_Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon_, distributed by Sony Pictures Classics, is a _very_ multinational production befitting the Progress of the Empire.
Zhang Zi Yi, a young mainland Chinese actress, plays the heroine Jen Yu, a spoiled & bratty aristocratic "grrrl" & would-be feminist woman warrior. Chang Chen, a young Taiwanese actor & popular fashion model for Yoji Yamamoto, is Lo, a charming bandit who dwells in the desert & falls madly in love with Jen. Michelle Yeoh, who plays the role of Yu Shu Lien (in love with Li Mu Bai), is a Malaysian-born actress who studied at the Royal Academy of Dance in London & kicked asses in many an HK film. Chow Yun Fat -- the best known HK superstar -- doesn't have much acting to do in this movie, as Li Mu Bai, a legendary warrior who vowed to avenge the death of his sexist-pig master who had been deservedly killed by a female bandit Jade Fox. (The Michelle Yeoh & Chow Yun Fat characters are basically mercenaries for the ruling class, who reclaim Jen from an evil lesbian feminist Jade Fox.) The director Ang Lee was born in Taiwan & studied theater at the University of Illinois & film production at New York University; he's well known for _The Wedding Banquet_, _Eat Drink Man Woman_, _The Ice Storm_, & _Sense and Sensibility_. James Schamus -- a screenwriter & long-time collaborator with Ang Lee -- pitches _Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon_ as "_Sense and Sensibility_ with sword fights" (yuck!). Martial arts was choreographed by Yuen Woo-Ping of the Matrix fame.
_Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon_ has an intriguing _but underdeveloped_ lesbian-feminist class-struggle subtext, mainly embodied in the character of Jade Fox, played by Pei-pei Cheng. Jade Fox killed Li Mu Bai's master because the sexist pig screwed her but refused to teach her the mystery of Wu Tan (a style of martial arts). She takes Jen under her wings, teaches her martial arts, & (symbolically speaking) proposes to her that together they destroy ruling-class patriarchs & build a new world of warrior women; Jen, however, refuses to become a class traitor -- she just wants to do a little slumming, first with an older proletarian woman (Jade Fox) & then a young proletarian boy (Lo). Jade Fox dies at the hand of Li Mu Bai. With her dying breaths, she reproaches Jen for denying her literacy (earlier, Jade fox stole the Book that contained the secret teachings of Wu Tan, which she, illiterate, couldn't read; Jen read it & surpassed her female mentor, without sharing her learning with her).
The film should be read as an allegory of "power feminism" of the Empire, rising out of the ruins of radical & materialist lesbian feminism which was once popular during the heydays of second-wave women's movement. Its saving graces are the aforementioned lesbian-feminist class-struggle subtext, the appearance of the dashing Chang Chen (who played Chang in _Happy Together_ [1997], a gay romance & "national" allegory directed by Wong Kar-wai), & spectacular sceneries.
Yoshie