Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was my favorite movie of the class to date. I say to date because Hero is one of my favorite movies of all time. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon takes the classic martial arts film and takes it up a notch, adds beautiful cinematography, and tops it off with fairly in-depth story. Over all an enjoyable film to watch.
The martial arts of the film was a few steps above humanly possible, but not so unbelievable as to make it cheesy. The most drastic stunts in the film were the flying sequences where Li Mu Bai, Yu Shu Lien, and others would jump across roof tops or tree spending an inordinate amount of time supported only by air. Relatable to the real world sport of Parkour the flying across building tops is only slightly above what is believable, keeping it from becoming ridiculous. However pertaining to the idea of ‘objectifying the oriental ‘ it seems the most popular Chinese films in American either involving Kung Fu (Hero), some strange psychologically degrading practice (Farwell my Concubine), or something horrible the Communist Party has done (name any film on Tibet.)
The Cinematography in the film was beautiful. Filmed on location in beautiful Anhui , Jiangsu, 18th century Beijing, and other places the film makers did an amazing job at immersing the audience in an ancient Chinese painting. It is perhaps this objectively ‘Chinese-ness’ of the filming which made it enjoyable for Western audiences. It felt like watching a National Geographic photo essay come to life. Most of the images focus on things that Western audiences would associate with China; Siheyuan houses, bamboo forest, and flowing robes. To Chinese audiences is this style seen as an antiquated period piece, too familiar to be interesting, or overly objectifying to be of interest? Or is it seen as a beautiful production.
Although the film is at its heart a martial arts film, the inner battle of the characters is as important to the plot to the film. Right and wrong were not as clearly defined as is typical in action films. Jade Fox hand a complicated history of being rejected from the legendary martial arts school and taking revenge on Li Mu Bei’s master for discriminating against her as a women. Yu Shu Lien and Li Mu Bai bound by honor never to fall for each other, struggle with an undying bond which reveals itself at death. The ultimate torn character, Jen Yu, goes from being a friend, to enemy, to friend again, battling her duty to a Manchu elite family, her master Jade Fox, her legend Li Mu Bai, and her lover Dark Cloud.
Interestingly this film was poorly accepted in China and Asian in general. To start with it was seen as just another martial arts film. Also the actors, staring a Cantonese speaking Hong Kong Actor and a Malay speaking Malaysian actor were accused of having non-Chinese accents during the film. Compare this to the martial arts film Ip Man witch was widely popular in China, despite the main actor growing up in Hong Kong and Boston. The film features a Han Chinese putting high ranking Japanese officers to shame during the occupation. Interestingly the film also did well in the Philippians. Possibly meaning that films featuring the Japanese getting decimated is a popular subject throughout Asia. In contrast I didn’t feel like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon didn’t seem to have any nationalist heroes or legends in the film. The film was more about the inner struggles of the characters and personal battles of passion and revenge. There didn’t seem to be a hero that could represent the Chinese people in a fight against evil, such as in Hero or The Ip Man.
The film was a cross Chinese mix of cultures from the empire. Set during the reign of the outsider Manchurian Qing Dynasty the film brings in a lot of race issue of the time. The style of the film was firmly set in the Qing dynasty with the men’s forced Qing hair style and the women’s dresses of the Manchurians. The bandit and forbidden lover is a nomad from Xinjiang. The province conquered and subjugated by the Qing Dynasty and today is probably the most hotly contested regions of Chinese with Muslim separatist vying for independence. The Manchurian Jen Yu’s father was sent to govern of the province to enforce Qing rule in the region. The unwavering heroes of the film are both Han Chinese. I would be interested to see house these race issues affected perception by Chinese viewer. Did this add to the reason the film was poorly accepted? Considering that race in almost always a highly volatile and scrutinized issue in all of Asia.
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