Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
I have read a few movie reviews lately and came to the conclusion that I like the following: Short, informative and witty. When I go back to my own reviews however, I feel like I have been able to achieve shortness easily, wittiness on very few occasions and at this point, I have no idea how in the world I should tackle the “informative” part. My reviews rarely say much more than whether I liked a film or not; sometimes I actually have something analytical to say about the film, or comment on the director, but usually it’s just about feelings.
When it comes to “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”, the most interesting aspect about the film might not necessarily be the film itself, but its impact. I saw parts of it when it came out years ago, and it’s almost unbelievable that I have never seen it even after seeing “Hero”, “House of Flying Daggers” and other Wuxia movies which came afterwards. It is “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” that brought the genre to popularity in the West, although I have absolutely no idea why it was this one. To me, it seems like this is mostly a Wuxia film with slightly better characterization and, most of all, with better distribution and marketing. I do see why the movie was just moderately successful in the East – how does the movie stand out in comparison to other Wuxia films?
Well, there is one thing that this movie definitely stands out in: The film manages to convey real feelings, and the characters have a certain depth usually almost inexistent in Wuxia movies. At least the characters are not completely pointless; we are dealing with fairly strong female characters here after all. The faible for great character studies, which is like a red thread throughout Ang Lee’s movies, serves this film very well. The other strength of the film, its choreography, is good as expected, and perhaps a little better here than usual; a large production budget obviously helps. The visuals of flying people is probably what astonishes the western audience the most, while for me, only an eye-candy like “Hero” can impress me.
Furthermore, there are aspects I didn’t quite like about the film as much. The first one being Jade Fox who is practically the only evil character in the film. On the one hand, it is acceptable to be merely one-sided evil character, but on the other hand, she does mention the motives for her actions – she was played with but never taught. With that said, I feel incapable to hold that master, who ultimately is the reason for all misfortune in the film, in high esteem. It works within the film, but shouldn’t society have moved on from these kinds of misogynist aspects in film? The other part is the randomly inserted love story between Zhang Ziyi’s character and Desert Dude. Why the heck was that given so much attention anyways, only so she decides to not be with him for whatever reason? Oh, and to jump into the mountains? Again, it makes sense within the world of this film, but I can’t say I am big fan of this kind of absurdity.
All in all, “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” is a must-see. Perhaps it’s not necessarily the best introduction to the genre, but certainly one of its best films. Still, it is incredible that I have not seen it before, and the movie totally made me want to see more of its kind.