Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)

Wo hu cang long
Taiwan/China/Hong Kong/USA
directed by: Ang Lee
written by: Hui-Ling Wang, James Schamus, Kuo Jung Tsai + Du Lu Wang (book)
starring: Yun-Fat Chow, Michelle Yeoh, Ziyi Zhang, Chen Chang
seen 18th November, 2006 - comment 17th June, 2017

My oh my, his film is so difficult for me to understand, especially because I don't understand at all what I don't understand since the film is so simple.

First thing I need to say is that when it comes to wushu movies, Yimou Zhang is the one who's in full possession of my heart. His films are as precise as an atomic clock, relentless, direct, uncompromising. Ang Lee tells his story differently. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon in the end dodges any structure that it seems to emulate at certain times. It balances on the border between the unspoken and the unmentioned. The aspect that baffles me the most is the strict separation of those talking episodes that move the story forward and the fight sequences that illustrate the characters a bit but also seem autotelic.

I am not familiar with the book saga nor the myths surrounding the characters, but this is a stand alone story about a search for freedom and I can appreciate it without any context from the fictional world. And the superb music by Tan Dun is there like a veil covering my eyes, to keep me from seeing how intensely depressing the story is.

-"I wish that we'll be in the desert together again."