Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

CHIN 1088
12/15/2015

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Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Let’s look back to the title of this essay. Yes, it is the very film’s name that I would like to talk about. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was released in China in 2000, and directed by Ang
Lee. I believe that lots of people are not unfamiliar to this person. Ang Lee was born on October
23, 1954 in Taipei, Taiwan. His titles are not only a film director, but also producer and screenwriter. Early year, he attended the National Taiwan College of Arts, where he graduated in
1975, and then relocated to the United States, where he studied at the University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign and New York University.
Ang Lee made his directorial debut in 1992 with Pushing Hands and earned Academy Award nominations for his next two films, The Wedding
Banquet (1993) and Eat Drink Man Woman (1994).
His later films include Sense and Sensibility (1995), starring Emma Thompson, Kate Winslet and Hugh
Grant, and for which Lee earned an Academy
Award nomination for best picture; The Ice Storm
(1997); Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000), for which he received four Oscars, four BAFTA
Awards, a Golden Globe Award for best director; and Hulk (2003). He also went on to direct Se,
Jie (2007) and Taking Woodstock (2009). In 2006, he became the first Asian to win an Academy
Award for best director, for his film Brokeback Mountain, a small-budget, low-profile independent film based on Annie Proulx’s short story about gay ranch hands, starring Heath Ledger and Jake
Gyllenhaal. Seven years later, in 2013, Lee picked up his second Academy Award for directing
Life of Pi, based on the acclaimed best-selling novel by Yann Martel. The honor marked the first

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time a director won the Best Director Oscar for helming a 3-D movie. Life of Pi also garnered awards for cinematography, score and visual effects.
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is a world-famous film, which is according to Chinese novelist Wang Du Lu’s novels written by Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon as the basis for further adaptation of films. In the same year, it was released in the United States on late December. Critics across America are hailing Ang Lee’s luminous martial-arts fantasy epic Crouching Tiger, Hidden
Dragon as one of the best films of. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was also distinguishing itself at the box office, where it had eclipsed Roberto Benigni’s 1997 triumph Life is Beautiful to become the highest-grossing foreign-language film in U.S. box-office history, and had for weeks remained among the top ten box-office achievers.
As regards to the film, it has a great success because of not only the script and good performers, but also the director in the framing, composition and other photography operation, succeeded in bringing to record the role of the “real” moment to the audience. Based on these factors, this film can be a huge success.
Being a Chinese director who’s been in the United
States for many years, Ang Lee always seeks to present his understanding of Eastern culture with the comparison of
Western culture: His Oscar winning film Crouching Tiger,
Hidden Dragon is one. In my perspective, perhaps derived from Zhuang Zi, an ancient Taoist philosopher in China,
Ancient Eastern culture is collectivism that values endurance and self-control, seeking some kind of infinite realm; while Western culture is more of individualism that values courage and determination,

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seeking freedom and pleasure. The conflict between these two culture systems are embodied in
Ang Lee’s film, and his interpretation of this conflict is conveyed by the signs and symbols that lies in the image and music of the film.
On a deeper level, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is not merely a product of Chinese popular culture, but a thoughtful exploration — and critical evaluation — of various aspects of
Chinese classical culture. In the same way that J.R.R. Tolkien in The Lord of the Rings drew upon the classical heroic worldview while at the same time critiquing that tradition from the perspective of his Catholic faith, Ang Lee has here crafted a masterful synthesis of various forms of Chinese mythology and Taoist philosophy that brings a broader perspective to its subject matter than many
Asian films — including some aspects of more typically Western sensibilities and ideals — and, in the end, embraces a gently romantic humanism that is more life-affirming than the esoteric way of detachment and denial characteristic of Eastern thought.
As far as to the film genre, it is a Chinese martial art (Kong Fu) film, but it has a little bit difference from the normal martial art film. In the natural martial art film, it is a type of entertainment, a film which the circumstance includes a series of action scene most: fighting, special effects, car chases, explosions. The story is usually the side of justice against the evil side; the solution is often resort to violence. Action film masters always a physical strong male hero, generally obvious that he represents the moral standards, the ethical guidelines of Western culture in general and consistent with view of the world. It always uses some external factors and props in order to create tension in some of the scenes the audience and most of the plot revolves around violence. In the film, action itself only a few describe role, but primarily so as to attract viewers.
Violence, which are often particularly exaggerated, and therefore there is no relationship between the real phenomenon.

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However, in the Chinese martial art film, especially since by Bruce Lee’s films started the emphasis of human power and human-looking action movie. One of the features including the slow motion effects, strange sound, and has led to the formation of sub-genres: Kong Fu movies.
It advocated every movement should have a beauty of physical, and good at use some small action to show that how good of the “Kung Fu”, such as using a very small action to break the table, walking on the wall with using a dodge. In addition, in every Chinese martial art film, it emphasizes on “justice” and the evil cannot win the righteousness, and also it would show the traditional
Chinese etiquette --- diplomacy before the use of force.
With respects to the special features of Chinese martial art film. The direction of martial art in the West and the East has “fast” and “slow” polarization difference. Dealing with the fight scenes, Western films deliberately slow down the action so that they can lushly and clearly show
Chinese martial arts films are used to using a lot of quick shots to be considered as the process of manufacturing the tense atmosphere of martial arts. In shooting to this film, the director focused more on how to make martial arts become even more beautiful, so camera movement and focus would always change. The way can let the audience feel the emotion from the performers’ movement as well.
For the Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, it is around a stolen sword and several warriors.
Li Mu-Bai, a great warrior famous throughout Qing China decides to retire to the mountains. He asks Yu Xiu-Lian, the un-conceded love of his life to bring his treasured sword, the Green Destiny to an old friend. However, the sword is soon stolen by a mysterious assassin. All these lead to a teenage nobleman’s daughter, Jen, who is a martial artist at the crossroads of her life. After that, the characters begins to develop a complex relationship around the sword.

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In this bamboo-fight sequence, Li can be viewed as a symbol of the Eastern wisdom, which emphasizes subduing the activity with serenity. Li always stands on the top of the bamboo forest and rides the wave, even if Jen presses the bamboo really hard, Li never shakes but stands firm, waiting for the right time to rebound. The bright green color of the bamboo can also be interpreted

as a symbol of the hidden emotion stirring inside these two characters: Li brings peace and calm to Jen’s heart as well as Jen affects Li with her courage and passion. The shots are full of panorama and wide, and the fighting scenes are not fierce but seem to be slow. These all show a special perspective from the director and certain emotions he wishes to convey through the film. So the meaning of the film title Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon superficially stands for the powerful warriors and swordsmen in the film, but in fact appears to be the repressive emotion of each character, whose changes push the story forward.
My interpretation is actually a combination of sign and interpretation – Chinese swordsmen fly over the bamboos – which focuses on the semiotic process and historical continuity at the social and cultural level. The image of bamboo in the film is mere a sign and its indication of Chinese culture makes it a symbol, but if I want to combine the explicit meaning of bamboo with Ang Lee’s

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personal interpretation in the film like bamboo means emotion, the whole meaning making process will become much complicated than before. The film could not only show Eastern philosophy, but also the flows of hidden emotions that touch every audience across cultural barriers.
As regards to the technique of camera movement in this film, most of audience would like to concentrate on the action of characters in the Chinese Kong Fu film, as result of this, most of the senses in the film are shooting the fighting in the film. In Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, there is a scene that Jen and Yu Xiu-Lian fight with each other by swords in the courtyard of the house. The location looks like a secret chamber, which represents that one of them must die, the same as the coliseum in Rome in ancient time, and also it has a lot of weapon on the wall when they are fighting. Yu always change different kind of weapon to confront Jen because Jen is using Green Destiny, a sword that can cut off any other weapons.
Moreover, during shooting their fight, the lighting is using the low key lighting, which is to bring about weapons spark generated when the collision so that the audience will be more tension into the plot. Furthermore, for the camera movement, firstly it is a long shot to show the location. When they are going to fight, it uses a lot of close up, over shoulder and extreme close up to illustrate how they fight with using different Kong Fu and weapons. During they are fighting, it has some birds-eye view shot to show not only how intense of their fight, but also the ground fault of the weapons and the struggle traces. In a particular shot of this scene, it shows

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that Jen is shaking hand and her face is with exhausted. Although her whole body is shaking and got hurt in the fight, she still wants to fight against Yu. In this scene, it is totally talking about how the thief fights against the protector, however, the thief also has her own belief. It shows how chaos the society is at that time, for the most of people, they believe that being stronger only can do whatever they want. This is the reason why Jen is very eager to own the Green Destiny.
However, in this film, it has a very justice side, such as Jen tries to grab Li’s sward in the palace, but he catches her attack and teaches her the truth of life rather than hurts her. Finally, when Jen is captured, Li tells her: virtue can actually win over a person, rather than by sharp weapons or high-strength Kong Fu. In this scene, it indicates that Li’s kindness and noble character with some special composition. For example, it uses a lot of two shot and over shoulder to show the audience that Li wants to guide Jen back to be good rather than hurt her. Even though in one scene, Li throws the Green Destiny into the waterfall from the top of hill, but Jen still jumps down and tries to get it back. In this scene, it uses a long shot and till down to show the audience that the process of Jen’s jumping down to the waterfall, which demonstrates that she is without any hesitation. On the other side, from Li’s facial expression, it completely shows to the audience that how Jen desires the power and reflects how Li laments her thereby forming an enormous comparison. As far as to the reason why the Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon can achieve a great success rather than other film, it is because the director, Ang Lee, tried to attract the audience from all over the world. The way in the shooting, the director Ang Lee has considered all the details in every possible way. For the effect of light, he mostly spends the low key lighting to keep the mystery of Kung Fu; the lens shooting, he spends a lot of third-person perspective and two shot to make the audience appreciate the traditional Chinese martial arts, and he also take care more

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detailed things, such as eye contact when they are fighting against each other. So the audience can understand the meaning of what they want to say without the dialogue. And in all of the shooting locations, the choice of setting are based on the original work. For the storyline, it’s also different from the general martial arts. General martial arts have an endless stream of good and evil struggle.
In Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, although Li and Jade Fox have hatred, it is no longer the whole story centers; on the contrary, the conflict between Jen and Li and Yu is becoming more important. Li is an old lake with well-experienced and has witnessed many matters and changes in the society, while Jen is a new comer for this society. In her opinion, the way to solve the problem is violence and fighting. However, Li tells her: “abide by the rules”, which is a wisdom rather than a trite. In fact, this film puts more emphasis on to insinuate that many youths in our society should think twice before doing things.
In conclusion, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is the second after Bruce Lee. It is a great classic of traditional Chinese martial arts film, which is not only martial arts blended with a kind of popular culture, but also capturing people heart. On the other hand, they are so successful that no one can exceed the insurmountable heights. Most of the classic martial arts to the protagonist as a narrative perspective includes the works of Bruce Lee. However, in Crouching Tiger, Hidden
Dragon, the protagonists are not clear, there are no obvious emotional tendencies, and the director always stands in a more neutral point of view to describe this story, which make the film seem relatively calm; even if the final outcome of the tragedy, there is no excessive emotional catharsis.
So, the director -- Ang Lee’s martial arts perspective is not chivalry, but in the political arena, his intention is that wanting arena as a special form of society to describe, display, and analyze the narrative perspective of a neutral has become a necessity. As a film, Ang Lee must discard offshoot of distal and straight hit the point. Therefore, it is no longer a knight who owed

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focus. Shuttling between the secular arena and the sorrows and joys, gains and losses, and knowing what they are thinking about are the key points of this film. Moreover, the director do not always look at the development of conflict. He often intentionally or unintentionally chooses the main line of the story with the then secular society, people practices cross the shuttle, so as to find countless ties between them and provide an imagination.
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is not like a general Chinese Kong Fu film whose advantages are in its overall production well-structured film, paper and wind distribution of the average, the plot to promote smooth, entertaining; costumes and sets are elegant, rich taste of China.
In addition, it also use a very great cinematography technique to support the director’s idea, which is instead of the deep meaning of human thinking in the society at that time, this is Ang Lee’s unique talent and style.