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World Behind ... The World of Nine at the beginning
means In the Chinese I Ching, or Book of Changes, we encounter the hidden dragon, symbolic of the electric, creative force that withdraws into the earth in winter and emerges as lightning and thunder in early summer. The book instructs,
Over a century later, Confucius wrote,
It is in this world of symbol and metaphor, of underlying order and the principle of balance, that Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is set. Using the Chinese martial arts genre, a door already open from China to the West, director Ang Lee has presented this world in all its soaring beauty, and with all its limitations and sorrow.
When Lee shows us masked warriors bounding weightlessly from rooftop to rooftop, he isn’t breaking new ground. It is an accepted convention in the Chinese martial art film that fighters have superhuman powers. It’s when he turns these conventions into breathtaking visual poetry that he goes beyond the genre into the world of metaphor. In the literal world, something is either truth or fiction. But in this metaphorical world that thing can be both. The audience of Crouching Tiger is not required to believe or disbelieve the sight of the lovely and fierce Jen skimming above the water’s surface, or lighting like a bird on the high branches of a bamboo grove. We can simply experience the emotional, artistic and philosophical truth of the scene. Although the characters are symbolic, they are well developed and beautifully acted ... by Chow Yun-Fat as legendary warrior, Li Mu Bai ... Michelle Yeoh as Shu Lien, his warrior companion and secret love ... Zhang Ziyi as the young Jen ... and Chang Chen as Lo, her tender bandit lover. Because of their metaphorical dimensions, we recognize these people almost immediately: the mature Li Mu Bai, who has sacrificed love for duty; the fearless Shu Lien, brave and independent, but tired and lonely; the teenaged Jen, with overwhelming power but no training or limits; and Lo, Jen's young lover, alienated from society, but connected to nature and fiercely devoted to Jen.
It is Jen who is the center of this film. The charged romance between Jen and Lo shows us two powerful people who can find deep love without either being tamed. It also shows us how tenderness balances power and how love balances anger. But without Lo, Jen’s powers can be destructive. Jen's powers are unequaled, yet she has no formal training, follows no rules, obeys no master. As Shu Lien says in one of the most critical lines in the movie, “Everything has an antithesis." This rule of balance, of yin/yang, drives the universe of Crouching Tiger. But, except for the brief time she is with Lo, Jen’s power is not balanced by an antithesis, and it is this imbalance that upsets the equilibrium of the other characters. Shu Lien accuses Jen of causing “all the trouble." In the ancient Chinese world, wholeness and beauty come from the interplay of opposites: light and dark, heaven and earth, masculine and feminine. The striking beauty of this film derives in part from this principle. Jen and Lo’s deep, richly colored robes are set against the stark desert. And in the otherworldly fight scene in the bamboo grove, the intensity of the climax is set against the calm rustling of the trees and flowing movements of the characters.
It’s easy, when looking at a culture from the outside, to see only its best face. Beauty, balance, power. The ability to face death without fear or attachment. These are all available in the classical world of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. But Lee shows us the price. In the constant tension between opposites, there may never be resolution. Peace and happiness can be only fleeting. Duty prevents the warrior from expressing his love. Loyalty to family tears a daughter from her lover. The lofty branches of the soft, bright grove don’t last forever. And then there is the pivotal and deeply moving scene in the dark, underground cave. Such tension heightens beauty and deepens emotions. It thrills. And it constantly suggests that there is something more than what appears, a world behind the world ... a hidden dragon. In a New
York Times interview earlier this month, director Lee says, “ For the
Chinese audience, it is just in our blood. You must hide your
feelings. That becomes the art itself, the metaphor and the symbolism, the
use of color and framing ... It is a way of not saying something but of
expressing it anyway. And it is such an emotional outlet, especially for a
repressed society. That is the heart of [the film], the repressed
emotional wish. That is the hidden dragon." . ******* ******* If you would like to submit something for The Movies feature, or if you simply would like to suggest something you think we ought to cover, e-mail us at ... radiofilmtv@downstreetmagazine.com. ******* ******* If you would like to advertise in this section, or throughout the magazine, please visit our Advertising Info Pages ... or call, write, or e-mail ads@downstreetmagazine.com. ******* ******* |
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