Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon Analysis

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

Directed by: Ang Lee
Nominated for 10 Oscars in 2001, highest for a foreign language film until Roma also had 10 in 2018.

I remember watching Kungfu Hustle long back and I immensely enjoyed it. In martial arts films, of course unless they're set in the contemporary world, they already setup the world in a way that informs us about the liberties they are going to take. Usually, why we associate some ridiculous actions scenes in Indian films to cringe is because the world of the film is grounded and only the hero does ridiculous stuff, then people lose their minds. Although in Balayya's and Rajni's films, people seem to forgive them (or maybe enjoy them too) because of the kind of image they have, which also informs us about the world. This film too informs us about it in the first fight scene where people are almost flying, it felt difficult for me to watch these kind of action scenes in a film which got 10 Oscar nominations - but as the film progressed I got it that the rules of this world are different, like a Western movie.

There was a strong visual sense in this film - blocking, staging and lighting - especially they are used to convey a sense of power and dominance. They either have two people talking and have a single shot for one person and show the other person in OTS, or they use the low angle, high angle framing and do that. There is one sequence where they are flying and fighting in a tree, that felt beautiful because by then I got used to the people flying. I was in awe of the world of the film, the costumes, production design, the hair and make up, etc. There were a few good dramatic moments in the film, like in the ending scene where he confesses and a few more - but apart from that I couldn't feel that sort of depth in this film which I expected because of the awards it won - it just felt like a well made action film to me.