But "The Ice Storm" merely read like an outsider's view of chilly '70s suburbia. That approach worked reasonably well in "Sense and Sensibility," maybe because Jane Austen lends herself to a certain degree of formality. But his craft doesn't translate into emotional involvement he always keeps us at a distance, laying out his poetry like a precious artwork on display. Lee long ago proved himself a careful craftsman, a filmmaker capable of giving us crystal-carved moments. There are still too many stretches where "Crouching Tiger" feels weighed down by an awareness of its own beauty. She's never completely readable, and the way her character strings us along is one of the movie's pleasures.
#CRUTCHING TIGER HIDDEN DRAGON SPRING AND FALL MOVIE#
The segment works well for another reason: Zhang Ziyi, the young actress who plays Jen, radiates boundless vigor the movie leaps to life whenever she appears, not just because of her svelte frame and catlike physical grace as a fighter but also because her elusive smile and coolly mischievous eyes always keep us guessing. It's thrilling at the beginning, when the bandits arrive on horseback, all their tails and trimmings flying behind them then it segues into a passage of dulcet beauty as the lovers gradually attune themselves to their new life together. The desert sequence, in the way it's both directed and shot, fairly vibrates with energy even in its quieter moments. Eventually, she allows herself to sink into his embrace, and the two become lovers for a time, living happily in the desert. Obviously smitten, he tries to win her over with kindness and love she responds by clonking him on the head with a rock.
![crutching tiger hidden dragon spring and fall crutching tiger hidden dragon spring and fall](http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-k7kGA5Q9sSY/TVNlm183UEI/AAAAAAAAORk/PikL578_1gg/s400/The_Fall_11a.jpg)
She fights him when he takes her ivory comb they tussle, but she collapses, only to awake later in his hideout. The movie's gorgeous centerpiece is a story that takes place in the desert, a flashback sequence that gives some background on young Jen: We see her traveling through the desert with her mother when a gang of bandits, led by the fiery Lo (Chang Chen), assails her carriage. Cinematographer Peter Pau finds majesty in every one of the movie's numerous settings, whether he's showing us pink-beige buildings surrounded by bushy greenery, a desert that glimmers with a golden sheen or a verdant forest whose trees seem to shiver with life. The plot becomes more and more labyrinthine, but even when you're feeling a little lost, "Crouching Tiger" is always gorgeous to look at. He believes that notorious thief and killer Jade Fox (Cheng Pei Pei), who murdered his master years ago, may be implicated in the theft, and he wants to see justice done at last. The thief isn't immediately found, and Li himself comes to Beijing and joins the search for the missing sword. When the Green Destiny is stolen in the night by a lithe, petite figure cloaked in black, Shu Lien and one of Sir Te's security officers take off in pursuit. Jen is engaged to be married, but she clearly has a taste for adventure Shu Lien, older and wiser and experienced in martial arts, tries to advise her. She does, and at Sir Te's home she meets young Jen (Zhang Ziyi), the beautiful and rebellious daughter of a local official. Shu Lien is on her way to Beijing will she deliver the sword for him? He's decided to change the direction of his life and he wants to surrender his sword, the Green Destiny, to a prominent and respected leader, Sir Te.
![crutching tiger hidden dragon spring and fall crutching tiger hidden dragon spring and fall](https://media.wired.com/photos/5932410852d99d6b984dd4d3/master/w_2560%2Cc_limit/Crouching.jpg)
The story opens as the powerful and legendary swordsman Li Mu Bai (Chow Yun-Fat) travels to a security compound that's supervised by an old friend, Yu Shu Lien (Michelle Yeoh). Lee's source for the movie, whose screenplay was written by James Schamus, Wang Hui Ling and Tsai Juo Jung, was a section of a five-part, pre-World War II novel by Wang Du Lu.
![crutching tiger hidden dragon spring and fall crutching tiger hidden dragon spring and fall](https://www.militar-figuren.de/products_img/33509/C_7.jpg)
"Crouching Tiger" is, of course, an arted-up martial arts film, but it grooves more on the tradition of Asian swordplay movies popular in the '50s and '60s than on the kung fu movies that found favor in the '70s. But "Crouching Tiger" still manages to stoke a satisfying glow, probably because its pristine lyricism suits the material, a romantic adventure set in ancient China that enfolds themes of thievery, loyalty, duty and unrequited love. Lee is so clearly preoccupied with filmmaking process that he often seems numbed to the charisma of his actors. It's a movie that casts a flickering spell from the very outset, not with colorful excess but with restraint.ĭirector Ang Lee's brand of restraint isn't always a virtue, and even in "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" it sometimes feels as if he's stretching the story's significant moments on principle, rather than letting the movie find a quicker, more natural rhythm.
![crutching tiger hidden dragon spring and fall crutching tiger hidden dragon spring and fall](https://variety.com/wp-content/uploads/2000/11/tiger_250.jpg)
There's so much dreamy beauty in "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" that it's almost like a narcotic: By the end, you're likely to have forgotten, or at least forgiven, the long, dragging patches between its gorgeously executed action sequences.