好爱refer徐皓峰！
——The Implicit and Explicit Meanings of Martial Arts
Choreographed by Yuen Wo Ping, action scenes in "Crouching Tiger" are unquestionably marvelous, and have won the 2000 Best Action Choreography in Hong Kong. To quote from Roger Ebert, it shows "the sheer physical grace." While most of Western critics agree with Ebert that the beauty of martial art in this film comes from its design philosophy, that is form is more important than function: "It's not who wins that matters (except to the plot, of course); it's who looks most masterful."(1) The Chinese audience however, criticize action scenes in "Crouching Tiger" as unintelligible, since Lee uses too many long takes as oppose to fancy quick edit, and the actions are not pretty enough compare to those from modern martial arts movies. All these comments point to one interpretation, that is martial art in "Crouching Tiger" is unpractical, untraditional thereby creates an escapist beauty. Is that so?
Modern martial arts movie tends to dramatize movements. For the sake of visual effects of sword fights, it learns a lot from Japanese kendo- which contains mostly hack and slash. "Crouching Tiger" however, presents us a distinctive action style by protagonist Li Mu Bai: he thrusts his sword straight forward to the enemies, looks more like Western fencing than Chinese sword fighting thereby was criticized by Chinese audiences, said the director was trying to please Western audiences. But in my perspective, sword fights from "Crouching Tiger" are innovative in film history while tradition-respectful seeing from the actual Chinese martial art angle.
In a 1929 Chinese martial art book called "Wudang Swordsmanship", writer Huang Yuan Xiu, a well-known Wudang martial artist (Wudang is one of the major schools of Chinese martial arts; in "Crouching Tiger", Li Mu Bai is from Wudang) stated that the best sword is a thrusting weapon with no cutting edge, and only uneducated butcher would edge the whole body of his sword. Thereby the traditional Wudang swordsmanship does not have any hack and slash. Moreover, the famous Wudang Taoism claims that swordsmanship is "indisputable inaction", which doesn't mean a total inaction, but do not fight for fighting, and have the ability and confidence of "center hits". Viewed this way, sword fights in "Crouching Tiger" is not a parody of fencing, but the most Wudang-like sword fights in Kung Fu film history. There are lots of old Hong kong films and modern martial arts movies from mainland focus on swordsmanship, but they use Daofa skills (knife, blade, etc.) with swords often, hence create a wrong perception for audiences that grew up with them.
In the famous bamboo forest scene, Li Mu Bai once points his finger between Jen's eyebrows. Just this one gesture shows us how much Ang Lee and Yuen Wo Ping paid attention to Chinese wushu traditions when designing action scenes. Li Mu Bai in the movie is a Wudang wushu master, while this gesture is the actual ceremony of Wudang Swordsmanship School taking disciples. Wudang School belongs to the Taoism system, and Li's gesture named "Kai Qiao" in Taoist concept, is what they believe can connect people with nature, thereby reach the harmony and find inner peace. The only difference is the actual ceremony uses incense to point to the disciple's forehead, while Li uses his finger. From the angle of film performance, if Li does want to have Jen as his disciple, to use a symbolic gesture is certainly more expressive than to use pressing words.
One of the most impressive Wushu in "Crouching Tiger" is Qinggong, that is by how the heroes "transcend space, gravity, the limitations of the body and the fears of the mind." (1) There is a sequence when the two female protagonists are chasing over rooftops, running up the sides of walls and leaping impossibly from one house to another. This is another piece of pioneering work. In usual martial arts movies, Qinggong scenes always pass before they are fully glimpsed. The three steps- jump, fly, land- would be only chosen one or two of them and edited in a fast pace, in order to avoid the audience's negative reaction to such unrealistic movements. What "Crouching Tiger" does is to show the whole process with long takes and establishing shots. A director like Ang Lee surely knows that sometimes ellipsis is more powerful than explicitly seen. So why he chose an anti-traditional cinematographic strategy?
In a Chinese interview (2), Ang Lee said that he argued with Yuen Wo Ping about whether he could use such a long, explicit sequence for Qinggong performance. As an expert of choreography, Yuen warned Lee that the audience would laugh at this kind of unnatural scene. But for Lee, this scene about people flying above low and tall buildings along the street was the most symbolic scene in "Crouching Tiger", and what he wanted to present was not the crouching tigers and hidden dragons in the ancient Chinese world, but those inside the inner world of characters.
To use action as a symbol of the character's inner feeling is Lee's strategy of wushu designing. In the rooftop scene, the experienced warrior Yu Shu Lien's movements are fast and determined, always jump up and down; while the talented young girl Jen moves in a light but flustered way. From the visual effect angle, the comparison of light and heavy, offense and dodge is exhilarating. Yet the more important is Lee builds up a mutual reference between the features of their actions in this scene near the beginning of the film and their distinct personalities- one brave and fully-experienced, one reckless and energetic- as we go along with the film later.
It is saying that "Li Mu Bai and Jen's conversations more than hint that the desire for a teacher-student relationship could turn into a romantic relationship."(3) I agree with this comment. The ambiguity of Li's desire creates a dimness for "Crouching Tiger" thereby makes it more appealing to watch. One example would be the bamboo forest scene. Yuen Wo Ping used to complain that Lee did not create an eligible action scene in bamboo forest. Sure he didn't. It is not an action scene. It's a flirting scene. In order to create a slow, romantic atmosphere, Lee uses unbelievably long wires that the actors are being pulled 40 feet height in the air holding onto bamboos, or fly more than 100 meters distance. Lee's Qinggong concept is not about life-and-death fight, but a man chases a girl. In the bamboo forest scene Li and Jen fight for seconds, for most of the time they are looking at and waiting for each other. There is one shot from above about Jen falling down, then a shot from below about Li flying towards her. This looks very much like a kissing scene, and the elastic bamboo forests has been made into a boundless green bed. In another shot when Li and Jen are on a bamboo, Jen tries to shake the bamboo but Li stands still and smiles. This is what they called the most powerful inner peace in martial arts, also, flirting.
