Retrospective Film Review

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) • 20 Years Later

A young Chinese warrior steals a sword from a famed swordsman and then escapes into a world of romantic adventure with a mysterious man.

Much has been said about Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’s role in the popularisation of wuxia films in the early-2000s, and its legacy since. The surprise hit, with dialogue in Mandarin and subtitles in English, triggered a slew of wuxia films such as Hero (2003), House of Flying Daggers (2004), and Curse of the Golden Flower (2006) — all directed by Zhang Yimou.

What is this film’s legacy? In retrospect, the interesting thing isn’t the mainstream introduction of the fantasy wuxia genre. It’s clear, especially to western audiences that hadn’t grown up with them, that this wasn’t realistic. There were heroes and heroines climbing up walls and practicing Qing Gong on bamboo forests while fighting!