action movies of earlier decades, it was concerned
with realistic depictions of ordinary people. Excel-
lent examples are Hsiao-hsien Hou’s A City of Sad-
ness(1989) and Flight of the Red Balloon(2007),
Edward Yang’s Taipei Story (1985), Tsai Ming-
liang’s Vive l’amour(1994), and Stan Lai’s The Peach
Blossom Land(1992). The first films of Ang Lee, the
most familiar Taiwanese director—The Wedding
Banquet(1993) and Eat Drink Man Woman(1994)—
were so successful in the West that Lee went to
Hollywood, where he showed an affinity for Western
literature and themes and made, among other films,
Sense and Sensibility (1995), The Ice Storm (1997),
Brokeback Mountain (2005), and Lust, Caution
(2007). In between, he returned to Taiwan to make
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon(2000), a spectacu-
larly beautiful martial-arts action movie in the ven-
erable Chinese tradition.
Postwar Chinese filmmaking was too diverse,
aesthetically and politically, to represent a unified
movement such as the French New Wave, but its
movies—particularly the Hong Kong action movies—
have spoken in a distinct visual language across
cultural and linguistic barriers and have had a
dynamic effect on filmmaking worldwide, espe-
cially in the United States.India
Despite the worldwide success of Slumdog Million-
aire(2008), an Anglo-Indian production, and the
fact that the Indian film industry—producing more
than 1,200 feature movies and an even larger num-
ber of documentaries every year—is the world’s
largest, Indian films are little known in the United
States except in cities with a large Indian popula-
tion. Indeed, in terms of annual film production,
India ranks first, followed by Hollywood and
China. India, a vast country with some 16 official
languages, is a regional cinema that speaks to its
many different audiences in social, political, cine-
matic, and linguistic terms it can understand. Thus
a social protest film made in Chennai, in the South,
might never be seen by those who live in Bombay,
who not only speak a different dialect but seem-
ingly prefer the lavish musicals made by Bollywood,470 CHAPTER 10FILM HISTORY
Flying warriors: Crouching Tiger, Hidden DragonThe
films of Taiwan-born Ang Lee are known for their diversity
(comedies, melodramas, traditional Chinese martial action),
their ability to provoke discussion (e.g., Brokeback Mountain
[2005]), and their almost universal acclaim. Crouching Tiger,
Hidden Dragon(2000) has it all: a traditional intrigue-filled
story about a legendary sword, magnificent exterior and
interior settings, beautiful costumes, a love story, and
astonishing swordplay. It is a fantastic feat of movie magic,
distinguished by the exquisite choreography and special
effects that give the illusion of its principal characters in
flight. In this image, two female principals, Jade Fox
(Cheng Pei-pei) and Jen (Zhang Ziyi) engage in a deadly
battle.