Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

Ang Lee directed the 2000 wuxia film *Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon*, with a screenplay co-written by Wang Hui-ling, James Schamus, and Tsai Kuo-jung. It adapts the fourth novel in Wang Dulu’s Crane-Iron Series, which was serialized from 1941 to 1942. The leading cast includes Chow Yun-fat, Michelle Yeoh, Zhang Ziyi, Chang Chen, and Cheng Pei-pei. The story takes place in 18th-century Qing dynasty China and centers on two accomplished warriors, Li Mu Bai and Yu Shu Lien, whose lives are upended when the legendary Green Destiny sword is stolen by a mysterious thief named Jen Yu.

The film was launched by producers Bill Kong, L.K. Hsu, and Ang Lee, representing Hong Kong’s Edko Films Ltd and Taiwan’s Zoom Hunt International Production Co Ltd. It was a multinational production with a budget of US$17 million, involving Edko Films, Zoom Hunt Productions, China Film Co-productions Corporation, Asian Union Film & Entertainment, Columbia Pictures Film Production Asia, and Good Machine International. *Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon* premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on 18 May 2000 and was released in the United States on 8 December. Spoken in Standard Chinese with subtitles for different markets, it became an unexpected international hit, earning $213.5 million worldwide. In the United States, it grossed $128 million, making it the highest-grossing foreign-produced film in American history and the first non-English-language film to surpass $100 million there.

Critics universally praised the film, which won more than 40 awards. At the 2001 Academy Awards, it received 10 nominations—including Best Picture—and won Best Foreign Language Film, Best Art Direction, Best Original Score, and Best Cinematography. This set a record for the most nominations ever for a non-English-language film at the time, a mark later tied by *Roma* and broken by *Emilia Pérez*. The film also won four BAFTAs and two Golden Globes, all for Best Foreign Film. Retrospectively, *Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon* is frequently named among the finest wuxia films ever made and is widely regarded as one of the greatest films of the 21st century.

**Plot**

In 1778, during the Qing dynasty, Li Mu Bai is a celebrated Wudang swordsman, while his friend Yu Shu Lien runs a private security company. Though they have long harbored romantic feelings for each other, they remain bound by loyalty to Shu Lien’s deceased fiancé, Meng Sizhao, who was also Mu Bai’s close friend. Choosing to retire from the life of a swordsman, Mu Bai asks Shu Lien to deliver his legendary 400-year-old jian sword, the Green Destiny, to their benefactor Sir Te in Beijing. Years earlier, Mu Bai’s teacher was killed by Jade Fox, a woman who wanted to learn Wudang secrets. While at Sir Te’s residence, Shu Lien meets Jen Yu, the daughter of the wealthy Governor Yu, who is about to be married.

One evening, a masked thief breaks into Sir Te’s estate and steals the Green Destiny. Shu Lien intercepts the thief and chases them across the compound’s grounds and rooftops, but the culprit escapes after a dart fired from an unknown source distracts her. Shu Lien and Sir Te’s servant Master Bo trace the theft to Governor Yu’s compound, where Jade Fox has been posing as Jen’s governess for years. Mu Bai arrives in Beijing and discusses the theft with Shu Lien. Master Bo meets local police inspector Tsai and his daughter May, who are pursuing Fox. Fox challenges the group to a showdown that night.

After a long fight, the group is nearly defeated until Mu Bai arrives and outmaneuvers Fox. Fox reveals she killed Mu Bai’s teacher because he slept with her but refused to take a woman as a disciple, and she considered it poetic justice for him to die at a woman’s hands. As Mu Bai is about to kill Fox, the masked thief reappears and helps her. Fox kills Tsai before fleeing with the thief, who is revealed to be Jen. After seeing Jen fight Mu Bai, Fox realizes Jen has been secretly studying the Wudang manual. Fox is illiterate and could only follow diagrams, while Jen’s ability to read the manual allowed her to surpass her teacher in martial arts.

That night, a bandit named Lo breaks into Jen’s bedroom and asks her to leave with him. In the past, when Governor Yu’s family traveled through the western deserts of Xinjiang, Lo and his bandits raided Jen’s caravan, and Lo stole her comb. She pursued him to his desert cave to retrieve it, but the two soon fell in love and had sex. Lo eventually convinced Jen to return to her family, but not before telling her a legend about a man who jumped off a mountain to make his wishes come true. Because the man’s heart was pure, his wish was granted, and he flew away unharmed, never to be seen again. Lo has now come to Beijing to persuade Jen not to go through with her arranged marriage, but Jen refuses to leave with him.

Later, Lo interrupts Jen’s wedding procession, begging her to leave. Shu Lien and Mu Bai convince Lo to wait for Jen at Mount Wudang, where he will be safe from Jen’s furious family. Jen runs away from her husband on their wedding night before the marriage can be consummated. Disguised in men’s clothing, she is confronted at an inn by a large group of warriors; armed with the Green Destiny and her superior combat skills, she easily defeats them. Jen visits Shu Lien, who tells her Lo is waiting at Mount Wudang. After an angry exchange, the two women duel. Shu Lien is the superior fighter, but Jen wields the Green Destiny.