Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
《卧虎藏龙》影评
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is a wonderful example of world cinema using different cultures to tell a story. Taiwanese director, Ang Lee, has created a film set in China, with a story that uses ideas from different cultures.
The story was first written by Wang Dulu, and is a story of impossible love and responsibility. The heroes develop superhuman abilities such as flying or having great strength, through training in kung fu or other martial arts. Here, the story is about building inner strength rather than physical strength.
The film was shot in China and the scenery is beautiful. Many places in China were used during the film-making, in order to make the story seem more believable.
The characters speak an old form of Mandarin. This was difficult for Chow Yun Fat, who speaks Cantonese and Michell Yeoh, who speaks mainly English. This may have made the acting seem awkward. It is surprising that it is only Zhang Ziyi’s second acting part—she plays the difficult teenager. The experienced actress, Cheng Peipei is the main ‘baddie’, Jade Fox. At times we even feel sorry for her.
There are scenes in the film that make fun of the traditional kung fu film. The highlight is the tea hall scene. Here we find Jen Yu (Zhang Ziyi), who has run away from an arranged marriage, looking v for an adventure. She arrives at the tea all and a typical kung fu fight breaks out.
The best thing about this film is also its worst. Some people like the film because it offers a look at Chinese culture and a welcome change from the usual Hollywood and European storylines. However, for many Chinese people, there is nothing new and the China shown in the film is horribly out-of-date.