MIM Notes 226 January 15, 2001

Review:
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon 
Directed by Ang Lee December, 2000

review by MC17

Ang Lee's new Hong-Kong action film was released in the u.s. amid 
much hype in spite of the fact that it is in Mandarin. Subtitles 
usually scare off Amerikan audiences who refuse to believe that 
good movies could be made by people who don't speak English. True 
to Hong-Kong action style, this movie includes excellent fight 
scenes (choreographed by Yuen Wo-Ping of The Matrix) with some 
other good stunts, including flying and walking on water. 
Crouching Tiger has also attracted notice because the majority of 
the very skillful fighting is done by wimmin. But for MIM, 
aesthetics cannot be separated from political content. Crouching 
Tiger's plot fails to deliver any good reason for the wimmin -- or 
the men -- to use their skill.

The romantic undercurrent in the plot will help sell Crouching 
Tiger to Amerikan audiences. But the movie never gets beyond 
romance. The heroes, played by Chow Yun-Fat and Michelle Yeoh, are 
alternately trying to keep a sword out of the hands of an "evil" 
woman and trying to decide whether they can be romantically 
involved with each other. The "evil" woman is bad -- as an 
individual -- because she does not have a code of ethics and will 
kill anyone. The heroes are "good" -- as individuals -- because 
they live by a code of ethics, are loyal, honest, etc. Pretty 
vague stuff.

The forces of good and evil are trying to win the heart of a young 
rich girl (played by Zhang Ziyi) who is about to be married off by 
her parents. She wants to live the free life of a warrior and does 
not want to marry. The movie never addresses the topic of arranged 
marriage and the subjugation of wimmin as a societal issue. 
Instead each woman faces different individual difficulties that 
are made to be part of her personal situation rather than part of 
a patriarchal system.(1)

The movie sinks into individualist oblivion with the take home 
message that a true heart can conquer all. Essentially preaching 
that true love is the most important thing in life, Crouching 
Tiger suggests that all problems are personal, not a part of any 
societal system.

In this reviewer's opinion, even the often heard praise for 
Crouching Tiger that it gives wimmin good strong roles, is 
misplaced. Although the film did give wimmin characters excellent 
fight scenes and a strong independent presence, Michelle Yeoh was 
overshadowed by Chow Yun Fat's character throughout the movie. 
None of the wimmin were portrayed as wise, strong, or talented as 
him.

For MIM, Crouching Tiger is a more polished (bigger budget) and 
more hyped Hong-Kong action film that fails to provide its viewers 
with any meaningful political content. And because all movies are 
made in the context of a political society, this means Crouching 
Tiger ends up supporting the status quo of patriarchy and 
imperialism. 



Notes:

1. C.f. Mao's discussion of arranged marriage in "Miss Chao's 
Suicide" (www.maoism.org/msw/vol6/mswv6_05.htm), written thirty 
years before liberation:

"A person's suicide is entirely determined by circumstances. Was 
Miss Chao's original idea to seek death? On the contrary, it was 
to seek life. If Miss Chao ended up by seeking death instead, it 
is because circumstances drove her to this. ... Even if her 
parents and the family of her future husband had refused to accept 
her free will, if in society there had been a powerful group of 
public opinion to support her, if there were an entirely new world 
where the fact of running away from one's parents' home and 
finding refuge elsewhere were considered honourable and not 
dishonourable, in this case, Miss Chao would certainly not have 
died. If Miss Chao is dead today, it is because she was solidly 
enclosed by the three iron nets (society, her own family, the 
family of her future husband); she sought life in vain and finally 
was led to seek death. ...

"Since there are factors in our society that have [killed] Miss 
Chao, this society is an extremely dangerous thing. It was capable 
of causing the death of Miss Chao; it could also cause the death 
of Miss Ch'ieh, Miss Sun, or Miss Li. It is capable of killing men 
as well as women. All of us, the potential victims, must be on our 
guard before this dangerous thing that could inflict a fatal blow 
on us. We should protest loudly, warn the other human being who 
are not yet dead and condemn the countless evils of our society. 
..."