| Review: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon | |
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Chinese superstars Chow Yun-Fat and Michelle Yeoh are the elder superbad fighters who cannot confess their love to each other out of respect for a dead friend, but the film really belongs to Lo (Chang Chen) and Jen (Zhang Ziyi ), the bandit and the governor's daughter who are the real-life stand-ins for the metaphorical beasts of the title. Ziyi's transformation from composed debutante into kick-ass warrior princess (and beyond) is the heart of the film, and once she unleashes the violence coiled up in her, she steals the show.
In a word, this film has it all: great and beautiful actors, sumptuous sets, wonderful photography, romance, and a fun-filled plot full of twists and surprises. Almost everything feels exactly right, all the way down to the sounds and the Yo-Yo Ma cello solos on the soundtrack. The settings are stunning. Colorful desert landscapes, lavish interiors, mighty valleys, lush bamboo forests, fog-covered mountain tops and candlelit caves make for fascinating backdrops. Even the few uneven moments seem right, as if complete perfection needed a blemish or two.
For what it's worth, it's more of a movie than a film; its greatness lies not in the way it extends our understanding of the world, but in which it plays with the leftovers of a genre and mixes them into something entirely new and compelling. To my mind, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is to Wuxia films what The Godfather was to gangster movies -- the gentrification of the genre, its elevation to something greater than the sum of its parts. Star Wars did the same for science fiction, and, to a lesser degree, Raiders of the Lost Ark for cliffhanger adventures.
Ang Lee, though, has a more poetic touch than Spielberg or Lucas. The strong female characters, reasonably earnest investigation of emotion, and unconventional ending he brings to the genre are all elements that other films would benefit from tremendously. Every shot here offers more grace, beauty, and excitement than a whole years' worth of Hollywood blockbusters. I hope everybody in Tinseltown is watching very closely. For the rest of us, it's time to cheer.
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Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
Directed by Ang Lee; written (in Mandarin, with English subtitles) by James Schamus, Wang Hui Ling and Tsai Kuo Jung, based on the novel by Wang Du Lu; director of photography, Peter Pau; edited by Tim Squyres; music by Tan Dun; action choreographer, Yuen Wo-Ping; production designer, Tim Yip; produced by Bill Kong, Hsu Li Kong and Mr. Lee; released by Sony Pictures Classics. Running time: 120 minutes. This film is not rated. Starring: Chang Chen (Lo), Chow Yun Fat (Li Mu Bai), Cheng Pei-Pei (Jade Fox), Lung Sihung (Sir Te), Michelle Yeoh (Yu Shu Lien) and Zhang Ziyi (Jen Yu).
