HUMA012 Film Art Final Essay

"Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon"

Although the whole story of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" was set in China, some people think that this film was actually produced on the ground of Western cultural imagination of China and was a product of self-orientalisation. They think that "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" only tried to construct an image for China which is generally expected by westerners so as to meet their expectation and to suit their tastes. One of their basis of argument is that "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" seems to be a very typical and traditional martial art movie and can bring little surprises to Chinese audiences. Another basis of argument is that all elements of Mise-en-scene like physical settings, costume and make-up of characters or even the story itself in the film are those elements dominating the cultural imagination of China by Western people. For instance, the exotic landscapes like huge desert, bamboo forest, Beijing the capital, Wudan, martial art, swordsmanship and some other traditional Chinese costume and make-up of characters. These elements are exactly what westerners imagine about China. Using these two basis of argument, some people thus conclude that the film "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" was not really that "Chinese" because it just tried to construct an image for China to meet westerner tastes rather than to reveal its true dimensions.

In my essay, I am going to argue against the above conclusion by firstly discussing the above two basis of argument. Later, I would bring in further aspects of the movie to support my stand point. To begin with, let's look again at the basis of argument. Irrefutably, many scenes in the "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" are very typical and appear in most of the martial art films. They may bring little surprises to Chinese audiences who are so familiar with these scenes. For example, unlike other martial art films, what we can find in "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" are only pure martial art and swordsmanship without digital effects, flying movements obviously supported by wirework. They obviously do not follow the trend of new martial art films, in which digital effects are widely used, but are rather sticking to old-fashion ate ones. Moreover, there was an interlude about Litter Dragon fighting with a motley crowd in an old-styled wooden teahouse, and of course Little Dragon defeated them one by one without requiring much strenuous effort. All these scenes are so typical and can create little surprises to Chinese people who should have a lot of experience in watching martial art movies. However, it is not enough to conclude that the film is highly self-orientalising to meet westerner's tastes. If we are carefully enough to look at the family background of Lee Ang, the director of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon". We would know although both of his parents are mainland Chinese's, he himself was actually born in Taiwan ,and later, living in U.S. It is highly understandable that a person who have left home for a long time would miss home a lot. And so was Lee Ang. Therefore, scenes in "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" are quite typical. Besides, since Lee Ang have been living in U.S. His impression on China may be more or less the same as the other westerners. Therefore, is it understandable that elements included by Lee Ang in the film are more or less the same as the highly popular elements among westerners. So, the above two basis of agruementare not enough to conclude that the film is highly self-orientalising.

We can also examine the issue from another angle. If we assume the conclusion those people made is true, by which "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" was really produced on the ground of Western cultural imagination of China and was a product of self-orientalisation. Then, the mission of the film is simply to show the desired image of China through mise-en-scene like physical setting, costumes and make up of characters and plots. These are things audiences can actually see and hear from the plots. However, in reality, "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" is more than that. It is a inspiriting film which has something to say about traditional value judgment of different characters on different aspects, like ethics, love, enlightenment, etc. By understanding characters' behaviors and their set of value judgment, audiences are able to understand Chinese culture and its long established value more. Therefore, instead of saying that "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" was produced on the ground of Western cultural imagination of China and was a product of self-orientalisation, I would rather say it is a seriously produced film which have its own mission and vision. The vision is traditional Chinese culture, while the mission is to show these Chinese culture. Lee Ang is actually trying to show audiences something spiritual, but not just something physical about china.

Now, let's move on to see how traditional value judgment of different characters on different aspects, like ethics, love, enlightenment are brought up within the film so as to reflect Chinese culture and its long established value. First of all, from Little Dragon and Jade Fox, we can learn something about traditional relationship between masters and apprentices among Chinese people. It is a very common and also a very important relationship. Master is expected to be more superior than his or her apprentice, while apprentice is expected to respect his or her master, if this status change, both sides will find it insecure and uncomfortable. These are shown by Jade Fox jealous of Little Dragon and Little Dragon fear of hurting Jade Fox as well as Little Dragon fear of lacking a "real" master. From Li Mubai and Shu Lien, we can learn something about Chinese people's attitude toward love. Li Mubai decided to give up his "In Lon" sword and retreat from "Jiang Hu" and planed to meet Shu Lien actually without knowing anything about "Qin Lon" sword being stolen. Love does not came from his mouth but is witnessed by his actions. Such implicit feelings are actually very common among Chinese people, not only among couple, but also among parents and children, this may be further interpreted by another lecture film called "Shower " outside this essay. Moreover, within the film, there are also cues showing that there are some special kind of affection in between Little Dragon and Li Mubai. Like at the very end of first fighting scenes, there is a zoom on Little Dragon's eyes though her face was covered by black cloth. It is some kind of impressive technique which try to express that there are something running in her mind when she was looking at Li Mubai. Moreover, different background music were use in the fighting scenes between Little Dragon and Shu Lien and between Little Dragon and Li Mubai. For the former one, the music have a steady but fast rhythm, it gives a feeling of tension, while for the later one, the music is much smoother and softer as if they were dancing. It romanticized the fighting scene. These implicitly depicted the unseen emotion of characters.

Last but not least, a theme of enlightenment is obviously passing through the entire story. Enlightenment is a concept extracted from Buddhism and Taoism which is closely linked with Chinese philosophy. Just at the very beginning of the film, the conversation between Li Mumbai and Shu Lien was exactly about the search for enlightenment. Later, they chatted again at a kiosk. Li Mubai said " The thing we touch have no permanence", "only by letting go can you embrace the world" all these again are ideas from Buddhism and Taoism and are closely echoing the theme, enlightenment. The theme is further strengthen by the open-ending scene, a long take showing Little Dragon who is jumping off a cliff with her arms open. It may symbolizes Little Dragon, letting go and embracing the world. No matter how audiences interpreter the scene, there are no doubts that the film is trying to have a very deep discussion on individual search for enlightenment.

In a nutshell, "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" helps expose the spiritual side of China to audiences through depicting the characters delicately by using different mise-en-scene, cinematography and editing and bringing up a theme of enlightenment, an idea closely related to Chinese religion and philosophy, etc. Therefore, "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" is clearly not a product of self-orientalisation to meet westerners' tastes.