Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is simply a masterpiece. A brilliant film with great performances by its stars, Michelle Yeoh, Chow yun fat, and especially Zhang Ziyi. Director Ang Lee along with his choreographer tell this epic story in a stunning and creative visual way that makes this film one of the greatest ever made. The action scenes in this film are jaw dropping, and are unmatched by any action film ever made. Along with the action, is a great story and great characters that reflect influences from Lord of the Rings, and parallel the Jedi of the Star Wars trilogy, but remain consistent with the eastern culture and philosophy which permeates throughout the story. In fact, the main characters, especially Jen, portrayed by the talented Zhang Ziyi , seem to question that philosophy and culture throughout the film, almost rebelling against it. This is foreshadowed in the beginning of the film when Yun-fat’s character describes how his meditation leads him to a place of sorrow instead of enlightenment. In a later scene, Yeoh ’s character questions the buddhist teaching of Fat’s character in relation to their suppressed love, pointing out the touch of her hand is real,not an illusion, even though it is of this world. However it is also the discipline of this eastern spirituality that gives these knights their power. the main character Jen, abuses this power, along with the power given to her when she posesses the Green Destiny, a magical and powerful sword, owned by the wizard -like, or jedi- like, character portrayed by Chow Yun-Fat. The Green Destiny, much like the ring of power in lord of the rings, or the force in Star Wars, becomes a power that threatens to consume Jen. Throughout the film , Jen rebels against the traditions of the easten culture and philosophy. Even during the action scenes, as Chow Yun-Fat’s character scolds her, she responds by telling him to stop talking like a monk and fight. Her rebellion is also reflected in her love for a barbarian that lives in the desert. Jen’s rebellion is an extreme one, however, that leads to such deep despair, that it leaves the viewer to question if even the true love she found in the desert can save her. This movie has everything one wants in an epic, great story, acting, cinematography, directing, score. This film should win an Oscar for Best Picture… Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon is truly a great film.
There’s a telling moment near the beginning of Ang Lee’s “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.”
In closeup, we see the rough-hewn, heavy wooden wheels of a peasant cart. They nestle in deep ruts worn into the stone paving blocks of a roadway entering a gated city. The cart rumbles on, its wheels fitting perfectly into the grooves worn by unspoken centuries of just such passing wagons…in one image we see how tradition creates its own paths, how contemporary reality is fabricated to fit such traditions… The camera rises, we see an almost impossible panorama of Peking, the Forbidden City spreading out before us like an Oz extending to the horizon.
What a film this is. While it may not be the most wondrous thing ever…it is a superb action adventure romance with terrific acting and a much-welcome heart at the core of all that technical superiority. The action sequences are the kind that take the breath away and inspire a sense of awe, rather than the sort that leave you white-knuckled and sweaty.
“Crouching Tiger…”, I am told, is representative of a specific literary/cinematic genre in China: Wu Xia…the wizard/warrior piece…magic and martial arts blended. I’m not familiar with the form, but the world portrayed here is a breathtakingly fantastical one. The story is putatively set in 19th century China, but it could be anywhere, anywhen. It is a place of high honor and deep feelings, a place where people are bound by traditions and held captive by their forms. It is also a place of wild and mythic landscapes…from stark desert (thought nowhere do we get that featureless, wide-screen linear horizon seen in David Lean’s “Lawrence of Arabia!”) to magic misty green mountains with deep dark lakes and steeply cascading streams that come braiding, tumbling down the rockslide heights. High, reedy bamboo forests wave, wondrous, in sighing winds.
In this world people may do amazing things. The flying in this movie — properly called “wire work” in film terms — is fantastic. This technique, of course, was not invented by the Wachowski’s, but the choreographer of “Crouching Tiger…”, Woo-ping Yuen, also staged the wire-fights of “Matrix.” Here, the ability of our warrior heros and villains to climb walls, to leap to the rooftops and soar from building to building — not to mention engaging each other in aerial combat that soars from the peak of a mountain top to the rocks of a mountain stream in a single take — or to duel on the very tips of dipping, waving bamboo trees — looks almost plausible, just over the border of the possible, at least. The whole packed-in audience at the big theater at the advanced screening at Pipers Alley in Chicago burst into spontaneous applause several times throughout…
At other moments, I found myself in weepy transport. As I think of the fight in the treetops, right now, I become drippy — tingly of eye and sinus.
Apart from all else, this is grand storytelling! It has passion, love, revenge…it expresses deep need and longing.
Pant, pant, pant…
And, yes, the woman are the action hearts of the film! Michelle Yeoh is wonderful…but I’ve been in love with her for years. Here, she is more mature, quieter, wiser than in any role I’ve seen her in. Her performance is strong and moving, her face registering, magically, a range of conflicting emotions, hidden secrets, crouching angers, all at once. In acting training we were always told you can’t do that. She does it.
Chow Yun Fat, too…I’ve been a fan of his since I first discovered John Woo’s Hong Kong crime thrillers…is the best I’ve ever seen, as well…magnificent in his silences. Strength without cruelty.
The center of the film…remarkably…is a girl who looks to be about 15! Ziyi Zhang whose date of birth is given as 1979. Zhang is from Beijing, China, and has only one other film credit. I say that she is remarkable because her story is the binding element of the film. And she holds the film together! Holding her own with Yeoh and Chow in both the dramatic material and in the balletic martial pas de deus (okay…did I spell that right?) that frame the conflicts between them. She is the “Luke Skywalker” of the piece, if you will…though “Crouching Tiger…” has everything the “Star Wars” saga had: excitement, thrills and magic, but here, it is wrapped in those things Lukasfilm wanted to give, but succeeded in delivering in only the most self-conscious way: heart and deep-placed spirit.
By the way: this is an action film, almost uniquely without violence…or, rather, the violence is so stylized, so removed into some mystical realm, that it almost disappears into dance. There is, I believe, only one small splash of blood onscreen. Typically, I don’t like that — figuring that if you’re going to do a film where violence is part of it all, where action advances plot, let’s have it full-bore, the “Full Peckinpaw,” if you will. Here, however, this stylization works beautifully!
While there are those who might grumble that Jackie Chan (another favorite of mine) does it all for real, without wires and trick photography…okay…true enough… But here that exuberance of motion is put in service of a grand story and strong characters who carry worthwhile burdens of emotions!
So there. Enough? Just go see it.
I can’t wait for the DVD! I’ll probably see it again, maybe see it twice again, before it hits the home-market.
Eliminate Credit Card Debts | Get Rid of Credit Card Debt Now | Credit Card Debt Consolidation
low cost health insurance | Affordable health insurance | free health insurance quote
DVD to converter | DVD to mpg
Watch March Madness Online | Watch NBA Playoffs Finals Online | Watch NASCAR Online
DVD to converter | DVD to mpg
