Crouching Tiger,
Hidden Dragon

by Lovell Mahan-Moutaw

Yu Shu Lien (Michelle Yeoh) is a warrior. She embodies all of the things a warrior needs to be: trained, strong, talented, stealthy, intelligent and most of all, honorable.

 

 

Li Mu Bai (Chow Yun Fat) is another warrior who is tired of the bloodshed and heartbreak of his way of life. Li Mu Bai entrusts his legendary sword, the "Green Destiny" to Yu Shu Lien to give to a friend, Sir Te (Sihung Lung). Although Li Mu Bai has foresworn the life of a warrior, he still intends to avenge his master's murder and find and kill the horrible Jade Fox.

Yu Shu Lien and Li Mu Bai look at each other with affection and desire. They do not touch, they do not embrace, their smiles for each other are halved.

They are obviously in love.

Yu Shu Lien delivers the sword safely to Sir Te. While at Sir Te's she meets Jen Yu (Zhang Zi Yi), a forlorn heiress whose wedding is on the horizon. Jen wants a life of adventure but instead, as her station decrees, she is sentenced to the sedate role of a wife.

In the night, Green Destiny is stolen. Sir Te's men and Yu Shu Lien pursue the thief, to no avail. The thief has been trained in the magical arts.

Yu Shu Lien realizes that all is not as it seems, and when Li Mu Bai arrives, she asks for his patience in finding Green Destiny. She assesses the situation and "unmasks" the thief. While cleverly ensuring the safe return of Green Destiny, she makes a friend of Jen and attempts to advise her. As a warrior, honor is of the utmost, and this is a lesson that Shu Lien attempts to instill in Jen. For Jen, in order to act honorably it would mean the marriage would happen, and thus Jen would not dishonor herself or her parents, her husband-to-be and his family. For She Lien, this means not being able to speak of or show her love for Li Mu Bai, who happens to be the brother of her deceased fiancé. If Shu Lien were to show this love, it would dishonor the memory of her fiancé.

Jen understands little of this as it seems to her that honor asks the impossible.

Jen continues to lament her life and as her many secrets and desires are revealed we find out that she has a forbidden lover, the beautiful Lo (Chen Chang).

As the story progresses, the viewer is treated to fight scenes that can possibly bring you to tears with their beauty or make your mouth drop open with their daring or make the hair stand up on the back of your neck with their danger. The viewer is also treated to gorgeous cinematography, sets and costumes and a hauntingly lovely soundtrack constructed around incredible cello solos by Yo Yo Ma.

I can not tell more of the story. There are several reasons for this: I do not want to spoil it, it would take too long as it is very complex, and a description of it would not do it justice.

The story, even the movie itself, is familiar. Its characters, its plot line, its fight scenes are reminiscent of something else.

I had a rather passionate conversation with a friend one evening. I said that when you go to a very nice restaurant that has a chef who is less a cook and more an artist, you should not season your food. The food is meant to be eaten the way it is cooked and presented to you - you ask for no substitutions or changes and when it is set in front of you, you do not grind even a speck of pepper onto it. My friend said that if he is paying for the food, he will modify it and season it to his liking.

There are some who would argue that this is akin to disliking the fact that Mona Lisa doesn't have eyebrows, and thus taking the picture and painting in her eyebrows. If you have to look at it, it might as well be right.

Usually, such an endeavor, from the pepper to Mona Lisa's eyebrows, would make my stomach churn or my blood boil. Artistry should not be tampered with...and thus, I often don't like sequels or remakes or even making one medium in to the next (a book to a movie). I prefer something to be as it is - for that was what it was intended to be.

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is the pepper and the eyebrows and you are glad of it. The familiarity of the scenes denote a possible homage - yet, it is not. Instead, it takes something you know and understand and even may revere and brings it to a different level - something so stunning as to take your breath away. Something that says, this is how it should have been done.

We see Luke Skywalker, as Luke should have been. In Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Luke has more daring, less whining - more bravado, less cheese - more heartbreak, less melodrama.

We see a dozen young and talented gun slingers from a dozen fabulous wild west films and we know how they should have fought the fight. We know that there should be humor and unbelievable shots - and we should see the fight through eyes filled with wonder, eyes filled with amazement.

We see the longing glances or the white hot touches in a hundred love stories and we never get to the depth of yearning we see in the lovers of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Even sitting three feet apart and meditating, you see, almost feel, the pull between them, regardless of the circumstances.

Youth is silly, stupid even. It is a wonder we all make it through without destroying everything and everyone around us. Many people never learn to act with honor or even thoughtfully. Many people see only their own desires and do not choose to learn the lessons that are constantly taught around them. If you are lucky, the only destruction will be minor. If you are lucky, if there is major destruction, it will happen to you. If you are unlucky, the thoughtlessness and the selfishness of your youth will destroy others. Honor, no matter what the sacrifices, should be put above all. If you act with honor, no matter what the sacrifices, you will be able to live with yourself. Those sacrifices, to some, may seem devastating. But the guilt of behaving selfishly, without thought to others, with only your own motivations in mind, may be more personally destructive than anything else. This is a lesson many never learn, but it is even more sad that this is a lesson many learn too late.

I feel I have done this movie no justice by reviewing it. I don't have the words to describe it or my reaction to it. I cannot tell you how I felt walking away from it or properly describe how I felt while watching it. It was a wonder. It was a marvel. Go see it. You must go see it.

 

CineScene, 2000