|||||| The Planet of Great Moviez ||||||||: Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon (2000)

Title:
The title Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (????) derives from a Chinese idiom that describes a location where everyone conceals their strengths from the others to preserve the element of surprise. It also references two of the characters: Jen's Mandarin name, Jiao Lóng, means "little dragon", and Lo's name Xiao Hu means "little tiger".

Synopsis:
The fictional story is set in the historic Qing Dynasty in China. The date of the story is during the 43rd year of Emperor Qianlong's reign (i.e. 1778).[4]

The story follows two martial arts warriors, Li Mu-bai (Chinese: ???; Pinyin: Li Mùbái) (Chow Yun-Fat) and Yu Shu-lien (Chinese: ???; Pinyin: Yú Xiùlián) (Michelle Yeoh), the former now an accomplished swordsman for the Wudang school. Li returns one day from deep meditation to surrender Green Destiny, a legendary sword that has remained in his use for many years. He requests Yu, a close friend who has inherited a house of armed escorts from her father, to transport it to Sir Te, a long-time friend, for safekeeping in Beijing.

Mu-bai and Shu-lien are attracted to each another but abstain from a relationship, constrained by commonplace propriety because of Shu-lien's betrothal years ago to Mu-bai's "Brother in Oath," who has since died.

Once in Beijing, Shu-lien delivers the sword to Sir Te and meets Jen (Chinese: ???; Pinyin: Yù Jiaolóng) (Zhang Ziyi), who is the daughter of Governor Yu, a Manchu aristocrat visiting Sir Te on official business. Jen is destined for an arranged marriage, yet yearns for adventure instead of a life as a court wife. Jen is fascinated by Shu-lien's background as a fighter and develops an attachment to her.

One night, a masked thief sneaks onto Sir Te's property and steals the Green Destiny. The thief is pursued by guards and by Shu-lien, across rooftops, alleys, walls, houses and various obstacles within and outside the enclosed estate of Sir Te. Amidst combat, and much to Shu-lien's surprise, she discovers that the thief is well-versed in martial arts and has apparently studied the Wudang school of martial arts, like Mu-bai.

The thief turns out to be Jen. To retrieve the sword, Mu-bai fights with Jen on several occasions, and proves to be the superior fighter, but he refuses to kill her because he sees her potential and wants to train her as his apprentice. Shu-lien tells Jen that she had already known her to be the thief, but had covered it up for the sake of Jen's family. Subsequently the two of them fight and they appear to be an even match for each other. Mu-bai arrives at the scene, and pursues Jen into the forest. When Mu-bai reasserts that he wants to train Jen, she tells him that she will accept him as her master if he can take the Green Destiny sword from her in three moves. To Jen's surprise, Mu-bai moves swiftly and snatches the sword from her hand in a single movement. When Jen still refuses to become Mu-bai's pupil, he throws her sword into a stream. Jen chases after the sword, but Mu-bai does not pursue after her.

Jen, headstrong in her powers and emboldened by her forbidden love to the desert bandit Lo (Chinese: ???; Pinyin: Luó Xiaohu) (played by Chang Chen), consequently does not accept Mu-bai as master, nor Shu-lien as a friend. Jen stands at crossroads of her life choices. She must choose either life as a court official's wife or life with Lo. She also considers a rebellious (and romantic in her eyes) existence as either an outlaw under Jade Fox, a renegade old female fighter who murdered Mu-bai's master and who is her secret teacher, or a somewhat more assured, but nonetheless unconventional, martial path with Mu-bai as a teacher.

In the end, Jade Fox abducts Jen. Li, who has sworn to avenge his master, manages to save Jen and avenge his his master's death, but is fatally poisoned defending Jen from an attack of poisoned assassin needles Jade Fox directs at Jen. Jade Fox wants to murder Jen as Jen has hidden the true meanings of the secret Wudang journals from Jade. Jade had progressed as far she could since she could not fathom the true meaning of the manuals; Jen surpassed her and, according to Jade, Jen's potential is limitless.

Jen, with no more signs of resentment for Mu-bai on her face, says that this kind of poison spreads directly to the heart and cannot be cured. Mu-bai, just before his death, professes his feelings for Shu-lien. A heartbroken Shu-lien then advises Jen that, no matter what path she chooses, she must always remain true to herself. Jen goes to the sect at Wudang mountains and spends one last night with Lo, who is waiting for her. The next morning, he sees her standing beside the side of the mountain. She asks him to make a wish. He complies, wishing them to be together, and Jen leaps into the clouds and waters below, leaving Lo behind.

As an additional remark, although the movie does not reveal if Jen dies, the subsequent novel in the Crane Iron Pentalogy, Iron Knight, Silver Vase, starts with Jen and Lo as a couple and having one son.

Style
The fantasy aspect of the film comes into play whenever the three protagonists fight: they possess seemingly magical powers, literally flying through the air as they vault across roofs, running up walls, and moving with superhuman ease. This aspect of the film is a common characteristic in the wuxia film genre. The powers are never clearly explained in the movie but the implication is it comes from the protagonists' training and secret knowledge from the Wudang school of martial arts. In anticipation of the film's hidden (yet ambiguous) ending, the dialog hints that through the Wudang arts, under the right conditions, one might acquire immense hidden power and skill in aerial movement.[citation needed]

Another school of thought is that of traditional Chinese "wuxia" discourse, in which through years of training mastering not only various forms of fighting created by Masters of each fight sect, one is also able to learn to control the Chi within one's self. This is through a system of "Naigong", in which an apprentice directs their Chi using their mind through their body in a circular manner, passing various pressure points and forming a continuous loop, constantly strengthening the flow of the Chi. Through years of work, the apprentice's Chi's growth can become (metaphorically) first a small stream, then eventually a brook, a river, and finally a sea's worth of Chi. Using this Chi allows them to perform these super-human feats, whether they be "Qing Gong" (light martial skill) or the "Palm Power" depicted by old school Hong Kong wuxia films during the 1950s and beyond.

The lush and moving score by Tan Dun is notably enhanced by the performance of erhu soloist Xiaohui Ma and cello soloist YoYo Ma. Together they bring an acute, emotional intensity that helps drive home the story's combined sense of romance and sorrow.

ScreenShots:

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Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon (2000)

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