Chung-Hua Institute

When I was offered the opportunity to write on Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon for this month's installment of Legends of Kung-Fu, I jumped at the opportunity to talk about it, but I'm not going to spoil it for you who haven't seen the movie yet, either! Crouching Tiger is a screenplay adaptation of a martial arts novel (called wu xia xiao shuo in Mandarin) set in the Ching Dynasty and pitting a master swordsman against a thief who has stolen his precious sword. Generations of Chinese kids grew up reading these novels with incredible fanaticism, following the exploits of their favorite roving heroes (jiang hu) just like their American counterparts did with comic book superheroes such as Superman, Batman, or the X-Men's Wolverine - my personal favorite. Filled with lush visuals, exciting action sequences, and a strong traditional Chinese plot line, the film has been garnering critical praise, some talking about it as the hot nomination for the Film of the Year at the Academy Awards. The action sequences are so riveting and the plot line so moving that you could call it the first action film and "chick-flick" rolled into one.

Taiwan's famous director, Ang Lee, whose film credits include such works as The Wedding Banquet, Sense and Sensibility, and Eat Drink Man Woman, brought his acclaimed directorial skills to the table for his first try at a martial arts film. From the outset, the production was reportedly fraught with difficulty, most notably the loss of Jet Li, who was slated to play the lead role of hero Li Mu Bai.

But as the Jet landed elsewhere, the formidable Chow Yun Fat stepped in graciously to fill his shoes, partnering with Michelle Yeoh, the super-heroine from James Bond's Tomorrow Never Dies and Jackie Chan's Supercop. Yet these two leads had another major difficulty to deal with. Neither of them spoke Mandarin, the Chinese dialect that director Ang Lee insisted the movie be filmed in. Both still managed to deliver their lines convincingly, and Chow's northern Mandarin accent was very well done. (Chow is quite the linguist, delivering many of his own lines in Thai for The King and I as well.) If your Chinese isn't up to par, don't go running out and bug your sifu to translate. The English language subtitled translation was surprisingly accurate.

The martial arts play of the movie was another facet of this screen gem. Yuen Woo Ping, the genius behind the action sequences in The Matrix and Iron Monkey, brought his stunt team and keen eye to the table. All of the star actors, Chow Yun Fat, Michelle Yeoh, and newcomers Zhang Ziyi and Chang Chen, underwent rigorous training for several months with Yuen's coaching. The quality of that training is evident when watching everything from Chow Yun Fat's incredible Wudang swordplay to the rough fight scene between Zhang Ziyi and Chang Chen in the desert.

As a Chinese martial arts researcher, I was awed at the painstaking attention to detail with the fight scenes. Although the majority of the fight sequences were based around the super flashy moves of modern wushu and movie kung-fu, some of the fighting techniques were based around Wudang systems such as tai chi, hsing yi, and pa kua for the most part, and even the desert fight scene stayed regionally accurate, showing the barbarian Chang Chen using recognizable shuai chiao throws and sweeps. I can't even begin to tell you how impressed I was with that. The wide variety of traditional weapons that were used also held their distinctly traditional flavor, with Michelle Yeoh in one scene wielding a spear and beginning with the trademark lan, na, zha flourish that is characteristic of spearplay. And watching Chow Yun Fat performing a solo sword sequence left me covered with goose bumps and dying to go home and practice my swordwork.

Now while American audiences might be a little taken aback by the excessive wire work, which made the fighters seem as if they could practically fly around, there's some historical basis for that too. Traditional Chinese martial artists used to spend the majority of their early training years developing leg strength through stances and jumping exercises called "ching kung" or lightness skills. These strength exercises, coupled with esoteric chi kung breathing practices, supposedly gave the practitioners the ability to leap over a building or scale a tree with a few quick motions. While most Westerners scoff at the idea of developing such skills, there are still people training with such patience and diligence in remote areas, and I've heard more than one eyewitness report of Buddhist monks who can easily jump over walls or out of third story buildings in Korea.

Like I said at the outset of this column, I'm not going to spoil the plot for you, but everyone I talked to who saw the movie, from a UCLA professor in the Chinese history department, to 1988 Olympic Taekwondo Gold Medalist Dana Hee, all really enjoyed the movie. American audiences are becoming more intrigued with the Hong Kong style of stunt and fight work, with films such as The Matrix, Charlie's Angels, and Romeo Must Die. Asian actors are also working their way into the mainstream, with help from pioneers like Jackie Chan, who practically invented the idea of mind-blowing physical stunts. (By the way, Jackie Chan's Rush Hour 2 is in production, and the gorgeous Zhang Ziyi is making an appearance in there too! …. someone want to introduce me to her?) Films like these are bringing the fast and furious style of Chinese martial arts movie magic to silver screens across the US, and with a plot and cinematography like Ang Lee can only deliver, you can expect Crouching Tiger to do great things at the box office and the Academy Awards.