Misunderstood masterpiece

Rating: 10/10 (25 January 2001)

One of the first things that every actor learns at the beginning of their path, is that any physical action is a direct result of will. This somewhat vague phrase is the real basis behind Ang Lee's new film, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, sadly misunderstood and mistaken by many to be a kung-fu or action film.
The film, presented in almost lyrical form, would be hard to understand for western eyes, such as my own. I know a few people who completely misunderstood the plot, and praised the movie for its action sequences. However, as I have mentioned before, these action sequences are not to be taken as stand-alone, as sadly most action-oriented movies have been asking us to do, lately. To fully realize how wonderful this movie is, one must look at the flight of swords as a dance, brought on by the conflicting viewpoints of the two warriors, Li Mu Bai and young Jen, as the aged warrior holds a stoic taoist calmness even as his sword flickers with the speed of an arrow throughout his battles to tame the tiger.
The true wisdom of the film can be discovered only by listening to the poetic lines that Yun-Fat Chow cleverly intersperses into his conversations, pearls that must be sought after. The struggle is transformed into a song which IS the movie, constructed in the same way that chinese legends had been told for ten thousand generations. The cultural gap between the west and the orient will make this task much harder to perform, but when truly deciphered, the movie takes on a completely different form.
While the story itself is sung to the audience, the brilliantly coordinated fight-scenes weave it together to create a complete entity. Neither may be taken separately, otherwise the movie will lose its original meaning. I take my hat off for Hui-Ling Wang, Kuo Jung Tsai and James Schamus, for transforming the wonderful book into a screenplay, and for Ang Lee, that has made a two hour film about love, inner-strength, and the taoist way.
To sum these up, I recommend to anyone who liked the movie to see it again with new eyes. Hopefully, this movie will set the way for a renewed intelligence and beauty in movies in this new century.