Crouching Quotes

You can use martial arts to tell a different story. Ang Lee used martial arts in "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" to talk about love.

To Western audiences, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, for example, is seen as something very refreshing - to see man-powered flight. But now there are more and more of these kinds of films, American movies have also begun to adopt these kinds of scenes with people flying. So after watching lots of these films, people will get used to seeing this exaggerated artistic style, and it won`t be so strange any more.

After Crouching Tiger (Wo hu cang long (2000)), there was a big change for me, with all the attention thrust upon me. I got lot of work: my first Hollywood film, Rush Hour 2 (2001), and a lot of advertisements in Asia. I think for me it`s a very good part of my life. I`ve been lucky, because I`ve had great characters to play. Now I really want to work with good directors.

There`s no doubt that when you`re up for an award you want to win, but, finally, art is not a horse race. If Gladiator was a great film in its form and Crouching Tiger a great film in its form, which is better? They`re just different. It`s not a horse race. You can`t say, you know, Gladiator is so much faster!

(July 2006): One mistake we always make is to ape the West. We attempt films that we think they will like. The true crossover films are `Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon` and `Life Is Beautiful` where the director goes entirely by his conviction, culture, community and conditioning. I am hoping, not just for me and my father and family, but for Indian cinema that Krrish (2006) will succeed, so we can envision an even bigger extravaganza. We want to afford that freedom to take our cinema higher. I believe we are very close now to getting noticed on a world platform.

We`re yet to make inroads into the West and the way Chinese cinema is made. I mean, long before Ang Lee`s `Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon`, Bruce Lee had made an impact on the Western audience with his `Enter The Dragon`. Indian cinema is yet to make that kind of impact. But we`re getting there.

(Whereas Jing is girlish devotion personified, Ziyi Zhang is the epitome of forced flirtation as the prostitute Bai. When she falls in love with her drinking pal Chow, they both pretend it`s a simple transaction, even as their passion rocks the hotel and lights up the screen. Zhang, who has Westernized the word order of her name since) Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, ... Hero.