Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Ang Lee’s spectacular masterpiece

Photo du film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon © DR

In 2000, Taiwanese filmmaker Ang Lee served up Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, a visually spectacular psychological martial arts film that was unanimously applauded for its inventiveness. Here are three good reasons to discover or rewatch this masterpiece, presented at the Cinéma de la plage by actor Zhang Ziyi.

For its mind-bending fight scenes
To stage his fight scenes, Ang Lee called on renowned martial arts choreographer Yuen Woo-Ping, who took inspiration from Chinese theatre by hanging the actors from cables. The actors performed most of the moves themselves, and despite intense training, some of the fight scenes were particularly hard to film. These scenes account for 25% of the entire feature film.

For its epic story adapted from a well-loved novel
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was adapted from a well-loved novel by Du Lu Wang, which was published in five tomes in the 1940s. Its original title, Wò Hǔ Cáng Lóng, is taken from a Chinese proverb used to describe a situation in which people reveal hidden talents. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon tells the tale of two friends (played by Chow Yun-Fat and Michelle Yeoh) who secretly love each other, on a mission to bring a young noble woman (Zhang Ziyi), who steals a legendary sword in an attempt to escape the boredom of her normal life, to reason.

For Ang Lee's mesmerising staging
Pared-back, elegant and poetic, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon's nuanced staging helped create the atmosphere that took this film beyond the martial arts genre. Ang Lee's feature film was a hit with audiences, and won him several awards, including the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2001.