Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon [WS]

MOVIE DESCRIPTION:

Taiwanese filmmaker Ang Lee took a break from making Western period dramas to fashion this wild and woolly martial arts spectacular featuring special effects and action sequences courtesy of the choreographer of The Matrix (1999), Yuen Woo Ping. In the early 19th century, martial arts master Li Mu Bai (Chow Yun-Fat) is about to retire and enter a life of meditation, though he quietly longs to avenge the death of his master, who was killed by Jade Fox (Cheng Pei-pei). He gives his sword, a fabled 400-year-old weapon known as Green Destiny, to his friend, fellow martial arts wizard and secret love Yu Shu Lien (Michelle Yeoh), so that she may deliver it to Sir Te (Sihung Lung). Upon arrival in Peking, Yu happens upon Jen (Zhang Ziyi), a vivacious, willful politician's daughter. That night, a mysterious masked thief swipes Green Destiny, with Yu in hot pursuit -- resulting in the first of several martial arts action set pieces during the film. Li arrives in Beijing and eventually discovers that Jen is not only the masked thief but is also in cahoots with the evil Jade. In spite of this, Li sees great talent in Jen as a fighter and offers to school her in the finer points of martial arts and selflessness, an offer that Jen promptly rebukes. This film was first screened to much acclaim at the 2000 Cannes, Toronto, and New York film festivals and became a favorite when Academy Awards nominations were announced in 2001: Tiger snagged ten nods and later secured four wins for Best Cinematography, Score, Art Direction, and Foreign Language Film. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi

DVD FEATURES:

• Region: 1
• Number of Discs: 1
• Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 (Cinemascope)
• Audio: Dolby Digital Surround, Dolby Digital 5.1
• Screen: Enhanced Wide Screen Letterbox for 16x9 TV
• Subtitle: French, English
• Features:
  • • Digitally mastered audio & anamorphic video
    • Ang Lee and James Schamus commentary
    • Bravo making-of special: "Unleashing the Dragon"
    • Conversation with Michelle Yeoh featurette
    • Photo montage
    • Link to website
    • Filmographies
    • Animated menus
    • Production notes
    • Scene selections

AWARDS

• Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

•     Won Best Art Direction - 2000 (Tim Yip)
•     Won Best Cinematography - 2000 (Peter Pau)
•     Won Best Foreign Language Film - 2000 (Ang Lee)
•     Won Best Score - 2000 (Tan Dun)
•     Nominated Best Adapted Screenplay - 2000 (Wang Hui-Ling, James Schamus, Tsai Kuo-Jung)
•     Nominated Best Costume Design - 2000 (Tim Yip)
•     Nominated Best Director - 2000 (Ang Lee)
•     Nominated Best Editing - 2000 (Tim Squyres)
•     Nominated Best Picture - 2000 (Bill Kong, Hsu Li-kong, Ang Lee)
•     Nominated Best Song - 2000 (Tan Dun, James Schamus, Jorge Calandrelli)

• American Society of Cinematographers

•     Nominated Best Cinematography - 2000 (Peter Pau)

• British Academy of Film and Television Arts

•     Won Best Costume Design - 2000 (Tim Yip)
•     Won Best Director - 2000 (Ang Lee)
•     Won Best Foreign Language Film - 2000
•     Won Best Music - 2000 (Tan Dun)
•     Nominated Best Actress - 2000 (Michelle Yeoh)
•     Nominated Best Adapted Screenplay - 2000 (Wang Hui-Ling, James Schamus, Tsai Kuo-Jung)
•     Nominated Best Cinematography - 2000 (Peter Pau)
•     Nominated Best Editing - 2000 (Tim Squyres)
•     Nominated Best Makeup and Hair - 2000
•     Nominated Best Picture - 2000
•     Nominated Best Production Design - 2000 (Tim Yip)
•     Nominated Best Sound - 2000
•     Nominated Best Supporting Actress - 2000 (Zhang Ziyi)
•     Nominated Best Visual Effects - 2000

• Broadcast Film Critics Association

•     Won Best Foreign Film - 2000

• Chicago Film Critics Association

•     Won Best Cinematography - 2000 (Peter Pau)
•     Won Best Foreign Film - 2000
•     Won Best Original Score - 2000 (Tan Dun)
•     Won Most Promising Actress - 2000 (Zhang Ziyi)

• Directors Guild of America

•     Won Best Director - 2000 (Ang Lee)

• Hollywood Foreign Press Association

•     Won Best Director - 2000 (Ang Lee)
•     Won Best Foreign Language Film - 2000
•     Nominated Best Original Score - 2000 (Tan Dun)

• Hong Kong Film Awards

•     Won Best Picture - 2000

• Independent Spirit Awards

•     Won Best Director - 2000 (Ang Lee)
•     Won Best Picture - 2000
•     Won Best Supporting Actress - 2000 (Zhang Ziyi)

• Los Angeles Film Critics Association

•     Won Best Cinematography - 2000 (Peter Pau)
•     Won Best Music Score - 2000 (Tan Dun)
•     Won Best Picture - 2000
•     Won Best Production Design - 2000 (Tim Yip)

• National Board of Review

•     Won Best Foreign Film - 2000

• New York Film Critics Circle

•     Won Best Cinematography - 2000 (Peter Pau)

• Telluride Film Festival

•     Film Presented - 2000

• Toronto Film Critics Association

•     Won Best Actress - Runner-up - 2000 (Michelle Yeoh)
•     Won Best Director [Runner-up] - 2000 (Ang Lee)
•     Won Best Picture - 2000
•     Won Best Supporting Actress - 2000 (Zhang Ziyi)

• Toronto International Film Festival

•     Won People's Choice Award - 2000 (Ang Lee)

• Writers Guild of America

•     Nominated Best Adapted Screenplay - 2000 (Wang Hui-Ling, James Schamus, Tsai Kuo-Jung)

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

• Director:

  Ang Lee

• Producer:

  Ang Lee, Hsu Li-kong, Bill Kong

• Screenwriter:

  James Schamus, Wang Hui-Ling, Tsai Kuo-Jung

• Book Author:

  Wang Du Lu

• Cinematographer:

  Peter Pau

• Songwriter:

  James Schamus

• Composer (Music Score):

  Tan Dun

• Songwriter:

  Jorge Calandrelli

• Editor:

  Tim Squyres

• Production Designer:

  Tim Yip

• Co-producer:

  Zheng Quangang, Dong Ping

• Associate Producer:

  Chui Po-chu, Philip Lee

• Executive Producer:

  James Schamus, David Linde

• Costume Designer:

  Tim Yip

• Fights Choreographer:

  Yuen Woo Ping

• Sound Editor:

  Eugene Gearty

REVIEW:

• Billed as Sense and Sensibility with kung fu, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is one of the wildest and most entertaining films to come down the pike in a long, long time. Ang Lee manages to spin stunning martial arts set pieces around a compelling and believable coming-of-age story. From Seven Samurai to the The Terminator, the key to a really good action movie is not the size of the gun or the variety of objects exploded, but the depth of characters; in Crouching Tiger, the players are given the same fine shading that Lee lent to The Ice Storm and other intimate character pieces. International superstars Chow Yun-Fat and Michelle Yeoh give perhaps the best performances of their careers as a couple bonded by the perils of war and an intense, yet unfulfilled, love. Despite the magnitude of their star power, Chow and Yeoh are all but upstaged by Zhang Ziyi as the impetuous Jen Yu. Gorgeous, graceful, and possessing a near-lethal high kick, she dominates the film. In one show-stopping sequence, this lithe young lass cleans the floor with a room full of thick-necked guys toting blunt weapons. In another she almost takes out a band of Mongol marauders in a wild Gobi Desert melee. There she meets and eventually falls in love with bandit king Lo (Chang Chen). Lee deftly structures much of the film like a Shakespearean romantic comedy -- the fiery passion of Jen and Lo are contrasted with the quieter, deeper love of Li and Shu Lien. The fervid romance of the young couple makes the sense of loss and repression in the older duo all the more poignant. The action is startlingly fresh: Drawn from conventions in popular Chinese Wuxia kung fu literature, the heroes are such masters of martial arts that they literally, and quite believably, fly. The first confrontation between Yeoh and Zhang -- a dizzying chase over the tiled roofs of a rich man's estate, in which the two adversaries literally bounce off the walls and sail over buildings -- simply has to be seen to be believed. Romantic, haunting, and sublimely entertaining, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon should not be missed. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi