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Original Title: 卧虎藏龙 Directed by: Ang Lee Written by: Wang Hui-ling, James Schamus, Wang Dulu (Novel) Cinematography: Peter Pau Music by: Tan Dun Country: Taiwan, Hong Kong, China, USA Genres: Action, Drama, Romance Duration: 120 min Release Dates: 16 May 2000 (Cannes), 8 July (China), 10 Sept. (TIFF) Filming Dates: August 1999 – December 1999 Filming Locations: China (Beijing, Chengde, Anhui, Xinjiang) Synopsis: The disappearance of a magical jade sword spurs a breathtaking quest for the missing treasure. Li is embittered by the loss of his jade sword, and his unrequited pursuit of Yu is further complicated by the mysterious intrusion of an assassin. The identity of the assassin is gradually unveiled as another poignant tale of love begins to ravel with that of Li and Yu against the backdrop of Western China’s magnificent landscape. -IMDb

Chow  Yun-Fat Li Mu Bai

Michelle Yeoh Yu Shu Lien

Zhang Ziyi Jen Yu

Chang Chen Luo Xiao Hu

Cheng Pei-Pei Jade Fox

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Crouching Tiger China Trailer

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Crouching Tiger – Trailer 1

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Crouching Tiger – Trailer 2

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Crouching Tiger – Trailer 3

1:27 min   |   1407 views

• “Crouching tiger hidden dragon” is a quote from Chinese mythology. It refers to hiding your strength from others; advice which is followed too well by the characters in the film.
• The film is an adaptation of the fourth novel in a pentalogy, or five-novel cycle, known in China as the Crane/Iron Pentalogy and written by noted wuxia (kung-fu) novelist Du Lu Wang. The novels are “Crane Frightens Kunlun”, “Precious Sword, Golden Hairpin”, “Sword’s Force, Pearl’s Shine”, “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”, and “Iron Knight, Silver Vase”. Much of the story is not about Li Mu Bai and Yu Shu Lien; they are in fact secondary characters who only become important later in the series. When a comic-book adaptation of the fourth book in the pentalogy was slated, illustrator Andy Seto re-watched the film to get inspiration for how to depict the fight scenes.
• Jet Li was originally cast to play Li Mu Bai, but turned the part down to appear in Romeo Must Die. The role was next offered to Hong Kong singer/actor Leon Lai but he, too, turned it down.
• Ziyi studied calligraphy for several months along with her other training for the movie.
• Michelle Yeoh did not speak Mandarin, and the script was presented to her phonetically with help from Mandarin-speaking crew members – her Malaysian accent can be heard throughout. Yun-Fat Chow did speak Mandarin (his first language is Cantonese) but native Mandarin speakers thought his accent strained and overdone.
• Michelle Yeoh tore her ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) during the shooting of an early fighting sequence and had to be flown to the U.S. for knee surgery. She returned to the set at different times to film non-action scenes until the knee had recovered.
• In Chinese, Lo’s name is “Little Tiger”, and Jen’s name is “Gorgeous Dragon”.
• Tan Dun had only two weeks to compose and record the musical score.
• The Green Destiny Sword Li Mu Bai carries translates to Green Dark World Sword – a place where the dead go. The Mu in Li Mu Bai’s name translates to a kind of positive jealousy or longing – as in wanting something but probably never getting it.
• Taiwanese-born Hong Kong actress Qi Shu was originally cast in Ziyi Zhang’s role of Jen Yu and worked on the film for several weeks, until her agent pulled her from the movie to do a Pepsi commercial in Japan. She has since changed agents.
• The four main actors all spoke Mandarin, but with different accents. Yun-Fat Chow had a Cantonese accent, Michelle Yeoh had a Malaysian/English accent, Ziyi Zhang had a Beijing accent, and Chen Chang had a Taiwanese accent. Because of the difficulty some Chinese-speaking markets had with the voices, some markets actually had a dubbed version (into standard Mandarin) of the soundtrack.
• While Ziyi’s character is obviously highly trained & skillful in martial arts, the actress herself has never had any official martial arts training at all. Instead she uses her dance techniques to learn her moves in these scenes, as if they were a dance rather than a fight (which in terms of creating & filming them is actually not that far from the truth).
• Foreign language film nominated for Best Picture to date with the most number of Academy Award nominations.
• In 2001, this became the first foreign language film to earn over $100 million in the United States. —IMDb