I've heard some people call this the best martial arts film ever made. Hmmmm.... bold statement. It's hard to say that when you have Bruce Lee's "Enter the Dragon," or Jackie Chan's "Drunken Master 2," or any of Jet Li's "Once Upon a Time in China" films. My personal favorite martial arts film is "Deadly China Hero" (that's just one of the many titles), which is a Jet Li film. In it, he plays the same character as he does in the "Once Upon a Time in China" series, the famous Chinese folk hero, "Wong Fei Hung." The thing is, it's not part of the series, and it's much more tongue-in-cheek. It's a silly, over-the-top kung-fu movie that's got some of the coolest fighting sequences I've ever seen. "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" isn't as fun as "Deadly China Hero," but it's still an incredible movie. Also, this one actually has a decent story!
Typically, kung-fu movies consist of very weak stories that are just something to wrap around the fight scenes. It's like porno, if you think about it. You don't watch it for the story or the character development, you watch it for the good stuff. But this movie is different. "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" is a movie that centers around a beautiful love story. In a way, it's like "Jerry Maguire" and "Rocky" in that it's a chick flick for guys. Trust me, it's a love story, but there's plenty of kung-fu action to satisfy those who just wanna see the fighting.
With the American success of martial arts films featuring Asian stars, I'm hoping we've seen the end of crap from the likes of Jean-Claude Van Damme and Steven Seagal. They're talented and everything, but their movies suck, and their martial arts pale in comparison of those like Jackie Chan and Jet Li.
The stars of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" are Chow Yun-Fat and Michelle Yeoh. I'm kinda surprised to see Chow Yun-Fat here. He's not really known for his martial arts. He's a huge mega-superstar in Hong Kong (and to film geeks in the United States) because of his starring roles in some of John Woo's most popular Hong Kong action flicks, especially "The Killer" and "Hard Boiled." But he doesn't do martial arts in any of those movies, he carries a gun and kills people right and left. Even in his recent, and not very successful, American films ("The Replacement Killers," "The Corrupter," and "Anna and the King"), he displays no martial arts skills. This doesn't mean that he's disappointing in this movie, though. Not at all. Okay, he's not Jet Li, but he's not supposed to be. He's pretty mean with a sword, though. Chow Yun-Fat has a great presence in movies, and this role turned out to be surprisingly perfect for him. He may in fact be one of the coolest badass actors on the planet. They don't come any cooler than Chow Yun-Fat. As for Michelle Yeoh, well, she's amazing. In Asia, she's sorta seen as the female equivalent of Jackie Chan (like Chan, she does her own stunts... she did a movie with Jackie Chan a while back, it was called "Supercop" when it was imported to the United States), and she's almost as popular. It's not hard to see why, either. I remember back when I saw her in the "James Bond" film, "Tomorrow Never Dies." I thought that she was so good, she shoulda had her own series of movies, like a "James Bond" spin-off. I think it would do quite well. Finally, there's Ziyi Zhang, who may in fact be the actual star of the movie. I've never heard of this young woman before, and her prior films are all Asian films I've never seen. Just rest assured that she's the best thing in this movie. I'm not taking anything away from Chow Yun-Fat or Michelle Yeoh, but you've got to see Ziyi Zhang to know what I mean. She's a beautiful young woman (even though her teeth are yellow and buttery), and she's absolutely unforgettable. I'm not the only one who thinks so, by the way. Brett Ratner feels the same way. Never heard of Brett Ratner? Well, he's the director of "Rush Hour" and the upcoming "Rush Hour 2," and he just cast her in his Jackie Chan/Chris Tucker sequel.
The screenplay was written by Hui-Ling Wang, James Schamus and Kuo Jung Tsai. I've never heard of any of them, but they sure did a great job with the script. They adapted it from a novel by Du Lu Wang. The director is a bit of a surprise. It's Ang Lee, director of "The Ice Storm" and "Sense and Sensibility." Weird, huh? Those movies have about as much action as "My Dinner with Andre," but don't let that little fact fool you. He does a fantastic job of directing this fantasy/romance/martial arts movie. Yes, I threw the word "fantasy" in there. There's a lot of wire-fu ("wire-fu" is when wires are used, connected to the actors to move them in ways that are otherwise physically impossible... the wires are then erased digitally so it seems as though the actors are doing those things on their own), and it gets ridiculous. But it IS a fantasy, so lighten up.
The fight choreography for "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" was done by the great Woo-ping Yuen, the same guy who did the fight choreography for "The Matrix," as well as the movie I earlier referred to as my favorite martial arts flick, "Deadly China Hero." The guy is so incredibly creative. No one is as good as he is. Well, Jackie Chan is a close second. Oh, you didn't know that Jackie Chan choreographs a lot of his fight scenes? Well, you do now. Sadly, there are rumors that Woo-Ping won't be involved with the sequels to "The Matrix." This is a very bad thing.
"Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" is well on it's way to becoming the most successful foreign language film in American history. Right now, the record is held by "Life is Beautiful," which grossed $57.6 million in the U.S. As I write this, "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" is at almost $30 million, and it's still only in limited release. Also, it's probably gonna get a big push at around Oscar season, which is just a month and a half away. There has already been talks of a sequel, but I don't see how. The ending seems pretty final, and I'm not sure if I'd wanna see a sequel anyway. Unless it was really, really good, of course.
"Crouching
Tiger, Hidden Dragon" is a wonderful movie that seems to have tapped
into something with American audiences. The theater I saw it in was filled
with both sexes, every color, and every age. It looks like Jean-Claude Van
Damme and Steven Seagal might have to actually learn how to act now.
Scale of 1-10: 9