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CULTS IN ASIA Lee, who's known for his tear-jerking dramas, says he's dreamed about making a martial arts epic since he was a kid. "I fantasized about certain scenes from martial art fiction and films," says Lee, whose parents fled the mainland in 1949. As a result, he identifies more with the fantasy China than the actual country. In the end it took $15 million, five months, and one Michelle Yeoh broken leg to shoot the adaptation of the relatively unknown 10-year-old Chinese novel. In the process, the filming spanned various parts of Mainland China, encompassing the Gobi desert, northern Tibet, and somebody's backyard bamboo forest in Anji. The nature scenes are beautiful. I KNOW KUNG FU Crouching Tiger's choreographer, Yuen Wo-Ping, is the martial arts director responsible for the Drunken Master movies and The Matrix. Yuen, who comes from a Peking Opera background and helped shape the old school of kung fu movies, is a firm believer that strength comes from the ground. In contrast, Lee wanted the fights' power to come from the wirework: "In my mind there's no gravity. It's more metaphorical. It's not flying; it's weightless lifting. It's one essential concept of the genre, of Chinese philosophy of the Wudan style of losing your tension and personal desire. You can transcend yourself to sheer power and something higher." Ang says there was a little apprehension on both sides when he approached Yuen for his film. "I think we have a lot of mutual respect, and he knows what I do," says Ang. "But, yeah, like doing Jane Austen [in Sense and Sensibility], I had to prove I can do Jane Austen. There was a long stage to earn his trust, but I think at heart, although he doesn't really admit it, he is an artist. His profession is such a blue-collar kind of working aspect, they just don't admit they care for art. But I think he does." |
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Each principal actor had to prepare for the intense fighting and wirework.
Zhang and Chow worked rigorously for about two months before shooting began.
Yeoh, who has the most intense fight scenes, trained for five.
The action of the movie is anchored by three generations of female fighters:
Cheng Pei-Pei from the old school, Hong Kong superstar Yeoh, and newcomer Zhang.
As a result, this movie has some of the most intense girl fight scenes ever.
"It's a male fantasy," Ang suspects. "This is, after all, a very male-dominated
genre. 'Oh, what a potent woman! How fascinating. It's even more fascinating if
we conquer them.' But this book is one of the rare cases that the women take
their point of view and get to carry the story. To me, [the female characters
are] the hidden dragon, psychologically."
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