Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
© James C. Hess
The platypus is a strange looking creature: The bill of a duck, the tail of a beaver, the culinary preferences of an anteater.
Now what makes this creature even odder is that if you ask ten people to describe what they are looking at when looking at a platypus you will probably get ten very different responses.
Which goes, somewhat disjointed, to my theory: For something to be great it has to be viewed not with a singular perception but a variety of perceptions.
An example of what makes for greatness (in things artistic) under this theory, then: "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon". I know of ten people who have seen this film and I have had ten people tell me they saw ten different films.
Which means: Greatness.
It also means, unfortunately, the so-called critics will probably pan this film and not give it the credit it deserves.
Superficially "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" comes across as yet another martial arts film tooled to fit the Hollywood machine (that otherwise grinds out mindless pap).
Look again and see this is not true: Although it is a martial arts film, it has, relatively-speaking, little to do with fighting, instead focusing on personal achievement and aspirations of excellence. Where there should be choreographed (and very cliched) battles there is, instead, ballet: Carefully constructed and executed transcending of space, gravity, and the physical.
Where one might expect to see a reworking of the Western (a favorite of so-called martial arts movies made in Hollywood) one finds instead a narrative that rivals the romantic and dramatic works of Shakespeare.
Understand: People do die in "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" as they do in Hollywood martial arts films and movies but their deaths, like almost everything in this film, serve a higher purpose, a greater good. Consider the hero, who fights a number of opponents in quick succession, and beats them. They are villians, these opponents, but their deaths serve as warning to those who would suppress the individual, which ultimately triumphs.
(A thematic, incidentally, that increasingly appears in Asian cinematic efforts such as "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon". What does that mean? Stay tuned.)
The director of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" is Ang Lee, who, like other directors from the Far East, redefines filmmaking with each effort he produces. But he cannot be given all the credit for the result. Much of what thrills and exhilarates comes from the action scenes and sequences, which were created by Yuen Wo-Ping, who previously worked on "The Matrix".
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