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Related:
StudioLA's
exclusive interview with Michelle Yeoh
Interview
with Chow Yun-Fat in Anna and the King
Crouching Tiger, Hidden
Dragon Official Site
AC Team Note:
Solange's outstanding review had perfect vision. It was written
prior to the Academy Award's announcement of its Oscar nominees.
True to her urging of Hollywood to bestow due recognition for this
landmark film, "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" has
indeed won Hollywood's praise. The film has won four Oscars, out
of ten nominations in one of the tightest Oscar races in recent
years.
Click and find
out more on AC Team's latest on the Oscar
Winners, an exclusive interview in streaming audio with "Crouching
Tiger, Hidden Dragon" star Michelle Yeoh, and more on Asian
Films!
Exclusive
interviews by StudioLA's Hollywood team Jim Ferguson, Suzanne Kai,
and Wendy Chan:
Sean
Connery, Kevin
Costner, Catherine
Zeta-Jones, Julia
Stiles, Jennifer
Lopez,
Maggie
Cheung Man-yuk, Michelle
Yeoh, Michael
Douglas, Geoffrey
Rush, Tony
Leung Ciu-wai, George
Clooney, Wong
Kar-wai, Matt
Damon, Superman
- the original cast, Luo
Yan.
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Coming Soon!
Sean Penn, Mel Gibson.
In his latest film, "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,"
director Ang Lee (Sense and Sensibility) has created a stellar masterpiece
of such grace, fluidity and depth that it quietly blows away the
stale residue of Hollywood by product that hangs over this year's
pending Oscar nominations.
In this gentle and finely crafted film, Ang Lee reinvents
and revitalizes all the classic elements of epic film; fantasy,
adventure, love, passion and honor, while simultaneously succeeding
in creating a film that proves that filmmaking can still be both
art and entertainment.
Zhang Zi Yi stars as Jen Yu, the aristocratic daughter of a politician
who plays the geisha bride-to-be during the day, but moonlights as
a master warrior of unsurpassed skill. While possessing the
physical characteristics of a 14-year-old girl her talent and strength
can defeat a bar room of men and a gang of desert pirates.
Michelle Yeoh stars as Yu Shu Lien, the matured and accomplished
female warrior who mentors and later combats the impetuous Jen.
Chow Yun-Fat plays Li Mu Bai a master warrior who suffers
through an existential crisis emerging from his struggle between
the inevitable violence and bloodshed of his warrior life and his
need for peace and the expression of his suppressed love for Yu
Shu. Ironically, this top-billing star remains the most passive
figure in the story.
Ang Lee draws inspiration from the established Chinese genre of "Wuxia"
films, about an Eastern class of warrior/knights who are in possession
of magical abilities like flight, speed and superhuman strength. Through
his reinvention of this genre, Lee showcases the true star of the
film, the choreographer of the astonishingly beautiful battle scenes,
Yuen Wo-Ping.
Together, Wo-Ping and Lee achieve fight scenes that match
the grace of ballet with the thrill of war movies to create a fantasy
adventure that awakens a sense of awe and wonder akin to a child's
introduction to Peter Pan or Alice in Wonderland.
However, the true originality and source of reinvention lies in the
surprising casting of women as the highest class of warriors. "Crouching
Tiger, Hidden Dragon" features three separate women, Jen (Zi
Yi), Yu Shu (Yeoh), and the dark villain of the story, Jade Fox, played
by Cheng Pei Pei. These characters range from age 14 to 40 and at
least one of them stars in each and every battle scene.
Women in action/adventure films are often shown as little
more than helpless fodder for comic relief, let alone the powerful
forces of domination that characters such as Jen and Yu Shu prove
to be. Part of the excitement of "CrouchingTiger, Hidden Dragon"
comes from Lee's obvious awareness that his female leads emerge
from so oppressive and sheltered a role in society, and, yet, have
such boundless success in the film. And while there is nothing remotely
masculine about either Zhang Zi Yi or Michelle Yeoh, both fight
as men in traditional Hollywood action/adventure movies, boldly,
vengefully and without a trace of helplessness.
Yet, Lee never pretends for one moment that his female characters
are regarded as equal in the world they live in. Just as he did
in Sense and Sensibility, Lee depicts in the subtlest of ways both
the multiplicity of his female characters' desires and abilities,
while still holding true to the realities of a woman's life.
When Li decides that Jen should train at Wudan Mountain, the school
for the best warriors, a slightly jealous Yu Shu reminds him that
women aren't allowed there. Yu Shu reveals throughout the film an
ambivalence towards her choice to soar above (both literally and figuratively)
the expected role of women in her society and in her humble acceptance
of her choice, a profound courage. However, in her wistfulness for
a more traditional life she encourages the rebellious Jen to embrace
her politically arranged marriage. However, not even Jen's passionate
outlaw boyfriend, Lo, played by Chang Chen, can satiate Jen's appetite
for battle. In the end, no one can doubt that both Jen and Yu Shu
are warriors at heart.
If the Academy Awards sticks "Crouching Tiger, Hidden
Dragon" in the foreign film category, it will lower the bar
considerably for Hollywood and will unfortunately sell short a beautifully
crafted film that moves deeply and insightfully into the complexity
of human relationships.
AC
Team's Solange Castro
Belcher moved to Hollywood to pursue a career as a stand-up
comic after graduating from Yale University with a degree in English.
Today she has turned her pursuits from comedy to film reviewing
and screenwriting. Solange is managing editor at University of California
at Los Angeles' groundbreaking Teaching
to Change LA, an online journal for teachers, students and parents
in the Los Angeles schools. In addition to her film reviews for
AsianConnections.com, and AC's Hollywood site StudioLA.com, she
is a contributing film reviewer for the Santa Monica Film Festival
(smff.com). Email: solange@asianconnections.com
--------------------
Related:
StudioLA's
exclusive interivew with Michelle Yeoh
Interview
with Chow Yun-Fat in Anna and the King
Crouching Tiger, Hidden
Dragon Official Site
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