SMALL WORLD 293
00:06
Shu Lien delivers the legendary
sword Green Destiny to Sir Te
in Beijing. There she meets the
young Jen Yu, who is envious
of Shu Lien’s warrior lifestyle.00:34
Li Mu Bai confronts
Jade Fox for poisoning his
master. Jade Fox kills the
policeman who has been
tracking her.1:11
Lo disrupts Jen’s wedding
procession and urges her to
return with him to the
desert. She runs away
disguised as a boy.1:34
After dueling with Jen,
Li Mu Bai throws Green
Destiny over a waterfall.
Jen Yu chases after it and
is saved by Jade Fox.of wuxia. To get to the heart of
its role in the Chinese psyche, he
felt he had to “use Freudian or
Western techniques to dissect
what... is hidden in a repressed
society—the sexual tension, the
prohibited feelings.” In other
words, he consciously used a
Western approach to filmmaking
to uncover a psychological
meaning behind the action.
Left unsaid
Most earlier wuxia movies pitched
the viewer straight into the combat.
However, Crouching Tiger, Hidden
Dragon opens with a five-minute-
long dialogue between a noble
swordsman, Li Mu Bai (Chow Yun-
fat) and a female warrior, Shu Lien
(Michelle Yeoh). The story is set in
the 18th century, during the Qing
Dynasty. Li Mu Bai has retired from
fighting and has joined a monastery
as a path to enlightenment, but
neither he nor Shu Lien can cast
aside their love for each other, or ❯❯
What else to watch: Once Upon a Time in China (1991) ■ Drunken Master II (1994) ■ Sense and Sensibility (1995) ■
Hero (2002) ■ House of Flying Daggers (2004) ■ Brokeback Mountain (2005) ■ Lust, Caution (2007) ■ Life of Pi (2012)
00:10
A masked thief steals
Green Destiny from Sir Te’s
study, and is chased by
Shu Lien across the
rooftops of Beijing.00:50
Lo, a bandit, slips into Jen
Yu’s bedroom. In flashback, we
see him raiding her baggage
train in the desert, and the two
of them falling in love.00:00 00:20 00:40 01:00 01:20 01:40 02:001:26
Jen rejects Shu Lien’s
friendship and the pair
duel spectacularly. Shu Lien
wins, with a broken sword
held to Jen Yu’s throat.1:45
Wounded by one of
Fox’s darts, Li Mu Bai
speaks his love for Shu
Lien. Jen asks Lo to
make a wish. She then
jumps off Mt. Wudang.Minute by minute
Jen Yu is a skilled martial artist.
After chasing Lo, a handsome bandit
who has stolen her comb, she finds
herself in his desert camp surrounded
by brigands, and takes every one of
them on in an acrobatic fight sequence.
I would rather be a ghost drifting by
your side as a condemned soul than
enter heaven without you. Because of
your love, I will never be a lonely spirit.
Li Mu Bai / Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon