Kung Fu report: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) vs 36th Chamber of Shaolin (1973) - Essay Example

It grossed seven hundred and twenty five million dollars internationally with nearly half of the earning from the Chinese market. This stayed the highest earning records of a single film for more than twenty years in China. The Crouching tiger, hidden dragon is another recent Chinese movie following a script written on Chinese martial arts. Unlike the 36th Chamber of Shaolin, the movie did not perform as well especially in the Chinese market. It however performed fairly and won a number of awards in the United States of America.

Produced in Hollywood, the movie casts a number of Chinese international stars and targeted the international market (Merritt 65). With a production budget of seventeen million dollars, the movie was not expected to earn much especially following the poor reception among the Chinese market. It however surprised many when it eventually grossed two hundred and thirty million with half the amount coming from the Chinese market. Both the movies address nearly similar themes and run on similar story lines, it thus becomes challenging to determine why one performed better than the other did, as is the case.

A number of analysts have attributed the great success of the 36th Chamber of Shaolin to its timing. The film was produced in 1973, by then the industry was still young and films were therefore rare. The movie thus had a scoop of the mundane market filling the yearning audience thirst for a source of entertainment. In a time that people were only used to stage dramas and low quality films, the movie came as a surprise to many. The Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon premiered in 2000, at in which film production had become child’s play.

There were several film producers all capable of producing similar films and the market was already flooded with stars and films. In fact, those who starred in the film had previously acted in other plays thereby denying the movie a sense of originality. According to such