To repress one's feelings only makes them stronger.
Umpteenth Screening. Cinemark. My son and I caught the re-release and I was just as blown away as the first time I saw it upon initial release in theaters in 2000. There are so many things to take note of that to do so fails to express what a perfect film this is. But this is Letterbox, so I'll try.
I've actually been to China several times, and one of the many things I appreciate about this film is the inherently familiar environments. It was like watching the animated Mulan and saying "yeah, that makes sense." You could tell the animators had visited the PRC. CTHD drops you into middle Qing (though western audiences may not know or care) and everything from the cobblestone roads, to the balustrades to the utter poverty on the streets screams authenticity. In a way, I feel like I've been on those streets, though they were not on the beaten path. The sets, particularly the saloon and the training room, were unparalleled in their detail. The set direction is immaculate.
Chinese life, like their theatre and their film, is littered with metaphor and word play. Part of this is enforced by their language. There are several scenes that cash in on this advantage, including the scene in which Shu Lien is deliberately baiting Jen with double entendres about swordplay. The title itself, lost to most western audiences, directly describes the threat that Shu Lien is facing: Jen is the Crouching Tiger, the seen and ready threat, while Jade Fox is the Hidden Dragon, the unseen force dangerous to all.
The student-becomes-the-master trope is both reinforced and blown apart. Jade Fox has stolen the Wudan manual of martial art, but lacks the sophisticated education to translate it. She befriends and aristocrat girl a the age of 8 who can translate the text, but Jen keeps the most important revelations to herself. Jen uses these secrets to surpass her master, but without proper Wudan training from someone like Mu Bai, she cannot possibly defeat those she most admires. This is an original contradiction that leap frogs over itself. Great writing.
There are several moments in which the audience is asked to pay attention and infer. Though Jen has stolen the Green Destiny, it is not a real threat because she does not know how to use it. This is why Mu Bai can easily tame her. When she does learn how to harness the vibration the blade creates into a strike, she becomes a dangerous foe to Shu Lien. This leads to one of the top five greatest fight scenes in all cinema history, the training room fight. I tried to think of four others and although I know there has to be some to compete, I simply can't think of any right now. I am fucking dumbfounded at the complex choreography and execution by Ziti and Yeoh. Animated Jedis don't fight this good. Some of the contact points go up to thirteen strikes. It is hard for the mind to fathom.
Just as the student-teacher relationship is muddled, so is the love dynamic. We know from the get go that Shu Lien and Mu Bai are in unrequited love. We expect that to be a form of tension that we hope to see resolved by the end of the film. It is not, and we are heart broken. I cried from their first (and last) kiss to the credits. Call me a pussy. I don't care. The second paring is Mu Bai and Jen, which immediately forms prejudice in the audience mind due to Jen's age and Mu Bai's prior relationship declaration to Shu Lien. Throughout the film we see the growing fascination between the two, and we are left guessing what it is they are both exactly after. In Zhang ZiYi we see a familiar form that is self-evident. In Chow Young-Fat we are faced with a masculine figure that equates to the Man With No Name, Yojimbo, or any other Hollywood Badasses you care to name. Chow Young-Fat elevates all these characterizations with his performance. James Bond might be more fun, but he would lose to Mu Bai in two moves. And Lee's directing of these small moments is so brilliant the end of this fascination has to be spelled out to us. In the final moment between them, Jen exposes her breasts to Mu Bai and asks him what he really wants. In that moment, we know his interest in her was only professional, in the purest form of Chinese tradition. Jen's own relationship with Lo was itself risky for Chinese audiences. Though Manchurian, she is very close to Han in terms of ethnic grouping. Lo is very clearly central asian - possibly Uigher or Mongolian. This cross matching is not appropriate for most of Chinese society, and here it is in the biggest film in Asian history.
Finally, I must center on the acting, and as much a fan as I am of Chang Chen as Lo, Pei-Pei Cheng as Jade Fox, Sihung Lung as Sir Te, and even the draw dropping Chow Young-Fat, the true stars of this film are Michelle Yeah and Zhang ZiYi, and for two separate reasons. Yeoh is so clearly the senior in every possible way, and so dignified in her grace and beauty that you become attached to her struggles and pain early on in the film. What you see is Yeah bottling up Shu Lien's frustration and rage at what contemporary China will and will not allow - and along comes Jen to fuck it all up. Her anger is not blinding, she focuses it to defeat her foe, and when Yeoh finally breaks down over the passing of her love mate, it is the emotional climax of the film. I simply could not believe the rollercoaster ride she took the audience through. Yes, Ang Lee is a genius for plotting the way, but she had to perform to this degree to sell the film. It is all based on this one scene.
Secondly, I am always shocked at seeing Zhang ZiYi be such a capable actor at the age of 21. The close-ups Lee takes of her (Peter Pau was the cinematographer, credit where credit is due), blew me away on the big screen. I was shocked at how beautiful she was. She reminded me of Audrey Hepburn in Sabrina. She was stunningly beautiful. The way Lee used her beauty to showcase a variety of emotions (the dutiful but disappointed fiancee, the spoiled brat, the determined warrior, the lovesick girl who wanted to run away, the repenantent sinner who willingly gave Shu Lien the freedom to kill her, the depressed and experienced young girl who cannot go on knowing what she did with her immature and naive ways) and those performances moved us scene by scene through this film as a counter balance to Yeoh's steadfast determination to catch the crook. This balance of eroticsim and alpha-male like behavior is rare in film, and ZiYi makes it look easy. her close ups look like Vogue covers.
The rest can be catalogued but are probably extraneous. The as-real-as-you-can-get-without-laughing wire flights, the tree fight sequence, the surprise revelations. The patient pacing in the courtyard homes that convey how Asia really was for centuries before we fucked it up. All of these things shout best picture at me. And if I had to decide who got the Oscar for best supporting actress between Yeoh and ZiYi, I'd rather fling myself off a bridge like Jen.
Simply an astounding masterpiece by all parties involved.