A tall, cool drink of water in the midst of the Hollywood desert

Rating: 10/10 (23 February 2001)

A question for James Cameron, Spielberg and such: why does it cost you $100 million (and up) to make a movie? Ang Lee, with a budget of $12 to $15 million, made a film that runs circles around other Hollywood offerings. I've been to see it in the theater 3 times already, and I will go a few more times before getting the DVD (thank GOD for EBAY!). I check here everyday to see what the comments are, and it seems to me that the only detractors are individuals who can offer nothing other than some illogical emotional prattle. If you don't like Martial Arts flix, why bother reviewing this? Anyway, I saw a post a few days back that offered up the theory that Li Mu Bai (Chow-Yun Fat) was falling in love with Jen- and I found that intriguing, but I thought about it and this is my take: Jen may indeed have been fighting feelings that were developing for Li, but I think she found this unacceptable due to Jade Fox's experience with the Wudan master. Li on the other hand, may have saw the possibility of repeating his Master's transgressions, and did not want to- 1) because he loved Shu Lien. 2) because in Jen, he saw the potential for her to become a great master, and becoming involved with her would compromise her path to this end. Also, he did not want any of the other monks at Wudan to do the same thing, so I think this was part of the impetus behind sending Lo (Chen Chang) to Wudan. If he wanted them to be together, they could have just escorted her to the desert. Shu Lien's rivalry with Jen I think was based solely on the fact that Jen's immature actions placed Li Mu Bai in the position of having to re-enter the dangerous world from which he was trying to escape. Of course, we see that in the end, her fears were realized. Each time I've seen the film, I've gotten more and more into the details- like during the Jen/Lo story, Lee uses shots of the desert as transition to show that time has passed (sands of time). During the bamboo fight, we see Jen "falling" for Li- which establishes the scene where she bares herself and asks if he has come for the sword or her. Sir Te (Sihung Lung) is the antithesis to Jar-Jar Binks. This is definitely Star Wars for grown folks....and to think, we didn't have to travel to "a Galaxy, Far, Far Away..."
The ending was so satisfyingly complex! First, Peter Pau gives us this incredible shot of Wudan mountain that establishes the majesty and power of this monastery. Just viewing Wudan makes it easy to see why Li Mu Bai is such an accomplished swordsman. Then, the last scene with Jen and Lo and the final image of Jen floating. Now juxtapose this with the Deathstar exploding. Is there any question as to why this is one of the greatest movies ever made? Oh, by the way, the fight scenes are pretty good ;-).

Part of me wants a sequel (how American of me, right?) where Lo trains at Wudan and goes to work for Shu Lien, who gives him the Green Destiny, but I'd simply be happy with seeing more movies like this. To paraphrase Grace Jones, "It's not perfect, but it's perfect, for me!" A 10!