t died as a result of this jump.
This film is nearly thirty years old as of this writing. As such, not all of the digital trickery is as seamless as it once was. Still, the vast majority of the film was shot practically with just digital wire removal employed to hide the truth. It is a gorgeous film to look at, taking the beautiful scenery of China and bringing it to life. Adding to that beauty is the Oscar-winning score by Tan Dun, who reportedly only had a few short weeks to compose and record the entire thing. He would go on to defeat Hans Zimmer, Ennio Morricone, Rachel Portman, and John Williams, all heavy hitters. This was a stacked year for beautiful orchestral music, but Tan Dun’s cello-heavy score earned its spot as the winner and still holds up to this date.
Those expecting an action-packed martial arts movie will be disappointed. This is more akin to ballet than to something Jet Li, Bruce Lee, or Jackie Chan might make. It’s poetic, romantic, and thought-provoking. It’s also a very beautiful, if somewhat simplistic, story about the world women lived in during those times. Ang Lee has crafted a masterpiece in stylized martial arts entertainment that lives on as one of the best of its type. Unfortunately, a sequel was made, as I mentioned above, that tarnished things quite a bit. That film, based on the final book in the Crane Iron Pentalogy, was a made-for-streaming film that is inferior in every way. It’s best to forget that was ever made and keep Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon a solo effort. Better yet, seek out the five books in the series and read them instead.
Academy Award Nominations:
Best Picture: Bill Kong, Hsu Li-kong, and Ang Lee
Best Director: Ang Lee
Best Adapted Screenplay: Wang Hui-ling, James Schamus, and Tsai Kuo-jung
Best Foreign Language Film: Taiwan (won)
Best Art Direction: Tim Yip (won)
Best Cinematography: Perer Pau (won)
Best Costume Design: Tim Yip
Best Film Editing: Tim Squyres
Best Original Score: Tan Dun (won)
Best Original Song: “A Love Before Time” by Jorge Calandrelli, Tan Dun, and James Schamus
____________________________________________________
Release Date: December 8, 2000
Running Time: 120 Minutes
Rated PG-13
Starring: Chow Yun-fat, Michelle Yeoh, Zhang Ziyi, Chang Chen, Lang Sihung, and Cheng Pei-pei
Directed by: Ang Lee
Comments
Post a Comment