卧虎藏龍

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, “卧虎藏龍”, is two hours of martial arts and philosophy mashed into a movie. Directed by Ang Lee, a director known for his great, sweeping visuals and clever screenshot approaches, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was a blockbuster hit when it released in the United States in 2000.

The story centers on Master Li Mu Bai, a middle-aged man trying to leave the wandering and dangerous life of 江湖, pronounced jianghu, Yu Shu Lien, another middle-ages woman who is also part of 江湖, and Jiao Long, the young, pampered daughter of a governor who rebels against her imminent wedding and the tight restrictions placed upon a woman of her position. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon starts out with the stepping down of Master Li Mu Bai from 江湖and the symbolic donation of his famous sword Green Destiny to a friend of his. He tells this to his long-time friend Yu Shu Lien in the hopes that she will realize his intentions to marry her. Before anything can emerge from the tender love between the two, however, a thief steals the sword. Yu Shu Lien quickly discovers the thief is Jiao Long, the young daughter of the governor who is soon to be married off to a man she’s never seen before. Rather than turn Jiao Long as the thief, Yu Shu Lien takes pity on the girl and admires her talent with the sword, so she keeps her silence and feigns ignorance, until a police officer is killed by Jiao Long’s master, Jade Fox. With this, Yu Shu Lien forces Jade Fox out of hiding and with the reemergence of Jiao Long’s one time lover and one love, Lo “Dark Cloud”, a rough and vulgar barbarian of a man with a kind heart, Jiao Long also runs off. Around this time, Ang Lee does a flash back to show how Jiao Long and Lo “Dark Cloud” meet and their past as lovers. The movie ends in tragedy but with the birth of a weak, new hope.

All through the movie, the cinematography is beautiful. Each scene is a beautiful sweeping view which just emanates wave after soothing wave of serenity. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is worth the time if only for the screenshots. The storyline is rather weak and haphazardly pieced together though, the ideas behind the storyline are clever. There is an underlying philosophical aspect to the movie, which the title hints at, and it acts as the tying string for the entire story, connecting it together from beginning to end. The fighting between the characters of the movie, though interesting, are nothing special when placed next to any other martial arts film filmed in China.

Whether at a completely superficial level as an exciting and gorgeous martial arts movie, or at a deeper level, searching for the “deeper meaning”, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, is worth a watch. Maybe even two.