Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

Movie Information

The Hendersonville Film Society will show Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon at 2 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 1, in the Smoky Mountain Theater at Lake Pointe Landing Retirement Community (behind Epic Cinemas), 333 Thompson St., Hendersonville.
Score:

Genre: Fantasy/Action/Romance
Director: Ang Lee
Starring: Chow Yun Fat, Michelle Yeoh, Ziyi Zhang, Chen Chang, Sihung Lung
Rated: PG-13

When I first saw Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000), I admired its visual and cinematic wizardry, but not much more. Then I had the chance of meeting the Chinese author Da Chen by way of interviewing him, and as interviews often do, we wandered off on tangents having nothing to do with the subject at hand. One of those tangents was this film, about which he noted that people who view it as an action film are only getting a small part of it, that its true beauty and greatness lay in its romance and legend. So I approached the film again with that in mind—and something far richer emerged.

This isn’t to say that the film isn’t an amazing martial-arts spectacle. It most certainly is that—and one of the few movies where the film is on a par with that aspect. This may also be the first martial-arts film where it was obvious that the action scenes were the musical numbers of modern film. (This became increasingly pronounced in the next few years in Jackie Chan’s movies.) But it’s easy to forget that this is only a part of the film. Watch the film more closely. This is not your average action picture, but a solid drama of some weight that’s actually on par with the action—and maybe a bit more.

SHARE
About Ken Hanke
Head film critic for Mountain Xpress from December 2000 until his death in June 2016. Author of books "Ken Russell's Films," "Charlie Chan at the Movies," "A Critical Guide to Horror Film Series," "Tim Burton: An Unauthorized Biography of the Filmmaker."

Before you comment

The comments section is here to provide a platform for civil dialogue on the issues we face together as a local community. Xpress is committed to offering this platform for all voices, but when the tone of the discussion gets nasty or strays off topic, we believe many people choose not to participate. Xpress editors are determined to moderate comments to ensure a constructive interchange is maintained. All comments judged not to be in keeping with the spirit of civil discourse will be removed and repeat violators will be banned. See here for our terms of service. Thank you for being part of this effort to promote respectful discussion.

2 thoughts on “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

Leave a Reply to Xanadon't ×

To leave a reply you may Login with your Mountain Xpress account, connect socially or enter your name and e-mail. Your e-mail address will not be published. All fields are required.