Crouching Tiger: Hidden Dragon Is Full of Surprises and Beautifully-Realized Fight Scenes

You know what's nifty about Ang Lee as a filmmaker? Just how many different genres he's explored in his directorial efforts! Much like fellow eclectic director Steven Soderbergh, Ang Lee has spent his twenty-plus years as a filmmaker transversing across several different genres from superhero fare (Hulk) to period piece romantic dramas (Sense & Sensibility) and even to a martial arts motion picture entitled Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon that defies easy genre categorization. It's a mixture of an action movie, a romantic feature, a character-driven drama and so much more. Lee's flexibility as a filmmaker in terms of what genres he explores seeps into Crouching Tiger: Hidden Dragon and allows this particular singular story to inhabit all sorts of different genres much to the betterment of the movie as a whole!


In Crouching Tiger: Hidden Dragon, a powerful sword named Green Destiny serves as the item that drives its sweeping plot forward. It's an item that colleagues and potential romantic interests Li Mu Bai (Chow Yun-fat) and Yu Shu Lien (Michelle Yeoh) are tasked with protecting when an unknown figure, working alongside the vengeful Jade Fox (Cheng Pei-pei) steals Green Destiny. This thief is powerful in the Wudang martial arts style and it's quickly revealed that the thief is none other than Jen Yu (Zhang Ziyi), the last figure anyone would suspect of being either capable of taking this sword or being a Wudang master. Jen Yu's actions, done in an attempt to garner control of her own destiny as she grapples with an arranged marriage, soon entangle Li Mu Bai and Yu Shu Lien, the former of which has an old score to settle with Jade Fox.


In my review of Us, I mentioned how there were a number of bold creative choices made that worked thanks to discernable confidence in Jordan Peele and the movies cast & crew. Similarly, Crouching Tiger: Hidden Dragon finds some of its best features coming from a palpable sense of self-assurance as it takes a traditional martial arts adventure narrative and twists it around with a barrage of delightfully unique sensibilities. Among these distinct traits are a heavier presence of female lead characters, a non-linear format of storytelling and a depiction of the fictitious Wudang martial arts style that sees the duels between the various characters performed as more like intricately arranged pieces of ballet rather than conventional fist-fights.

There's such precision to the beautiful movements of the characters, particularly the masterful fighting skills of Jen Yu which see her taking down foes, like a tavern full of adversaries, without so much as blinking. Whereas American action cinema in the early years of the 2000s emphasized shaky-cam and disorienting editing that made it hard to appreciate whatever fight scenes were transpiring on-screen, Ang Lee ushered in the 21st century with a movie that emphasized coherent cinematography, choreography, and editing that allowed the beauty in martial arts action scenes to flourish. Just the visual of characters sprinting across the sky is a glorious image that, thankfully, the movie doesn't waste time in its tightly paced plot trying to offer up a convoluted in-universe explanation for.

Crouching Tiger: Hidden Dragon is confident enough in its unique aesthetic that it recognizes that the only explanation we need for why the characters are able to basically fly for short periods of time is that it looks super pretty. This is a film that thrives on emotion and stirring imagery, with both of those facets of the production working as well as they do because of just how engaging the characters and the dynamics between them are. How the film approaches the unrequited love between Li Mu Bai and Yu Shu Lien is especially impressive as it's depicted as something that's been occuring for quite some time as the story begins. Chow Yun-fat and Michelle Yeoh immediately share on-screen chemistry that subtly communicates years of affection complicated by events of the past, a dynamic that immediately evokes how knotty relationships between people in the real world can be.

Jen Yu's own storyline dealing with her grappling for independence under the impending weight of an arranged marriage similarly captures relatable human experiences in a fruitful manner. Best of all, both the unrequited love storyline and Jen Yu's plotline end in a bittersweet climax that refuses to give either character an easy solution to their problems. Crouching Tiger: Hidden Dragon even tees up a traditional redemption moment for the complicated character of Jen Yu only to snatch it away from her in one of the most surprising & cleverly realized story turns in the whole movie. Even before that melancholy conclusion, Crouching Tiger: Hidden Dragon constantly subverts expectation with its own unique vision of a martial arts tale brimming with confidence and amazing fight sequences!