My favorite fight is probly the huge outdoor bar brawl which includes, among other things, a cook (Xiaofei Zhou I think?) fighting off a guy with two ladles and then using one to dump hot soup and noodles on him. Extra credit to the part where the character Silent Wolf (more on him later) hops around landing on people’s feet, crunching and hobbling six guys in a row. The sounds of wood clanking and crunching, metal clanging and vibrating, vases cracking, bricks crumbling, swords dragging across dirt or stone, and of course wind whooshing are as intoxicating as the movements themselves. I love how detailed his style is in its use of the different senses, especially the aural. It’s worth noting that today’s technology is used to create more elaborate magical realism, like when the two leads ride in on horses, block a barrage of spears, leap high into the air, land and begin a sword fight, all in one beautiful shot. I wouldn’t say he tops it here, but he brings more graceful glides, spinning swords and nimble roof top skips and hops. No, the director is not Ang Lee, but it’s not nobody either – it’s Yuen Woo-Ping, whose choreography was the life’s blood of the first film. But if we think of it in terms of unlikely DTV sequels, CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON: SWORD OF DESTINY is in the upper echelon. It’s not surprising that people seem to have been disappointed, or just confused, or completely unaware of it. And sold it to Netflix so it was barely released in theaters and may never be available on disc in most countries. Okay, so admittedly it’s weird that 17 years after the acclaimed, Academy Award winning CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON, The Weinstein Company up and made a sequel without the original director.
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