Good old-fashioned filmmaking

Rating: Null/10 (23 February 2001)

"Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" is a martial arts film for people who don't like martial arts films. Ang Lee's elegant, heartfelt film combines the high-flying acrobatics common in Hong Kong chopsocky epics with the kind of deep characterization and streamlined storytelling that most of those other films can't even muster around the edges. It's a handsome, exciting, and surprisingly moving film that fully warrants the acclaim that has been visited upon it by the Oscars people.
Based on a novel which, to my understanding, has not yet been published in America, "Crouching Tiger" follows the adventures of Li Mu Bai (Chow Yun-Fat) and Shu Lien (Michelle Yeoh), mystical master warriors who have shared a friendship, and maybe more, for years. Shu Lien is sent to the estate of the aristocratic Sir Te (Sihung Lung) to deliver a magical super-sword known as Green Destiny. One night, the sword is stolen by a spectacularly powerful bandit, and the chase is on, bringing out old wounds, new loves, and buried secrets that have plagued the characters and driven them to the depths of despair and the heights of ecstasy.
"Crouching Tiger" is a film intimately familiar with esctasy, primarily the esctatic freedom of movement. The film's battle scenes, choreographed by "The Matrix"'s Yuen Wo Ping, are marvels of gravity-defying elegance, almost like ballet in their free-flowing kinetic energy. The characters flip off of walls, scramble over rooftops, and, in one of the most hauntingly lyrical action sequences in history, clash with swords while swinging from the branches of swayingly tall trees. The film seems to transport us to a fantasy world where defying the laws of physics is as easy as breathing, and the mastery of the physical is the most noble and beautiful achievement of all.
Of course, we've seen stuff like this in other martial-arts films. What carries "Crouching Tiger" above the realm of the familiar is the direction of Ang Lee. A filmmaker who until now has specialized in character-based drama ("Eat Drink Man Woman", "Sense and Sensibility"), Lee brings all of his understanding of the subtleties of human interaction to bear on this picture, creating relationships built on barely perceptible arpeggios of emotion. Li Mu Bai and Shu Lien need just a glance to convey their years of suppressed passion for one another, and it's heartbreaking to behold them give up their feelings for the good of the world. He also skillfully orchestrates the work of his technical crew, drawing a haunting score from Tan Dun (complete with lyrical cello interludes by Yo-Yo Ma) and polished, beautiful cinematography from Peter Pau.
Lee's actors also contribute to the film's powerful effect by committing utterly to material that could have been pulp in the hands of less talented performers. Chow holds the screen with his effortless charisma, and Yeoh's soulful eyes convey a lifetime of buried feeling in a single glance. The real star here, however, is Zhang Ziyi, a former ballerina who plays Jen, a young dignitary's daughter with a few buried secrets of her own. Zhang's soft voice conceals reserves of strength, and she is front and center for the film's most impressive action sequences, where her dance training carries the film to breathtaking new heights. She, unlike everyone else in the film, was ROBBED by the academy; she deserved to be this year's Best Supporting Actress.
Stateside, "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" has become the highest-grossing foreign-language film of all time, thus proving that the usually subtitle-phobic American public will respond to a foreign film. All it takes is true feeling, a compelling story, and powerful acting by a cast who takes great material and runs with it all the way. Oh, and action scenes that KICK ASS.