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Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
(Chinese title: Wu Hu Zang Long)
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| Rated:
PG-13 |
2000 |
Color |
120
min. |
Awards |
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| Starring:
Chow Yun-Fat, Michelle Yeoh, Ziyi Zhang, Chen Chang, Sihung Lung, Pei-pei Cheng |
| Director:
Ang Lee |
Based
on the Novel by: Du
Lu Wang |
| Screen
Writers: Hui-Ling Wang, James
Schamus, Kuo Jung Tsai |
| Produced
by: Li-Kong Hsu, William Kong, Ang Lee |
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| Music:
Tan Dun |
Movie
Co.: Sony Pictures Classics |
| Production
Co.: Asia Union Film & Entertainment Ltd., China Film Co-Production Corporation, Columbia Pictures Film Production Asia, EDKO Film Ltd., Edko Films, Good Machine, Sony Pictures Classics, United China Vision, Zoom Hunt International Productions Company, Ltd. |
| SFX
Co.: Blue Sky Studios,
CFC/MVFX, Los Angeles, Manex Visual Effects (MVFX) |
| Critique
Section |
Trivia |
HugeReviews.com's
Official Rating System:
Pathetic
Wimpy
Solid Super
HUGE |
| HugeReviews
Critics |
Mike
Flanagan
HUGE |
Joe
De Matteo
HUGE |
| Store |
Mark
Capitelli HUGE
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| Relevant Sites: www.crouchingtiger.com Photo
Gallery, |
Photos
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The Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon Store
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| HugeReviews.com
Reviews:
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
by Mark Capitelli
HUGE
What a phenomenal film!
It really was close to perfection.
The acting, visual effects, cinematography, dialogue, and story
was all great. It is
basically a fable set around the romance of two different couples and
their mutual inability to follow their hearts the way they should.
As if this weren’t enough, the film also provides mind-blowing
action scenes that look more like ballet than violence. Even if you do not like this film, I don’t think you can
help but be impressed by it. My
only disappointment with this film is that I will soon only be able to
see it on a small screen. Make
sure you see this one in the theaters.
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Crouching
Hit, Hidden Brilliance
by Michael
Flanagan
HUGE
Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, put simply, is
a work of brilliance. From
scenic landscapes filmed as paintings to amazing fight-scenes
choreographed better than a Broadway musical, Dragon should serve
as an example to American filmmaker’s as to what an adventure movie
should be. I use
“adventure” loosely, since by American standards Indiana Jones
serves as one of the best examples, and that series is nothing like Dragon.
Still, the film is an adventure movie on a great scale.
Chow Yun Fat and Michelle Yeoh lead the film, an their ability of
characterization through facial expression is amazing.
It’s important to study their faces because the film is
subtitled over the Cantonese language.
Any regular readers can follow the movie easily by applying the
proper meaning based on the subtitles and the actors.
Such application proves a great screenplay, full of more drama
and humor than many of the recent Academy Awards “Best Pictures.”
Some viewers, however, may have difficulty, not in watching a
subtitles film, but in giving the film enough time to allow the screen
action to merge with the subtitles; I was so used to the subtitles by
the middle of the film that, when one of the characters briefly speaks
the same words that are printed, I almost didn’t notice.
Some others in the audience, however, audibly groaned when the
first words crossed the screen. And
half of the groaners had walked out by the end.
Whether characters are speaking, exchanging glances, or not on
screen at all, the cinematography is beautiful.
Peter Pau makes sitting for tea just as scenic as a
landscape shot of forest-covered mountains looming over a valley.
Each shot completely encompasses the focus of the camera; instead
of watching a film, it’s like looking through a window.
One of my favorite scenes in the film involves a horse chase.
The young girl Jen Yu, who’s desire to learn fighting
techniques drives the movie, is chasing a bandit on horseback.
During the chase, both characters take the lead at times as the
horses cross around each other as they gallop through the desert.
During the chase, she is firing arrows at the bandit as she
rides. And throughout it
all the camera tracks alongside them, only cutting to a close-up once
before going back to the tracking chase.
That moment may be my favorite stylistically filmed chase scene
in all of motion pictures.
The fight scenes. I
have said before that I love a good sword fight, and Dragon
provides some of the best sword fights I have ever seen.
The fighters fly over rooftops (yes, fly), skipping along the
shingles and bouncing off of walls as if they’re weightless.
When they fight, the moves are fast and powerful, yet every one
of them is caught on camera perfectly.
One scene is a very nice allusion to the American Western,
complete with a man falling through a balcony and into the waiting table
below. Of course, instead
of guns, they use swords. Frankly,
when you combine sword-fights with Westerns, you get near-perfection.
Yet the most visually impressive action scene is the sword fight
on the treetops. Chow Yun
Fat and Jen Yu balance on wavy trees, flipping through the air to land
safely on the branches, and then gliding down, holding the top of the
tree while clashing swords as they pass.
Breathtaking.
The film is about a place in the world.
Each character has a place, a duty in their lives.
Ang Lee seems to be showing us that you can’t always leave that
place, because life has expectations.
Once you develop that place, leaving it is equal to leaving your
life, too. The fight scenes
are far from gratuitous; they show us that a fighter, as a place in the
world, cannot escape that role, whether they are on treetops, on
rooftops, in Westerns, or old. Our
place in the world, in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, is
defined. To accept it is to
promise to live that life forever.
To reject it is impossible, and the only exception to the law is
death. Honor lies in
acceptance of both life and the death that results.
Plus, when they fight, their swords spark.
And that’s just cool.
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Crouching
Tiger, Hidden Dragon
by
Joe De Matteo
HUGE
I
took a ride last night on a Chinese wind.
It blew with a swift excitement,
and I resisted not at all. I had been
hoping for it, waiting eagerly.
In awe, I witnessed mysticism.
I recognized humanity at its most
base and at its apex.
Yin
and Yang for sure: the selfish and
destructive actions of talented,
narrow-sighted youth, and the calm,
all-seeing and selfless tenacity of
masters.
Some lives controlled by dark
motives, others by a code of honor.
I
returned from my ride, gently brought back
to the reality of rolling credits to
exotic music, far too excited to think.
Now,
some eighteen hours latter, I realize that
the music of Crouching Tiger, Hidden
Dragon has been subtly haunting my
mind.
It’s like the memory of the scent
of a long ago girl.
You unmistakably know it for what
it is, but it remains aloft to sensory
detection.
No, you can’t smell it, but you
can’t get the girl out of your mind.
And so have I been thinking about
the characters I met with a whiff of déjà
vu: that tragic youth who had it all, but
was never content in her good fortune,
moving from one thing to another; the
woman who had faced the same temptations
and learned too late where her happiness
lay—bound by honor, she selflessly
stayed her course and perfected herself;
the Master, so comfortable in himself that
he recognized what he’d missed and moved
to redirect his life in an honorable
fashion—always in balance and dutiful,
he allowed himself to be called to two
last tasks.
This
movie is not only characters and action,
but has awesome scenery.
The rough and beautiful setting
shows a land destined to breed great and
magical stories.
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
is truly a work of art and disserving of
all its acclaim.
The
ride was so great I’m going to take it
again tonight.
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| Awards:
National Board of Review: Best Foreign Language Film
Golden Globes: Best Director, Best Foreign Film
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Trivia:
"Crouching tiger hidden dragon" is a quote from Chinese
mythology. It refers to hiding your strength from others; advice which
is followed too well by the characters in the film.
In Chinese, Lo's name is "Little Tiger," and Jen's name is
"Little Dragon."
Chow Yun-Fat and Michelle Yeoh had to learn Mandarin Chinese prior to
the start of filming. Their Cantonese accents can be heard throughout.
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