Design of the Week | Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
I remember seeing the original Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon three times in theaters. I was living in New York at the time. I remember one of those times was with friends visiting from Ohio. I remember exiting the theater and riding the escalator upstairs from the basement at the Angelika and my friends heckling the movie. They seemed particularly dismissive because the characters seemed to fly. I felt so protective of the movie and probably held no rational argument for why I thought they were wrong to dismiss it in such a knee-jerk fashion.
I still think it's a wondrous, masterful film, mostly so because of its epic romantic nature. The sword-fights and flying/leaping are special effects that while visually dazzling also cast mood, elevating the film to legend or fable.
The new trailer seems dangerous to the original's legacy. First, Ang Lee's sorrowful score appears to be replaced by an atrocious remix of Credence Clearwater Revival's 'Bad Moon Rising.' At the tail-end of the trailer for the first film, it's billed as an "extraordinary romantic adventure" helmed by Ang Lee, the director of Sense and Sensibility. The sequel is clearly looking to exploit the original's favorite battle sequences and is even directed by a fight choreographer.
Subscribe to our feed
Comments