Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
| Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon | |
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Chinese theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Ang Lee |
| Produced by |
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| Screenplay by |
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| Based on | Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon by Wang Dulu |
| Starring | |
| Music by | Tan Dun |
| Cinematography | Peter Pau |
| Edited by | Tim Squyres |
Production
companies |
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| Distributed by | Sony Pictures Classics |
Release date
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Running time
| 120 minutes[1] |
| Country | |
| Language | Mandarin Chinese |
| Budget | US$17 million[3] |
| Box office | US$213.5 million[3] |
Plot[edit]
In the 18th century Qing dynasty China, Li Mu Bai is an accomplished Wudang swordsman and Yu Shu Lien heads a private security company. Yu Shu Lien and Li Mu Bai have feelings for each other, but because Shu Lien had been engaged to Mu Bai's close friend, Meng Sizhao,[8] before his death, Shu Lien and Mu Bai feel bound by loyalty to Meng Sizhao and have not acted on their feelings for one another. Mu Bai, choosing to retire, asks Shu Lien to give his sword "Green Destiny" to their benefactor Sir Te in Beijing. Long ago, Mu Bai's master was killed by Jade Fox, a woman who sought to learn Wudang skills. While at Sir Te's place, Shu Lien makes the acquaintance of Jen Yu, who is the daughter of rich and powerful Governor Yu and is about to get married.
One evening, a masked thief sneaks into Sir Te's estate and steals the Green Destiny. Sir Te's servant Master Bo and Shu Lien trace the theft to Governor Yu's compound, where Jade Fox had been posing as Jen's governess for many years. Soon after, Mu Bai arrives in Beijing and discusses the theft with Shu Lien. Master Bo makes the acquaintance of Inspector Tsai, a police investigator from the provinces, and his daughter May, who have come to Beijing in pursuit of Fox. Fox challenges the pair and Master Bo to a showdown that night. Following a protracted battle, the group is on the verge of defeat when Mu Bai arrives and outmaneuvers Fox. Before Mu Bai can kill Fox, the masked thief reappears and helps Fox. Fox kills Tsai before fleeing with the thief (who is revealed to be Jen). After seeing Jen fight Mu Bai, Fox realizes Jen had been secretly studying the Wudang manual and had surpassed her in combat skills.
At night, a desert bandit named Lo breaks into Jen's bedroom and asks her to leave with him. A flashback reveals that in the past, when Governor Yu and his family were traveling in the western deserts, Lo and his bandits had raided Jen's caravan and Lo had stolen her comb. She pursued him to his desert cave to get her comb back. However, the pair soon fell passionately in love. Lo eventually convinced Jen to return to her family, though not before telling her a legend of a man who jumped off a cliff to make his wishes come true. Because the man's heart was pure, he did not die. Lo came to Beijing to persuade Jen not to go through with her arranged marriage. However, Jen refuses to leave with him. Later, Lo interrupts Jen's wedding procession, begging her to leave with him. Nearby, Shu Lien and Mu Bai convince Lo to wait for Jen at Mount Wudang, where he will be safe from Jen's family, who are furious with him. Jen runs away from her husband on their wedding night before the marriage could be consummated. Disguised in male clothing, she is accosted at an inn by a large group of warriors; armed with the Green Destiny and her own superior combat skills, she emerges victorious.
Jen visits Shu Lien, who tells her that Lo is waiting for her at Mount Wudang. After an angry exchange, the two women engage in a duel. Shu Lien is the superior fighter, but Jen wields the Green Destiny: the sword destroys each weapon that Shu Lien wields, until Shu Lien finally manages to defeat Jen with a broken sword. When Shu Lien shows mercy, Jen wounds Shu Lien in the arm. Mu Bai arrives and pursues Jen into a bamboo forest. Mu Bai confronts Jen and offers to take her as his student. She arrogantly promises to accept him as her teacher if he can take Green Destiny from her in three moves. Mu Bai is able to take the sword in only one move, but Jen goes back on her word to accept him as teacher. Mu Bai throws the sword over a waterfall, Jen dives after it, and is then rescued by Fox. Fox puts Jen into a drugged sleep and places her in a cavern; Mu Bai and Shu Lien discover her there. Fox suddenly reappears and attacks the others with poisoned darts. Mu Bai blocks the needles with his sword and avenges his master's death by mortally wounding Fox, only to realize that one of the darts hit him in the neck. Fox dies, confessing that her goal had been to kill Jen because Jen had hidden the secrets of Wudang's best fighting techniques from her.
As Jen leaves to prepare an antidote for the poisoned dart, Mu Bai prepares to die. With his last breaths, he finally confesses his love for Shu Lien. He dies in her arms as Jen returns, too late to save him. The Green Destiny is returned to Sir Te. Jen later goes to Mount Wudang and spends one last night with Lo. The next morning, Lo finds Jen standing on a bridge overlooking the edge of the mountain. In an echo of the legend that they spoke about in the desert, she asks him to make a wish. He wishes for them to be together again, back in the desert, and Jen jumps off the bridge.
Title[edit]
The name "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon" is a literal translation of the Chinese idiom "臥虎藏龍" which describes a place or situation that is full of unnoticed masters. It is from a poem of the ancient Chinese poet Yu Xin's (513–581) that reads "暗石疑藏虎，盤根似臥龍", which means "behind the rock in the dark probably hides a tiger, and the coiling giant root resembles a crouching dragon."[9] The last character in Xiaohu and Jiaolong's names mean "Tiger" and "Dragon", respectively.
Gender roles[edit]
Some prominent martial arts styles traditionally were held to have been originated by women, e.g. History of Wing Chun credits a Buddhist nun Ng Mui teaching Yim Wing-Chun the style. The film's title reference to masters one does not notice necessarily includes mostly women, and suggests the advantage of a female bodyguard. Traditional weapons taught in Wing Chun are exactly those easily concealed (butterfly knives) or similar to those taught in Japanese Aikido primarily to women (long pole).[10] The style emphasizes centerline blows to vital areas, as opposed to maiming strikes against limbs, thus seems intended for death blows, knockouts, and tactics generally used by physically weaker opponents seeking to win in a single strike rather than engage in an extended confrontation. Again, the title suggests powerful creatures that strike by surprise.
Teacher-student relationship[edit]
A teacher's desire to have a worthy student, the obligations between a student and a master, and tensions in these relationships are central to the characters' motives, conflicts between the characters, and the unfolding of the film's plot. Li Mu Bai is burdened with the responsibility for avenging his master's death, and turns his back on retirement to live up to this obligation. His fascination with the prospect of having Jen as a disciple also motivates his behavior, and that of Jade Fox.
Regarding conflicts in the student-teacher relationship, the potential for exploitation created by the subordinate position of the student and the tensions that exist when a student surpasses or resists a teacher are explored. Jen hides her mastery of martial arts from her teacher, Jade Fox, which leads both to their parting of ways and to Jade Fox's attempt on Jen's life. At the same time, Jade Fox tried to learn Wudang martial arts from Li Mu Bai's master but was refused, even though she tried convincing him by sleeping with him.
Poison[edit]
Poison is also a significant theme in the film. In the world of martial arts, poison is considered the act of one who is too cowardly and dishonorable to fight; and indeed, the only character who explicitly fits these characteristics is Jade Fox. The poison is a weapon of her bitterness,[11] and quest for vengeance: she poisons the master of Wudang, attempts to poison Jen, and succeeds in killing Mu Bai using a poisoned needle.
However, the poison is not only of the physical sort: Jade Fox's tutelage of Jen has left Jen spiritually poisoned, which can be seen in the lying, stealing, and betrayal Jen commits. However, Jen is never seen to use poison herself, even though she was trained by Jade Fox. This indicates that she may yet be reformed and integrated into society. In further play on this theme by the director, Jade Fox, as she dies, refers to the poison from a young child, "the deceit of an eight-year-old girl," obviously referring to what she considers her own spiritual poisoning by her young apprentice Jen. Li Mu Bai himself warns that without guidance, Jen could become a "poison dragon".
Production[edit]
The film was originally written as a novel series by Wang Dulu starting in the late 1930s. The film is loosely adapted from the storyline of the fourth book in the series, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
Filming[edit]
Although its Academy Award was presented to Taiwan, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was in fact an international co-production between companies in four regions: the Chinese company China Film Co-Production Corporation; the American companies Columbia Pictures Film Production Asia, Sony Pictures Classics, and Good Machine; the Hong Kong company EDKO Film; and the Taiwanese Zoom Hunt International Productions Company, Ltd; as well as the unspecified United China Vision, and Asia Union Film and Entertainment Ltd., created solely for this film.[12][13]
The film was made in Beijing, with location shooting in the Anhui, Hebei, Jiangsu, and Xinjiang provinces of China.[14] The first phase of shooting was in the Gobi Desert where it consistently rained. Director Ang Lee noted, "I didn't take one break in eight months, not even for half a day. I was miserable -- I just didn't have the extra energy to be happy. Near the end, I could hardly breathe. I thought I was about to have a stroke."[15] The stunt work was mostly performed by the actors themselves and Ang Lee stated in an interview that computers were used "only to remove the safety wires that held the actors." "Most of the time you can see their faces," he added, "That's really them in the trees."[16]
Another compounding issue was the difference between accents of the four lead actors: Chow Yun-fat is from Hong Kong and speaks Cantonese natively, and Michelle Yeoh is from Malaysia and grew up speaking English and Malay;[17] she learned the Mandarin lines phonetically.[18] Only Zhang Ziyi spoke with a native Mandarin accent that Ang Lee wanted.[15] Chow Yun Fat said, on "the first day [of shooting], I had to do 28 takes just because of the language. That's never happened before in my life."[15]
Because the film specifically targeted Western audiences rather than the domestic audiences who were already used to Wuxia films, English subtitles were needed. Ang Lee, who was educated in the West, personally edited the subtitles to ensure they were satisfactory for Western audiences.
Soundtrack[edit]
The score was composed by Tan Dun, originally performed by Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, Shanghai National Orchestra, and Shanghai Percussion Ensemble. It also features many solo passages for cello played by Yo-Yo Ma. The "last track" ("A Love Before Time") features Coco Lee, who later performed it at the Academy Awards. The music for the entire film was produced in two weeks.[19]
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