Features Section Editor: Suen Bellamy April 2, 2003 Sven Bellamy Features Editor Confucius once said, “One picture is worth a thousand words.” Ang Lee’s movie Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon brings thousands of intricate images of classical China to the big screen—that translates into a lot of words. Lee has created an epic wuxia film, a martial arts fantasy, that has a little something for everyone—laughs, action, romance—it’s a combination platter for the senses. Chinese martial arts films out of Hong Kong maintain particular themes, such as martial chivalry, mythical pow- ers stemming from inner human strengths and weakness- es, and a quest where the hero fights for yi, or righteous- ness—usually for fairness in a particular situation, such as retribution for a past wrong. The roots of the genre stem from China's political history, of corrupt and tyrannical regimes that have been dislodged through court intrigue and assassination. In classical Imperial China, members of all classes were able to carry weapons, and schools for weapons training were widespread. In this setting, the classical wuxia—knight errant—became a central hero of popular imagination. What Ang Lee has done with Crouching Tiger is taken elements of the traditional Hong Kong martial arts film, and twisted them, reinventing the genre for modern audiences. Most Chinese audiences expect the movie to open with a fight scene. Lee begins the story with a meeting between old friends, and the first fight doesn’t happen until 15 minutes into the film. The traditional wuxia film focuses on a quest for righteousness, which in the original novel was the recovery of Green Destiny, the sword of a power- ful and handsome warrior, Li Mu Bai. Ang Lee shifts the focus of the story from the relationship between sword and warrior to the relationships shared by friends and lovers—relationships being a central theme in all of Lee’ s movies. Villains, an element of any good story, are also present and bring flavor to the movie. In the original story of Crouching Tiger, Jade Fox is the villain who steals Green Destiny. In the Ang Lee version, Jade Fox (Cheng Pei Pei) steals a person. The beautiful young lady Yu Jen (Zhang Ziyi), daughter of a powerful governor, is secretly trained in the martial arts, and is manipulated into stealing Green Destiny by Jade Fox—to take revenge on her arch nemesis, Li Mu Bai (Chow Yun Fat). Yu Jen befriends Yu © page 18 opfeatures@netscape.net Shu Lien (Michelle Yeoh), female compatriot of Li Mu Bai, and once again director Lee develops the relationship shared by these two women, as they struggle between social duty and personal desire. Yu Jen is to be married into another powerful family, but she longs to be with her lover Dark Cloud (Chang Chen), whom she encountered years before in the Gobi Desert while traveling to Beijing. Lee's focus on character relationships is a major devia- tion from mainstream Hong Kong martial arts films. The elevation of character relationships over the righteous quest worked against Crouching Tiger when the movie was first screened in Asia. Chinese friends of mine all gave me the impression that the movie was lacking in action, and the fight scenes, although fast paced, weren't long enough—the movie was too much of a love story. Alexander Chen, who’s from Shanghai, said, “This movie is more for a Western audience—because it’s a love story.” Crouching Tiger did unexpectedly well in North America, winning four Academy Awards (Best Cinematography, Best Original Score, Best Art Direction, Best Foreign Film). Audiences in the United States spent $128 million dollars at the box office— impressive, given that the movie was produced with a budget of $15 million US. The screenplay was influenced greatly by independent screen writer James Schamus, who has worked closely with Ang Lee since the early 1990s. The duo have co-pro- duced Pushing Hands (1991), The Wedding Banquet (1993), Eat Drink Man Woman (1994), Sense and Sensibility (1995), The Ice Storm (1996), Ride with the Devil (1999), Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)— seven movies to date, all of which have won awards glob- ally at film festivals. They are currently working on their eighth movie, The Hulk , which is scheduled to be released this Summer 2003. Crouching Tiger is filmed on locations that span the length and width of Mainland China. Panoramic scenes in the sweltering Gobi Desert with fast-action pursuits on Mongolian ponies are contrasted against images of lush foliage in the foreboding Wudan Mountains. Old Imperial Beijing is beautifully recreated. The city is alive with intricate costumes, social activities, and architecture that works together to give me a feeling that I might actu- ally be able to go back to classical Manchu China. the other press The casting for Crouching Tiger was another eleme contributing to the movie's success. Asia’s most famo actor, Chow Yun Fat (The Replacement Killers, Anna a the King) was chosen as the lead male role—warri¢ monk Li Mu Bai. Michelle Yeoh (Supercop, Tomorra Never Dies) plays the veteran female warrior Yu Shu Lied and Zhang Ziyi (The Road Home), the fiesty Yu Jed Taiwanese actor Chang Chen (Happy Together) play Dark Cloud, and Cheng Pei Pei (Wing Chun, Flirti Scholar, A Man called Hero) takes on the sinister role d Jade Fox. All the stars play their roles superbly, and co tribute to the fluidity of the movie. There were challenges in preparing to shoot the filn Chow Yun Fat and Michelle Yeoh both had to lea Mandarin in order to make the movie. Lee wanted 4 have the movie filmed in Mandarin to give the movie classical Chinese feel. With this decision, Ang Lee agai broke the rules—traditionally, movies produced out 4 Hong Kong are filmed in Cantonese. Also—and iron cally—Chow Yun Fat has previously been quoted as sa ing that he would never film a movie in Mandarin, yet h role as Li Mu Bai has reinforced the popular Asian vie that he is truly an actor of many talents, molding himse to fit the role. Zhang Ziyi, whose background as a dance although adding to her grace as a warrior, had to b trained in the intricate martial arts choreography that vital to the movie’s action sequences, and Chang Pei Pe as the criminal Jade Fox, takes on a role that is t antithesis of the hero role she usually plays. The secret to the martial arts action in Crouching Tiga is through the work of Yuen Wo-Ping. Yuen is famous fo the fighting choreography in the blockbuster movid Lethal Weapon 4 (1998), The Matrix (1999), and Rome Must Die (2000). The fighting scenes in Crouching Tige carry the characters from sword flashing pub brawls, aet ial chases across the roof tops of sleeping Beijing, to t top of a tall pine forest, where the characters appear mo like spirits gliding effortlessly through the air, than sea soned warriors. The true magic in Crouching Tiger, as with all of Lee movies, is created through Lee’s ability to bring alive th characters in his movies, create visually stunning effects and stir emotions with his audiences—and he does all o this by bending the rules of a genre.