DVD Pick: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Reviewed by Ivana Redwine












Length: 120 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for martial arts violence and some sexuality

"The things we can touch have no permanence. My master would say there is nothing we can hold onto in this world. Only by letting go can we truly possess what is real." So says the wisest of the main characters in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, winner of the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. The movie’s title is an expression of the notion of concealed strength.

Set in feudal China, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is a martial arts film, but it offers several other dimensions as well. The movie’s complicated plot involves two intersecting stories: One is the tale of an aging warrior who seeks to avenge his master’s death, while the other is the story of a teenager struggling to get her adult life started in the right direction. The film is visually stunning, and it won Oscars for Best Cinematography and Best Set Direction - Art Direction. Also, the soundtrack features appealing, unusual music that won Crouching Tiger the Academy Award for Best Original Score.

The film opens with famous warrior Li Mu Bai (Chow Yun Fat) paying a visit to Shu Lien (Michelle Yeoh), who runs a business called Sun Security that was started by her late father. It soon becomes clear that Li and Shu Lien have silently loved each other for years. Li tells Shu Lien that while meditating he started thinking about quitting the warrior’s life, "I had come to a place my master had never told me about. I was surrounded by endless sorrow." Li would like to settle down with Shu Lien, yet there is one unresolved issue still preying on his mind: He has been unable to avenge the death of his master, who was killed by a woman named Jade Fox some ten years ago.

Shu Lien travels to Peking, where she meets the beautiful, aristocratic Jen (Zhang Ziyi), 18-year-old daughter of the governor. Jen is to be married soon, but the marriage is one that has been arranged to further her father’s career. Jen tells Shu Lien, "I guess I’m happy to be marrying. But to be free to live my own life--to choose whom I love--that is true happiness." Shu Lien responds by recounting to Jen the story of her own engagement: "His name was Meng Si Zhao. He was a brother to Li Mu Bai by oath. One day while in battle, he was killed by the sword of Li Mu Bai’s enemy. After, Li Mu Bai and I went through a lot together. Our feelings for each other grew stronger. But how could we dishonor Meng’s memory?"

But we soon learn that the fragile-looking young Jen is much different from what she at first seems. It turns out that after Jade Fox (Cheng Pei Pei) killed Li’s master, she fled to the West and became the governess of the then 8-year-old Jen, and she and Jen have been practicing martial arts together for the last eight years. Of course, Jen is eager to put to use the martial arts skills she has spent so much time in developing.

It also turns out that Jen had a passionate romantic relationship not long before she met Shu Lien. While Jen was traveling through the desert in a caravan, she encountered the handsome, masculine Lo (Chang Chen), and they quickly fell in love. Lo and Jen enjoyed bathing together in a small pool where Lo warmed the water using heated rocks. But eventually Jen decided to leave Lo and return home, apparently partly because she knew it would be trouble for him if she stayed and partly because she wished to obey her parents’ wishes.

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