The thinking man's action movie (Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon (DVD))

Member Name: ben_83

Product:	Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon (DVD)
Date:	08/03/01 (11 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: The acting and action cannot be faulted

Disadvantages: The story is a bit predictable and the ending loses something in the translation

Before I reached the age of 13, I loved Hollywood action movies. The guns, big explosions and witty retorts are an almost irresistible attraction for a boy that age. For some reason, after my 13th birthday I suddenly became very cynical and realised that most Schwarzenegger, Stallone and Seagal flicks are poorly acted (especially the Seagal ones) films-by-numbers. 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon', however, has reaffirmed my faith in the genre.

Set against the backdrop of Imperial China, Jen (Zhang Ziyi) is a beautiful young aristocrat who is arranged to marry a fellow noble person who she does not love. Naturally, she's not happy with this situation and yearns to be a warrior like her friend Yu Shu Lien (Michelle Yeoh) and marry the man she loves, the outlaw Lo (Chang Chen). To this end, she steals the great warrior Li Mu Bai's (Chow Yun-Fat) sword, the Green Destiny, and becomes the protégé of Jade Fox, a female warrior who rebels against the male establishment. Jade Fox is the sworn enemy of Li Mu Bai since she killed his mentor when he didn't let her into the Wudan, an all-male fighting school. Li Mu Bai sees potential in Jen despite Jade Fox and pursues her, partly to recruit her and partly to get the Green Destiny back. And while all this is going on, a love that can never be requited is simmering between Yu Shu Lien and Li Mu Bai.

Speaking as someone who was raised on 'Die Hard' and its ilk, the action scenes in 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon' are refreshing to say the least. There's none of the clichéd assault weapons or high explosives (Ang Lee would be using a great degree of artistic license if they were included!) - it's all swords, machetes and other outlandish weapons that individuals more in touch with the genre would know the names of - and the scenes themselves go on for an awfully long time. Throughout the film, there's four or five huge (we're talking ten to fifteen minutes) act
ion set pieces which are choreographed and performed flawlessly. To his credit, Ang Lee keeps the gore to a minimum which really concentrates the viewer on the fighting itself rather than the results of it.

In between the action, of course, there's a fair bit of acting. This too is of the highest order. Being someone who doesn't often watch foreign films (the only other one I've seen was 'Das Boot'), I thought that the subtitles might hinder my appreciation of the actors' performances but I couldn't have been more wrong. There are no weak links in this film, all the principles are excellent, something I haven't seen in a long time. Michelle Yeoh puts in a particularly good performance.

I can't really comment on the script seeing as the English writing I saw on the screen couldn't have been a direct translation but the overall story could have been better. Not to say that it wasn't better conceived than every American action movie ever written, but it was a bit predictable (I knew who the 'mystery' warrior was as soon as she appeared on the screen) and the ending seemed slightly bizarre, probably due to the translation. However, with the acting and fighting superlative as it is, the impact of these flaws is minimal.

I know 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon' received good reviews but it still exceeded my expectations. If Chinese filmmakers can turn out work of this quality, I'm left wondering how many gems I've missed thanks to mainstream cinemas in this country being so biased towards Hollywood. I also wonder why Chow Yun-Fat and Michelle Yeoh, who are obviously both excellent actors, have been so wasted when they've appeared in English language films - the former seemingly confined to bad buddy movies and the latter's only role of significance in the Bond movie 'Tomorrow Never Dies'.

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