Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
03/27/2001
Review
Format: Theatre Subtitled
Stars: Michelle Yeoh, Chow Yun Fat, Zhang Zi Yi, Chang Pei Pei

Chow Yun Fat returns home with his great sword after being in the wu dang temple. He and Yeoh develop a relationship and, well, actually the moral of the story is very well put I think, except it's not acted well.

That's a problem, but not the only one. Acting in this was so bad by the main characters except for Michelle Yeoh and Chow Yun Fat. Zhang Zi Yi plays a brat and I found it easy to hate her. Whoever wrote her character seemed to have trouble finding some kind of consistancy. At one time she's killing innocent people, another time she's falling in love, and then she fights more. And I'm supposed to care about her? "Yea cuz she's sexy," my friends say. I tell them to go watch more movies. Her boyfriend, whoever he was, was aweful and boring and didn't need to be in this movie. Chow Yun Fat plays it cool, which is getting a bit old for those of us who have seen Chow in at least 3 other movies. He never seems to get angry, but his character seemed legitimate and in the end we learn that one must follow their heart before it's too late. Yea it's an old morale, but it holds true. However, that doesn't by ANY means make this the best movie of 2000, nor the best of 2001, nor the best of the 21st century, nor the best of the 20th century, nor the best "kung-fu flick", nor the best HK production. Not by any means. It's way down my list, and apart from 3 martial arts sequences (2 of which were heavily aided with wires and doubles), I found it a bore. Here's why.

We start off with Michelle Yeoh chasing Zhang over rooftops, flying here and there. Ok here's another problem. People flying. What was Ang Lee (producer) thinking? Is it too hard to have people occasionally hit the ground? Or MAYBE to have some original sets? Everything looks fake. The roofs look fake, the buildings look fake, CHINA looks fake in this. It isn't China, it's Neo China, it's Quasi China, it's Semi China, just not China, which is exactly what ISN'T supposed to happen. Anyways, they fly some more, and then hit the ground, and for a good minute we get a big dose of some decently choreographed movements by our friend Yuen Wo Ping. Granted, both of them are doubled at times. Michelle Yeoh's bun in her hair is higher when she's doing arial kicks (so therefore, it's not her), and Zhang is conveniently dressed in all black with a face mask, but when the camera goes in close, Yeoh and whoever is in the black impress very well. Fast hands and feet. The sound effects weren't to my liking because they were way too quiet and Yeoh's voice overshadowed them, and neither was the setting. Like I said, it seems fake. Things are too CLEAN here, the walls are too clean, there aren't any carts sitting around collecting flies and grum, it's just a wall with flat ground and dirt, that's it. Too clean. Despite that and the wirework and the doubles, good scene. The theatre I was in was too dark and I couldn't see ANYTHING though, so I went to the CTHD web page HERE and downloaded it. What I don't understand is that everyone in the theatre seemed pretty content with it, that's not cool. Americans are stupid that way I guess. Also, the camerawork reminded me of American martial arts movies, where some things just aren't seen properly. Some weird overhead shots don't help either. So apart from that, the lighting, clenliness and wires and doubling, good scene, though I would have liked a bit more complicated handwork.

Then we get another scene with Chang Pei Pei, an old female fighter in HK films, and Zhang fighting off some 3 people with weapons, and here is another great scene that wasn't well lit in the theatre, but the weaponwork is excellent. Nice choreography by Wo Ping again, and everyone seems to perform well. I like this scene more than the previous one because you hear more. Weapons clash nicely, and everyone puts in their noises as well. And it's somewhat long as well, I believe it lasted for over 2 minutes. Great. Same camera problem again though.

And the third scene that I highly enjoyed, the best fight in the movie in my opinion, is when Yeoh and Zhang face off in the house with weapons surrounding them. Yeoh makes good use of almost every weapon available, one being a big heavy stick, and she does some good swordwork. Again, they're doubled at times, but at least it was a VERY well lit fight and the wirework was minimal, if even existant at all. At this point I could say that I was ready to leave. It's like I knew that I had seen the best part of the movie and there was nothing left up their sleeves.

One fight that was enjoyable but fake was one where Zhang fights a few fighters in a bar, and they all have names like Phoenix of the River Mountain and Han of the Iron Palm. Some destruction, people fly, Zhang flies, and it's over. Comedic, but not too memorable.

The scene on the tree with Chow Yun Fat against Zhang was neat looking with the trees and all, but whenever I see people fly, I get that bad wire-feeling, like "This is cool, but it's not right and I don't like it." Somehow they managed to fly the two of them through trees while conceiling the wire very very well, but it's still fake. Not exactly majestic in my opinion, I find Donnie throwing chain spin kicks in a field much better looking (Legend of the Wolf).

So on I go with some of the great problems with this film. First off, Zhang's character, like I said, is worthless, and so is her boyfriend she met in the desert. There's one scene in this movie where she has a flashback of meeting the guy in the desert (and this lasts for a good half hour, I almost fell asleep), she does some wire-fighting and the guy does some boring fall-off-the-horse-and-get-back-on routine while they're riding away. I feel that this scene should have been completely cut out, it's taboo to have a flashback last for that long... then again, Legend of the Wolf is basically one big flashback, but I don't like to look at it in that way. The entire movie was BASED on that flashback. Chow Yun Fat's character was interesting to me, Michelle Yeoh was soso, but the rest seemed too distant. To compare this with other HK films, usually I have some kind of feeling when the main character dies, but not here. I felt nothing.

What this could have used is...
Less wiring, dirtier sets, better lighting (at least in the theatre), one more fight outdoors in the daytime preferably hand to hand, but not in the same fashion as the first, between an unknown character and Zhang or Yeoh, the desert scene eliminated, and more complicated choreography for the first fight. Less doubling would have been nice too, but sometimes that's not possible. I liked this movie to an extent. It was like a comic book with a bunch of legends all over the place (incomprehensible to the average non-Chinese), and they had the wu dang temple in it, though it seemed way too fake for those of us who have seen it in other films. Perhaps what I enjoyed the most was Chow Yun Fat's take on what one must do before they die, and that's follow the heart.

I think that the reason for this movie's success in America is that it's practically an American movie. It might as well be anyways. The camera angles, style of fighting, and the unreality of it all just feels like home, which is BAD. I honestly think that I should have walked away from this movie in awe after all the hype, or maybe have a few good sticky memories, but I have none.

3/5

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