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Two women duel over
a sword
A
preview of the classic film that got a standing
ovation at the Cannes festival and has been nominated
for 10 Oscars
Taiwanese Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger
Hidden Dragon (CTHD)has been nominated for 10
Oscars including best director, best film and
best foreign language film. The film was the opening
attraction at last year’s international film
festival organised by the Mumbai Academy of Moving
Images (MAMI).
This martial-arts epic has grossed a spectacular
$100 million worldwide and has earned the distinction
of becoming the highest grossing foreign language
film ever in the Untied States. In
India, it is scheduled to hit the theatres on
March 16 along with its dubbed versions in Hindi
and Tamil.
CTHD has won accolades all over the world from
Cannes to Berlin to the US. It was voted by Time
Magazine as the best film of 2000. It recently
won two Golden Globe Awards including that of
best director for Ang Lee.
The film is set in the early 19th century, the
last glorious years of the Qing
Dynasty, when China was teethering on the brink
of change. Soon western powers wouldl put an end
to her unified empire. It’s at this moment
in history that Ang Lee’s romantic epic,
adapted from a four-volume novel by Wand Du Lu
published at the beginning of the 20th century,
unfolds.
The title draws upon an ancient Chinese proverb
referring to a place where mysterious or unsuspected
power lurks. It characterises situations and places
wherein dwell hidden heroes and legends - and
nothing is, as it seems.
According to director Ang Lee,”Crouching
Tiger Hidden Dragan is a common expression, which
reminds us never to underestimate the mysteries,
the potent characters that lie beneath the surface
of society. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is
a story about passion, emotions, desires—the
dragons hidden inside all of us.”
For the Taiwan-born director who explored 20th
Century suburban American neurosis in The Ice
Storm and 18th century middle-class English manners
in Sense and Sensibility, this is a movie unlike
any he has made before. “It has been my long
time dream to make a martial arts film,”
says Lee, “It’s part of my cultural
roots and the fulfillment of my childhood fantasies.”
Ever since his 1993 hit comedy, The Wedding Banquet
, Lee has been winning awards and building a worldwide
audience for movies that in recent years have
not been directly rooted in his own cultural background.
There was a child in him screaming to get out.
With CTHD he was finally ready to pay homage to
his lifelong ardour for martial arts novels and
films.
The film tells the story of the search for a stolen
sword, Green Destiny, by a swordswoman Yu Shu
Lein played by Michelle Yeoh. The sword has been
entrusted to her by the man she loves, legendary
warrior, Li Mu Bai (Chow Yun-Fat) to deliver as
a gift to the revered Sir Te in Beijeing. Yu finds
the trail leading to Jen (Zang Zi Yi), the fiery
and wilful daughter of a high-ranking government
official, played by Zhang Zi Yi and her mysterious
governess (Cheng Pei Pei) who’s a notorious
criminal in disguise. Jen envies Yu her independence
and unwilling to settle for a loveless marriage,
takes on the identity of the country’s most
wanted criminal.
Haunted by an experience with a bandit king, Lo
in the desert who vowed to become a honourable
man so he could marry her, Jen disappears on the
day of her wedding and the sword disappears with
her.
The hunt for the missing sword is played out in
a series of stunning action sequences, including
fresh takes on the genre’s beloved airborne
duels choreographed by Yuen Ho- Ping (the Hong
Kong action director who won critical acclaim
for his work on The Matrix). These are a prelude
to a fierce showdown between Yu and Jen, a fight-to-the-finish
that will change their lives forever.
The film is an intriguing mix of action and emotion.
An exploring of the psyche. “The unsettling
personal desires, the forces of destruction that’s
obvious in the younger couple but hidden in Yu
and Li,” points out Lee.
For eight months without a break, Lee worked on
the film. Towards the end, he confesses he thought
he’d have a stroke. He didn’t but since
he’s well into his middle age (he’s
45), he doubts if he will ever get back to normal
and be fighting fit again.
The film certainly had its share of problems.
On the very first day in the Gobi Desert, the
crew got lost nad were traced only at 7 a.m. the
following morning. After the second shot a sandstorm
blew in. It was also an experience working with
stars from three movie eras: pioneer Kung-Femme
Cheng Peipei was from the ’60s, Chow and
Yeoh from the glorious ’80s and Zhang and
Chang, the bright new lights.
Zhang Zi Yi was undoubtedly the scene stealer.
CTHDis a film of a girl in love, and a film in
love with a girl. Before Zhang arrives on the
scene the film is in black-and-white but with
her entrance it bursts in colour. And Jen from
a dreamy adventuress, a rich, spoiled brat yearning
for forbidden love, transforms. Her beauty becoming
more intoxicating and toxic. She can turn into
a fearless heroine or a ferocious harlot.
Zhang was undoubtedly the film’s brightest
star. At the Cannes festival she was surrounded
by beautiful women who had spent a lifetime in
the spotlight, yet in her delicate gown she stood
out. She knew this was her night and there would
be many more nights like this even though to begin
with Zhang was nowhere close to Jen. Lee had to
veer the character closer to the real Zhang and
play up her sexuality. Eventually thopugh he was
more than satisfied with her. “She is the
most marvellous thing I have found,” he complimented.
Chang who played her bandit lover Lo (for this
encounter the film took a detour through the Gobi
Desert), was another exciting discovery. “My
biggest task was putting on weight, as the director
said I was too skinny,” he confides. To his
credit Chang transformed himself as quickly into
a dishy hunk as Zhang got under the skin of Jen.
Lee had initially thought of Jet Li for the role
of Li. When Chow was cast, the action scenes had
to be reduced because he did not have Jet Li’s
flying feet. But the character ripened and it
was a tribute to Chow and Yeoh’s acting prowess
that their unspoken love left many hardened film
buffs at Cannes misty-eyed.
Yeoh however was the artiste most precious to
Lee. “To find a good stuntwoman is harder
than finding a good wife,” he admits. And
to find a woman who was not only an excellent
stuntwoman but an alluring actress too was unbelievable
good luck. “Michelle had to cry in every
take for five hours. At the end she was drained.
I knew she wasn’t acting. Those were real
tears,” Lee observes. And the effort left
him red-eyed and teary too.
Lee drove Chow and Yeoh to tears with his insistence
on them speaking precise Mandarin. “I’d
deliver a 16-line speech, get one word slightly
wrong and Ang would say, ‘Let’s do it
again,’” she recalls.
Chow had similar ordeals to narrate. On the first
day he had to give 28 takes because he couldn’t
get the language right. This had never happened
to him before.
However, eventually the efforts were well worth
it. At the Cannes film festival, jaded film critics
sat up in wonder during the sword-fighting scenes
in which the actors appeared to fly efortlessly
around the rooftops of the Forbidden City. When
it was all over, they burst into spontaneous applause.
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