Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

How this film uses it

Yuen Woo-ping's wire work, where hidden cables let the actors leap and glide, makes flight a form of self-expression. Jen fights in the air differently from Li Mu Bai, who fights differently again from Yu Shu Lien. The wire work is character more than spectacle. Each fighter's style in the air shows you their mind and how they relate to freedom.

Where to see it

The rooftop chase sequence. Jen flees and Yu Shu Lien pursues, and the chase shows how differently the 2 women relate to freedom and restraint. The wire work lets you see desire as movement.

How this film uses it

The western desert, Mount Wudang, the bamboo forest and Beijing are moral territories. Each one tests the characters in a different way. The desert is where Jen learns freedom and the bamboo forest is where Li Mu Bai and Jen duel. Each landscape has its own link to the film's ideas about duty and desire.

Where to see it

The bamboo forest duel. Li Mu Bai and Jen fight up at the height of the treetops. The forest is unstable and beautiful, which matches their unresolvable relationship exactly.

How this film uses it

Li Mu Bai, Yu Shu Lien and Jen form the film's moral and romantic triangle. Li Mu Bai loves Yu Shu Lien but can't say so. He is drawn to Jen as both a student and a mirror. Jen carries the freedom that he and Yu Shu Lien have both given up. The triangle measures what holding desire down costs.

Where to see it

Li Mu Bai's deathbed confession to Yu Shu Lien. He finally speaks the love he held back for decades, at the moment when speaking can no longer change anything. The triangle ends in pure loss.

How this film uses it

Tan Dun's score blends traditional Chinese instruments, the erhu, pipa and guqin, with Western orchestral writing and Yo-Yo Ma's cello. The musical mix mirrors what the film does with culture. It takes a classical Chinese genre and reworks it for a global audience. The traditional and the modern pull against each other in a useful way.

Where to see it

The desert flashback sequences. Tan Dun's score mixes Chinese and Western elements here. The music does the same blending of cultures as the film.

How this film uses it

The Green Destiny sword is the film's central symbol. It stands for mastery, freedom and the question of who is entitled to both. In Li Mu Bai's hands, it is disciplined power. In Jen's, it is undisciplined desire. Its theft matters more as a question of ideas than as a crime. The film is built around who the sword truly belongs to.

Where to see it

Jen's theft of the Green Destiny. The sword's meaning shifts from a tool of discipline to a tool of rebellion. What the film is saying changes each time the sword passes between characters.