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Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

Original title: Wo hu cang long
  • 2000
  • PG-13
  • 2h
IMDb RATING
7.9/10
288K
YOUR RATING
POPULARITY
2,093
370
Chow Yun-Fat, Michelle Yeoh, Chang Chen, and Ziyi Zhang in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)
Trailer for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Play trailer2:04
1 Video
99+ Photos
Action EpicAdventure EpicEpicFantasy EpicMartial ArtsPeriod DramaQuestRomantic EpicSword & SorceryWuxia

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

  • Director
    • Ang Lee
  • Writers
    • Hui-Ling Wang
    • James Schamus
    • Kuo Jung Tsai
  • Stars
    • Chow Yun-Fat
    • Michelle Yeoh
    • Ziyi Zhang
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    7.9/10
    288K
    YOUR RATING
    POPULARITY
    2,093
    370
    • Director
      • Ang Lee
    • Writers
      • Hui-Ling Wang
      • James Schamus
      • Kuo Jung Tsai
    • Stars
      • Chow Yun-Fat
      • Michelle Yeoh
      • Ziyi Zhang
    • 1.7KUser reviews
    • 314Critic reviews
    • 94Metascore
  • See production info at IMDbPro
    • Won 4 Oscars
      • 101 wins & 132 nominations total

    Videos1

    Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
    Trailer 2:04
    Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

    Photos785

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    Top cast31

    Edit
    Chow Yun-Fat
    Chow Yun-Fat
    • Master Li Mu Bai
    • (as Chow Yun Fat)
    Michelle Yeoh
    Michelle Yeoh
    • Yu Shu Lien
    Ziyi Zhang
    Ziyi Zhang
    • Jen
    • (as Zhang Ziyi)
    Chang Chen
    Chang Chen
    • Lo
    Sihung Lung
    Sihung Lung
    • Sir Te
    Pei-Pei Cheng
    Pei-Pei Cheng
    • Jade Fox
    • (as Cheng Pei-Pei)
    Fazeng Li
    • Governor Yu
    Xian Gao
    • Bo
    Yan Hai
    • Madame Yu
    Deming Wang
    • Tsai
    • (as Wang De Ming)
    Li Li
    Li Li
    • May
    • (as Li Li)
    Suying Huang
    Suying Huang
    • Auntie Wu
    • (as Huang Su Ying)
    Jinting Zhang
    • De Lu
    • (as Zhang Jin Ting)
    Rui Yang
    • Maid
    Kai Li
    • Gou Jun Pei
    Jianhua Feng
    • Gou Jun Sinung
    • (as Feng Jian Hua)
    Zhenxi Du
    • Shop Owner
    • (as Du Zhen Xi)
    Cheng Lin Xu
    • Captain
    • (as Xu Cheng Lin)
    • Director
      • Ang Lee
    • Writers
      • Hui-Ling Wang
      • James Schamus
      • Kuo Jung Tsai
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      Michelle Yeoh deliberately did not work for a year before filming began so she could concentrate on training and learning Mandarin.
    • Goofs
      (at around 1h 30 mins) During the fight between Yu Shu Lien and Xiou Long, many floor tiles are smashed by Shu Lien. After Shu Lien discards her heavy metal weapon and continues to fight, the tiles appear intact.
    • Quotes

      Li Mu Bai: I've already wasted my whole life. I want to tell you with my last breath that I have always loved you. I would rather be a ghost, drifting by your side as a condemned soul, than enter heaven without you. Because of your love, I will never be a lonely spirit.

    • Crazy credits
      The opening title appears in Chinese and English.
    • Alternate versions
      An English dubbed version was created for the home video market.
    • Connections
      Featured in Siskel & Ebert: Remember the Titans/The Exorcist: The Version You've Never Seen/Under Suspicion (2000)
    • Soundtracks
      A Love Before Time
      Music Composed by Jorge Calandrelli, Dun Tan

      Lyrics by James Schamus, Elaine Chow (Translation)

      Performed by Coco Lee featuring Cello Solo by Yo-Yo Ma

      Coco Lee appears courtesy of Sony Music Entertainment (Holland) B.V.

    User reviews1.7K

    Featured review

    Hulk Smash!

    Fans burnt by George Lucas' "Phantom Menace" found solace in Ang Lee's cosily straightforward "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon". The film was greeted with a shrug in China (it was a flop), a country desensitised to wuxia tales, but Westerners loved it. Probably because "Tiger" is basically "Star Wars", with its own assortment of bounty-hunters, Jedis, Sith Lords, princesses, rogues, warriors, villains, henchmen, Yodas, fairy tale romances, teachers, masters, apprentices, chosen ones and much vague talk of destiny, fate and "light" and "dark" sides. When he's not indulging in super choreographed action sequences, Lee's aesthetic is also very Lucasy, which is to say, very John Ford, very David Lean, very Kurosawa, with clean lines, big open spaces, and simple but careful shot selection. What's strange is the film's budget. The film looks like it has the budget of one of those big, state backed Chinese or Stalinist productions, but "Crouching" was made for about fifteen million dollars. Lee gets a lot of mileage out of his budget.

    Martial arts fans abhor "Tiger". It's too geared to western tastes, too watered down, and China's been churning out similar wuxia for decades. Why should this one get all the credit? But Lee does put his own spin on the material. His film is more sensual, poetic, graceful, romantic, has a mysterious beauty, and is more delicate than is typical of the genre. His female characters are also given a bigger role than is customary and his action at times seems more like expressive dance.

    Repression, restrictions, strict moral codes and self-control are an obsession with Lee. With "Hulk" we had a scientist who struggles to curb his anger, his "Taking Woodstock", "Wedding Banquet" and "Brokeback Mountain" revolved around characters repressing their homosexuality, while "Sense and Sensibility", "Lust Caution", "Ice Storm" and "Woodstock" again all hinged on either repression, free expression or the inhibiting of desire. In "Crouching's" case – the title itself refers to "one who has hidden, suppressed talents" - we have a stifled three-way love between characters called Mu Bai, Shu Lien and Jen Yu, all of whom are prohibited from desire by strict moral/social codes, feudal customs and warrior traditions.

    The rejection of these codes is perhaps why the film was shunned by China (and is so popular with western women). Chinese mythology, Taoist philosophy and the hokey "mysticism" of Asian martian arts films (akin to "Star Wars'" "The Force"), all stress an esoteric mode of detachment, a form of denial characteristic of Eastern thought in which the world is seen to be illusory and detached cogitation is seen to be the path to enlightenment. Lee, in contrast, is trading in a more genteel, Western sensibility; a kind of romantic humanism where one is called to ditch Eastern stoicism and embrace the "reality" and "meaning" of human attachments in this life. This tug-of-war is epitomised by a trio of conversations located in each of the film's three acts. In the first, characters called Mu Bai and Shu Lien, who we learn have long had feelings for each another but have denied these feelings to pursue the demands of a Wudan warrior lifestyle, discuss the fact that Mu Bai, when meditating, reaches not "the bliss of enlightenment" but "a place of endless sorrow". For Mu Bai, passions cannot be extinguished and only serve to increase the pull of desire. Mu Bai's conflict – the way clinging to personal affection is contrary to his Wudan ways of detachment – can be found even in Lucas' "Star Wars" prequels, only there Lucas has some monastic ninja kid literally moan about the way his calling prevents him from losing his virginity ("Me want make sexy time but Yoda say no! Wah Wah Wah!").

    The second conversation occurs at the film's midpoint, when Mu Bai and Shu Lien finally touch. "Shu Lien," he recoils, "the things we touch have no permanence. My master would say there is nothing we can hold onto in this world. Only by letting go can we truly possess what is real." Shu Lien then brushes aside his Taoism with direct, naive realism: "Not everything is an illusion. My hand is real."

    It's in the third conversation that the film breaks away from your typical martial arts movie mysticism and repudiates Wudan philosophy. Here, Mu Bai is dying and Shu Lien urges him to meditate: "Free yourself of this world. Let your soul rise to eternity. Do not waste your breath on me." "I have already wasted my life," Mu Bai responds. "I would rather be a ghost drifting by your side, as a condemned soul, than enter heaven without you." Contrast this with the countless marital arts movies, or even the "Star Wars" franchise, which end with the ghostly spirits of dead warriors, monks and masters hovering contently over the living. Mu Bai is given no supernatural reprieve, no higher plane of existence. He just dies. The film then ends with the recounting of a mountain legend in which a young woman must paradoxically "float away and never return" if she wishes to "return". The whole film hinges on a similar paradox: acting on a desire one desires not to have. It's the paradox of Buddhism: continually desiring to eliminate desire, whereby satiating desire is impossible and it is ultimately desire which blocks the road to desirelessness. This is contrasted with a more Western hedonism, where the hedonist attempts the cessation of desire by "giving in" to them all.

    Beyond all this, the film resembles the works of King Hu, Ozu and Ichikawa, the latter two only insofar as it contrasts straitjacketed older generations, and their societal obligations, with oppositional, younger generations. The film's ending suggests that a character called Jen sacrifices her life/love so that Mu Bai and Shu Lien may finally be together.

    8.5/10 – Worth two viewings.
    • tieman64
    • May 7, 2012
    • Permalink

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    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • January 12, 2001 (United States)
    • Countries of origin
      • China
      • Taiwan
      • Hong Kong
      • United States
    • Official site
      • Official Facebook
    • Languages
      • Mandarin
      • Chinese
    • Also known as
      • El tigre y el dragón
    • Filming locations
      • Huangshan region, Anhui Province, China
    • Production companies
      • Sony Pictures Classics
      • Columbia Pictures Film Production Asia
      • Good Machine
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Budget
      • $17,000,000 (estimated)
    • Gross US & Canada
      • $128,530,421
    • Opening weekend US & Canada
      • $663,205
      • Dec 10, 2000
    • Gross worldwide
      • $213,978,518
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      2 hours
    • Color
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • Dolby Digital
      • Dolby Atmos
    • Aspect ratio
      • 2.39 : 1

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