Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon - Essay Example

Cinema, film, as with all forms of arts, is a global medium of communication, transcending national, cultural and linguistic boundaries to bring a multinational audience together for one of those, very rare, moments of transnational shared enjoyment. Some films, as Urry (1995) explains, insofar as they emanate from within the very bounds of an ethnic, rather than national, experience and are expressed through referenced to ethnic cultural and historical memories, cannot make the crossover. A vast percentage of films, however, irrespective of linguistic and cultural media do attain global popularity and international success because they speak to that which is universal and common to all people - emotions, dreams and relationships (Urry, 1995). The reasons why film is particularly suited for semi-unimpeded movement across national borders, cultural boundaries and linguistic barriers will be illustrated in this essay through reference to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Through a critical analysis of this production, the essay will expose the extent to which this supposedly Chinese film is, as with cinema in general, a transnational work. Globalisation has, undoubtedly, maximised cinema's capacity to function as a transnational medium of communication. As Lu (1997) asserts, contrary to immediate assumptions, this is not because globalisation has facilitated the movement of goods and services across borders or because it is characterised by an intricate network of transnational interpersonal communication system (internet), but because film has become transnational. Ethnic and national cinema is decreasingly purely ethnic and increasingly international in scope (Lu, 1997). The veracity of the aforementioned is perfectly evidenced in Ang Lee's 'Chinese' film, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. While recognised as a Chinese film, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is, in truth, transnational film, in which sense its movement across borders and its successful global reception, especially in western society, cannot be simply attributed to the inherently universal nature of the film but to the uniquely transnational nature of this film and its director. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is, as may be determined through an overview of its production and investment, a transnational film. Produced and released in 2000, the film won, within the context of non-English speaking cinema, unprecedented international acclaim and box office success, even scooping up four Oscars (Rose, 2001). The film's budget of fifteen million dollars was the highest ever for a Chinese language film and became the most commercially successful foreign film ever to be distributed worldwide, grossing more than two hundred million dollars in global box office receipts (Rose, 2001). Its international success cannot be divorced from the inherently transnational character of the production. As Cheshire (2001) writes, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon's director, Ang Lee, was born in Taiwan, studied theatre acting and directing at the Taiwan Academy of Arts in Taipei, received a bachelor's degree in theatre at the University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign, and continued his studies in film at New York University in the nation's cultural melting pot. By the time he made Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Lee had already completed three Chinese language films and three Hollywood projects (Cheshire, 2001). In 1995, the British screenwriter and actress, Emma Thompson, invited Lee to adapt Austen's British classic Sense and Sensibility to the cinema. Then Lee took on the American suburbs of the 1970s in Ice Storm (1997) and the war-torn American South in Ride with the Devil (1999) (Cheshire, 2001). Apart from the thoroughly transnational character of its director, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon (2000) includes such transnational artistic talents as Chow Yun-Fat (Hong Kong), Michelle Yeoh (born in Malaysia, but began her film career in Hong Kong), Zhang Ziyi (China), Chang Chen (Taiwan), and Cheng Pei-pei (Hong Kong). The cinematographer Peter Pau and fight choreographer Yuen Woo-ping are both from Hong Kong. The Chinese-American composer Tan Dun, prepared the musical score. Added to the stated, the script for this 'Chinese' film was written by an American and translated into Chinese (Lyman, 2001). The presentation of what may have come across as a lengthy listing of the film's credits is important in relation to the question at hand. This is because it exposes the extent to which the film's crew and cast, not to mention its director, imposed a multinational character upon the film. Indeed, the outlook of its cast and crew, not to mention the experiences and background they brought into the filming with them, is not Chinese as much as it is transnational. Within the context of the above stated, it is hardly surprising to note that the film is rarely, if ever, classified as a Chinese film by its director, cast and crew, let alone Chinese audiences and film critics (Chute, 2000). The fact of the matter is and as evidenced in the very structure and nature of its production, the film is transnational not Chinese, it is multinational and not a national film. Indeed, as Cheshire (2001) quotes Lee as saying, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is not, contrary to popular conceptions, a Hollywood produced Chinese film but a transnationally produced international film. Sony Pictures and Columbia Pictures have the distribution rights and Good Machine International, a Chinese-American-Taiwanese company, owns its copyright (Cheshire, 2001). In fact, as a testament to the un-Chinese and transnational nature of this particular film, the assistant directors had to give cast and crew orders and directions in English, Cantonese and Mandarin (Cheshire, 2001). There was not a common language and this, in itself, mirrors the true depth of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon's a-national and transnational character. Possibly as a result of its transnational character, its female-centric storyline has international appeal, not just from the Western feminist perspective but from that of the global oppressor-oppressed matrix. Indeed, the female character serves as a point of departure for multiple secondary themes, all of which have their own unique global appeal. The strong female protagonist, Jen, who attempts to act independently and overcome obstacles with her skills in martial arts, appeals to audiences, who are attracted to her defiance of social constraints and her literal image as a monsteress. In his exposition of the ying-yang dynamics between Jen and Yu, Lee tends towards the feminine as a strategy for the contestation of the themes of loyalty and submission to authority. As Cheshire (2001) comments, in its portrayal of three generations of female warriors, implicit within which is the theme of loyalty and refusal to submit to the dictates of unjust authority, not only does the film play tribute to Everyman and Everywoman's cross-historical and transnational struggle against oppression but it appeals to the universal sense of justice, shared by all, irrespective of time and place. The implication here is that the transnational character of the production is complimented by the universal nature of its theme and the transnational appeal of its message. The casting of the film in an 'oriental' mode, undoubtedly contributed to its universal appeal especially as it is done within the context of the universally popular and familiar epic. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is an epic love story set against the breathtaking landscapes of ancient China. As Wong (1995) asserts, there is a long tradition of epic in Hollywood in which filmmakers reinvent and re-deploy the cultural stereotypes of the past. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon marks a reworking of those old-fashioned Hollywood romantic epics that usually revolves around Europeans venturing into Asia as, for instance, in Anna and the King of Siam (1946), The King and I (1956), Lawrence of Arabia (1962), and war epics like Apocalypse Now (1979), the American TV mini-series Shogun (1980), or the Hollywood exposition of China's last imperial dynasty The Last Emperor (1987) (Wong, 1995). Indeed, the aforementioned works, alongside many others, effectively packaged the orient China for the West's consumption, as a strategy for both ensuring commercial success and the facilitation of the works' transnational movements (Wong, 1995). Just as Hollywood had earlier explored China's 'foreign-ness,' so to say, Lee highlights the exhibitionism of the mythical Chinese landscape set in ancient times and dazzles audiences with the beauty of the landscape of the poetic nature of the martial arts movements. The film, in other words, appeals to the global audience, as did others before it, through the orientalisation of the orient. The orientalisation of China, as in the exposition of its otherness and the highlighting of its exoticness, draws from a long tradition of the commercialisation of the other. As Edward Said (1995) had argued in his famous treatise on orientalism, the West has always sought the devouring of the East, driven by both curiosity and the ever-voracious need to possess. Understanding that its appeal lay in its otherness, in its seeming alien nature, the East, in turn, has marketed itself through its own orientalisation. It has, in other words, actively contributed to the marketing of its foreignism and sought to attract the Western other to it by highlighting its difference, often exaggerating the extent of that while downplaying similarities (Said, 1995). In a similar argument, Dirlik (1990) contends that both East and West have maintained a culturally dichotomous relationship for the purposes of mutual profitability. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is a perfect representation of the extent to which the aforementioned has the power for universal appeal even as it is financially profitable. Proceeding from the above stated, it is evident that the international popularity of, and success enjoyed by, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, emanates from the inherently transnational character of the film itself. The work, whether assessed from the perspective of production, cast, crew, themes or storyline, has been shaped by a multicultural outlook. Added to that, it has deliberately engaged in the commercialisation of the orient for the purpose of ensuring the elicitation of global appeal and popularity. It is within this context that one can most accurately understand, not just the movement of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon across national borders and linguistic barriers but its highly successful transcending of these boundaries. As has been evidenced in the foregoing arguments, film is unique among all other products and services, not simply because it entertains, but because it entertains through the creation of a discourse with the universal. As Urry (2000) contends, even as it highlights the otherness and the uniqueness of its character, possibly even landscape, setting and storyline, film always retains a universal point of reference because it is, in the final analysis, anchored to that which is fundamentally and uniquely human- emotions (Urry, 2000). It moves across borders with ease, establishes lines of communication between societies and entertains generations, across linguistic, historical, cultural and national boundaries because it is human, it is emotional. Reference Cheshire, E. (2001) Ang Lee. Harpenden: Pocket Essentials. Chute, D. (2000, December) Year of the Dragon.' Premiere, 76-79. Dirlik, A. (1990) Culturalism as hegemonic ideology and liberating practice.' In The Nature and Context of Minority Discourse. JanMohammed, A.R. and Lloyd, D (eds.) New York: Oxford University Press, 394-431. Lu, H.S. (1997) Transnational Chinese Cinemas: Identity, Nationhood, Gender. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. Lyman, R. (2001, March 9) Crouching memory, hidden heart: Watching movies with Ang Lee.' New York Times, E1+. Rose, M.M. (2001, July 24) Lee inks 2-year consultant deal with Col for Asia.' The Hollywood Reporter, 4+80. Said, E. (1979) Orientalism. New York: Vintage. Urry, J. (1995) Consuming Places. New York: Routledge. Urry, J. (2000) Sociology Beyond Societies: Mobilities for the Twenty-First Century. New York: Routledge. Wong, S.C. (1995) Denationalisation reconsidered: Asian American cultural criticism at a theoretical crossroads.' Amerasia Journal, 21(1-2), 1-27. Read More