Re: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

Is that review a joke or something?

If not, its pretty ridiculous.  It always amazes me how people can read so
much into works of art/entertainment.  Certainly, there are plenty of
works with lots of rich political content, but I really don't think this
film is one of them.  That's not to say that there's nothing political
about it because every work reflects its creator(s) viewpoints, but that's
a far cry from an explicitly political work.



**SPOILER WARNING*

Down below, I make points that discuss various bits of the film that you
may or may not want to know about.



















This part is quite rich:

> (The Michelle Yeoh & Chow Yun Fat characters are basically
> mercenaries for the ruling class, who reclaim Jen from an evil
> lesbian feminist Jade Fox.)


Hmm, feminist, maybe.  Though her motivations hardly seem to be feminist.
Lesbian?  That just comes out of nowhere.  The only sex Jade Fox is
mentioned as having is with a man.  Doesn't mean she's not a lesbian but
there's very little to indicate that she is, unless you insist on seeing
things that aren't there.

I _am_ looking forward to the prequel, which will hopefully cover the
events related to Jade Fox & Li Mu Bai's master.  I'm hoping that it
_does_ address the issue of sexism.

As for them being mercenaries for the ruling class.  That's not so clear
either.  Their motivation in 'reclaiming' her (which they aren't even
trying to do!) is not really motivated by money.

Another good part:

> _Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon_ has an intriguing _but
> underdeveloped_ lesbian-feminist class-struggle subtext

Hmm, maybe its under-developed because it doesn't really exist.

And later:

> 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).

Huh?  Illiterate?  Its never implied that she can't read (in fact, we see
her reading the posters outside the Yu residence earlier in the film).
The problem is that she doesn't have the talent to _understand_ the book.
But that wouldn't fit the writer's theory, so its ignored.


Ok, maybe the review was a joke and I'm just a troll-biter.



-dave

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