Enter The Dragon
Newcastle Herald
Wednesday January 3, 2001
IT'S an unlikely recipe for box office success in the United States: a Chinese-language film with actors unknown to most American movie goers.
But Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon - the new martial arts epic romance from Taiwanese director Ang Lee - has been packing theaters in its early limited release, boosted by advertising, advance critical buzz and word of mouth.
In fact, Crouching Tiger - starring Chow Yun-Fat, Michelle Yeoh and newcomer Zhang Ziyi - just might do the unthinkable and overcome Americans' traditional aversion to foreign-language movies.
Last weekend Lee's fable - playing in just 31 US and Canadian theaters - broke into the list of the top 12 grossing movies, taking in $US1.1 million ($A1.99 million), an unheard-of average of $US35,675 ($A64,687.22) per screen.
On Saturday, the Mandarin-language saga received another boost - voted best picture of 2000 by the influential Los Angeles Critics Association, the first foreign language film to be so honored, and making it likely it will receive an Oscar nomination for best picture.
With its magical, gravity-defying acrobatics as sword-wielding combatants scamper up walls, leap over rooftops and dance atop bamboo forests in aerial ballets, it combines Hong Kong action cinema and traditional Chinese historical romance.
Based on a pre-World War II novel by Wang Du Lu, Tiger casts action superstar Chow (who stole the show from Jodie Foster in Anna and the King) as Li Mu Bai, a lone hero and master swordsman.
Ironically, Chow (The Replacement Killers) is not a martial-arts star, and is more often seen with a gun in his hand than a sword.
Tiger has been receiving rapturous reviews since causing a spring sensation at the Cannes Film Festival.
Greg Haller, who manages an AMC theater fourplex, says the success of a foreign language film is unusual.
`We've been selling out all our evening shows,' Haller said after a sold-out late afternoon showing.
The tale of duty and obligation conflicting with desire is a familiar theme for Lee (Eat Drink Man Woman, The Wedding Banquet, Sense and Sensibility, The Ice Storm).
Judging by audience reaction, Tiger seems sure to be one of the year's biggest hits in North America, an unprecedented feat for an entirely subtitled film.
`I give it a 10 out of 10,' said Shazzar, 27. `It's lyrical. It combines action and poetry.`
`Chow Yun-Fat, Chow Yun-Fat!' gushed student Connie Chan, 24. `I was brought up on Jet Li and Jackie Chan. It's great to see these movies breaking into the mainstream.'
`People aren't as wary of subtitles as they used to be,' added her companion, Russell Hall.
Whatever the reason, Tiger's breathtaking cinematography, timeless story and visual homage to Hong Kong action flicks and John Ford westerns could outmuscle traditional Hollywood fare this holiday season.
And it may be no accident that it's a Chinese film doing the muscling.
Long derided as `chopsocky,' Asian martial-arts films have a loyal core of fans in this country, and Americans Chuck Norris and Steven Seagal helped broaden the appeal.
But then came Jackie Chan in Rush Hour (1998), and John Woo - Hong Kong's leading action director - who made his Hollywood mark with Face/Off (1997) and this year's Mission Impossible II.
Global hit Matrix broke more barriers, and legendary Hong Kong stunt director Yuen Wo-Ping, who created the flamboyant fights in that film, returned to choreograph the action in Tiger.
Tiger also has geopolitics in its favour, says Richard Shusterman, head of Temple University's philosophy department.
`Because of (US) dominance in the world, we are much more Asia-friendly,' says Shusterman. `Communist China isn't a threat, and Japan is not an economic threat anymore.'
© 2001 Newcastle Herald
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