[ad_1]
It is physically impossible to get to the scene of the fight in the forest that looms over the Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon and don’t say “Whoa” out loud.
Twenty years later, the exhilarating grace of Ang Lee’s martial arts masterpiece is equally impressive. The way the figures slide through the water. The extraordinary lightness of it. His skill and choreography are just one more proof of a mantra uttered in the film: “A sword alone does not rule anything. It only comes to life in expert hands. “
Take that scene, where Chow Yun-fat and Zhang Ziyi collide in a dance on bamboo stalks. When asked what he remembers from the recording, Lee doesn’t hesitate: sweat. Not from the heat, but from the stress of suspending some of Asia’s biggest movie stars in the air, held up by cranes over a valley.
“You use very heavy shapes to mimic lightness,” said Lee, speaking on the phone from Taiwan during a recent trip from his home in New York. “Every actor that hangs there needs 30 people on the ground imitating how bamboo sways in the wind. I probably did about a third of what I wanted to do. The way you dream of a movie, it’s very difficult to make it come true. “
One of the most difficult scenes to film for Ang Lee is this one involving Chow Yun-Fat and Zhang Ziyi fighting on top of the bamboo trees. Photo: Brochure
December 8 marked the 20th anniversary of the launch of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, an occasion that is celebrated with a new limited edition 4K UHD Blu-ray. It is still a movie like no other. An international co-production filmed in China and shot in Mandarin, it still ranks easily as the most successful non-English film in the United States. The $ 17 million movie grossed $ 128.1 million in North America.
Possibly more than any other movie, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon it opened up mainstream American viewers not only to a new genre known predominantly in Asia, the wuxia tradition, but also to subtitled films in general. He set another record with 10 Academy Award nominations, a mark since then equaled by Rome and Parasite. Crouching tiger took home four Oscars.
Did Lee feel that when Bong Joon Ho’s Parasite became the first winner of the best film in a language other than English in February that had helped pave the way
“Yes, I did,” Lee says, laughing. “I wouldn’t say it happened because of me. But as people paved the way for me, I paved the way for that movie. And that movie paved the way for future filmmakers and viewers. We are a community. We are all part of a story. “
Crouching tiger it is in balance between worlds. His elegantly choreographed action scenes have the meter of poetry. Her conflicts between duty and freedom, teacher and disciple take on poignant dimensions, particularly in scenes with the film’s antagonist: rebellious Jen Yu (Zhang), a dominant figure of feminist rage and empowerment who at the time drew comparisons to Buffy. , the vampire slayer. . Twenty years later, it still feels like a brilliant exception in a male-dominated genre.
The film is a fusion of East and West, of the history of Asian and Hollywood cinema, of the action film and the art house. Lee and writer and producer James Schamus, who together adapted Jane Austen in 1995, began to refer to her as “Sense and Sensibility with martial arts ”. During five months of preparation and a five-month shoot in China, Lee agonized over the delicate balance of Crouching tiger.
“In the middle of our difficulties, I remember thinking it was a B movie, supposedly. I’m fighting the genre, trying to make a great movie, ”says Lee. “He had no experience in martial arts. It is a very special cinematic skill and sense, which I learned from the Hong Kong team – choreographer Yuen Wo-ping and cinematographer Peter Pau. I learned a lot about film making. Not only about the action, but about the essence of the medium. “
(From left) Director Ang Lee poses on the steps of the Festival Palace with actors Michelle Yeoh, Zhang Ziyi and Chen Chang after a screening of their film ‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, at the 53rd International Film Festival from Cannes, France. , May 18, 2000. Photo: AP
Each project tends to consume everything for Lee, the protean director of Life of Pi, Brokeback Mountain and The ice storm.
“Sometimes it feels like each movie is a lifetime,” he laughs. But he considers Crouching tiger his most difficult movie. Not just because of the technical challenges, but because of the pressure he put on himself to capture the cinema of his youth.
“It was the hardest movie and the hardest part of my life. Making a movie in China in 1998-1999 was quite impossible. Usually in martial arts movies, you just focus on the fight scenes, ”says Lee. “I still wanted good fight scenes. I also wanted a good department of art, historical appearance, acting. He was too greedy. It was a kind of fantasy from my childhood. I joke that it’s a childhood fantasy and a midlife crisis all together. “
That’s also what Lee attributes the film’s success to: his childlike sense of wonder.
“I think people respond to innocence,” says Lee. “By putting yourself in an unfamiliar situation, you somehow have a better chance of finding that innocence. It is the reason why we go to the theater ”.
In recent years, Lee has remade himself as a digital convert, in search of a new kind of cinema, “which I have not found,” he adds, laughing, which includes high frame rates, 3D and other innovations that he believe they are the best. future of cinema.
While some of the results have been fascinating, their forays into digital Gemini man, 2016 Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk – has not been well received. Lee says he’s still fidgety, he’s still curious.
“I don’t want to give up just yet,” says Lee. “The gods of cinema have been very good to me. Whenever I can, I’ll do my service, either digitally or if I ever do something on a flat screen again.
“But I think the way I look at things has changed, and I have to be honest about that. At the end of the day, honesty is very important. You may be blamed for it, you could fail, but a part of you has to stop. stay honest and fresh. I just hope the whole career is like an endless film school. ” – AP
[ad_2]
