A lesson in culture...

Rating: 9/10 (3 March 2001)

I am still pleasantly suprised at the huge positive reaction to a movie initiallly intended solely for Asian audiences. Perhaps the world is a little smaller now. Great movies such as CTHD will always have its critics, but it's interesting to note that almost all the criticism have been aimed at aspects of the movie that relate to the native culture in the movie. The Shakespearean tragedy here is while for most people, the world is smaller, for other's it's an abyss of ignorance and ethnocentrism that is so prevalent here in the US. This is ironic in the sense that most middle-Americans, including, I hate to say, some multi-generational Asian-Americans, have no sense of their ethnicity, and it seems you can't describe middle-American culture without using the world "trailer," and that would be stretching the definition of "culture." Ang Lee doesn't need to justify or explain anything he did in CTHD. Any reasonably intelligent individual would not need a primer prior to watching this movie. This was his vision and his movie. He made it for native Chinese audiences as his attempt to touch on his native roots. The fact that CTHD have been embraced by people outside of Asia, and the fact that this movie has 10 Oscar nominations is justification enough for his making of CTHD. The fact that his $12 million movie subtitled its way to $120 million plus worldwide is justification enough for the existence of CTHD. CTHD is a wonderful lesson in culture. Go in with an open mind, it might be the best eight bucks you ever spent.