Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is a Chinese movie that reveals Asian culture, worldview, and values. Ang Lee, the film director, showed the importance of solid morals, true love, and traditions in an adventurous manner with various scenes of martial arts fights and emotional dialogues. The plot moves around the Green Destiny sword stolen from its custodian by the young princess, who escapes with her warrior boyfriend (Ang Lee). The characters’ dialogues are highly spiritual and address the strong religious values of the Chinese. This review aims to discuss ethical, theological, and philosophical aspects of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’s setting is nineteenth-century China full of mysterious ancient temples, towns, bamboo forests, and mountains. Besides, the entire movie is in the Mandarin language; therefore, the audience entirely plunges into the country’s culture. The plot is based on the story of Jen Yu, who stole the Green Destiny sword in the name of love to Lo Dark Cloud, and the challenges she faced in the path to her dream life. As a trained kung fu and sword fighter, Jen Yu manages to become a strong warrior (Ang Lee). The story includes adventurous turnarounds and scenes of mystery talents of Chinese masters, yet the central philosophical question addressed in the movie is the strength of love. Indeed, feelings force Li Mu Bai to quit the monastery, Yu Shu Lien to keep fighting, and Jen Yu to steal the sword and escape from the family (Ang Lee). While dozens of martial arts scenes demonstrate the power of Chinese warriors, the movie also reveals that every person is vulnerable when love takes place.
China’s culture has a strong religious foundation, and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon theme pays attention to this aspect. The characters face fatal consequences of their actions, and it addresses Buddhism’s thought that every person is responsible for their life’s turnarounds and will pay a full price for each decision (Ang Lee). Furthermore, the movie’s theme of fights and the severity of lost harmony is the part of Daoism, the Chinese religion that emphasizes the importance of balance. Lastly, Confucianism’s primary virtues, such as integrity, loyalty, love, and benevolence, are highlighted through the characters’ behaviors. The theological aspect is crucial for a movie about the Chinese culture because most of its’ traditions, values, and martial arts techniques have spiritual origins.
The movie also addresses several ethical questions relevant to the Asian culture and interpersonal problems. For instance, the Green Destiny sword symbolizes strong moral traditions that are dangerous to violate (Ang Lee). Besides, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon explores the topic of ethical relationships between generations. Indeed, Jen Yu and Yu Shu Lien build sisterhood; however, the latter requires respect to her as an older person (Ang Lee). The ethical aspect of gender roles often plays a significant role in the movie as women characters dominate it. While today many new films have powerful female protagonists, in the 2000s, the theme of feminine rights was not considered a crucial issue. Ethical aspects of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon need to be noted by the audience to help understand the director’s main motive of fighting for the dream life.
After the twenty years since the release, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon has become a classical movie about Chinese culture, lifestyle, and mysteries existing around martial arts and national values. The plot’s themes, such as seeking harmony, mastering skills, true love, and human connection, not only shed light on the Asian traditions and morals but also make each viewer revise their own values. The fighting scenes have a powerful emotional impact on the audience, making the Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon worth watching.
Work Cited
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Directed by Ang Lee, performance by Chow Yun-Fat, Asia Union Film & Entertainment Ltd, 2000.