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Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) - Full Reaction

This was quite a bit different then we thought it would be! It wasn't as fight-y as we thought it would be, in the sense of a Rocky punch-em-up fighting movie, it was much more graceful. Aaaand... the ending?? We may have created our own ending in our heads haha. Also, Michelle Yeoh was incredible in this!! We definitely liked it more than we thought we would. Hope you guys enjoy!

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Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) - Full Reaction

Comments

Ip Man, Hero, Kung Fu Hustle, Shaolin Soccer

Russell Teo

i have watched 100s of martial arts movies since the 1960s, crouching tiger hidden dragon, though a cinematic masterpiece should have not been your first exposure to this genre, this movie borrows from many other great martial arts movies, in a way it pays homage to them. of course you have your Bruce Lee movies but also, Donnie Yen in IP man, Toshiro Mifune Seven Samurai and Sonny Chiba, hopefully your poll voters will vote for some really good classic Martial art movies.

zynjams

Well, while it does take place in the Qing dynasty (1644–1912), given that the Sinicization of the Manchus was taking place (since Lo thought Jen was a Han), and that none of the bandits had firearms, it's likely to have taken place during the Qianlong period, where Han culture was revered among Manchus, which would have been between 1710-1800.

hurryupmode

This is such a great film. As I've called it before, a tragic romance disguised as a martial arts film. This movie really works on a deep level with both the romance, and Shu Lien's and Jen's "duties" as a woman in that world, and their struggles to break out of that duty. Both are trapped, just in different ways. Btw, you had asked about when the film was set, it's around the turn of the 20th century, at a time when China still had no industrial technology to speak of.

Rick Moreno

Lady Snowblood for next martial arts movie

Saturday Night Beaver

Totally going to reiterate Gilberts point. IP Man is loosely based on a true story of the master who trained Bruce Lee in his form of Kung Fu. So watching IP Man (the whole series) would be a good place to continue if you want to see more martial arts. Bruce Lee was the undisputed master of his time especially in American movies. Martial Arts is a term used to describe all of the hand to hand combat styles. The most well known types are Karate, Judo, Kung Fu, Aikido, but many more styles and forms exist. Boxing is also a form of martial arts but with strict limitations (hits above the belt and only using fists). Ang Lee really tried to get back to the roots of Chinese theater/story telling in how he made this movie - it was meant to look graceful, fluid and artsy, while showing the power and grace of kung fu. Bruce Lee was made popular in the US in the 60's but his teaching kung fu really upset some of the masters in China. There are other decent martial arts movies, but this one was a classic for its style. Jackie Chan's style is very entertaining, but he also tries to include humor in his movies. Usually cut scenes are included in the end credits - he did a lot of his own stunts, and even injured himself quite a few times in his earlier movies. There are youtube videos of Bruce in action at real shows/events. As an aside - I also liked Bullet Proof Monk as a possible suggestion for a more modern day style Americanized martial arts movie.

ENC SW DV Rush

Now go watch Hero

Yaisu

That’s actually a very good point. It will give perspective when watching the bio pic.

Doc Larry

Not enough reactors watch 80s Jackie Chan movies

Hail to the King

Nope haven't seen it, but will definitely check it out.

Edgar Gonzalez

Have you seen Shadow? It does to grey what Hero does to colour. An incredible film.

Jacob King

I love this movie and enjoyed your reaction. I do want to speak up for sad endings and unrequited love stories though. In that spirit I might suggest some Chinese movies that are not martial arts based; In The Mood For Love and Raise the Red Lantern.

Jacob King

This was a good movie, but it falls more into the “Oscar winner” artsy type movies lol I think you’d really enjoy Jackie Chan movies, those are more what I grew up with, they’re the more kinetic and fun action blockbuster type flicks. Jet Li is also good too, his movies have a bit more seriousness to them though. I highly recommend Ip Man with Donnie Yen (Cain from John Wick 4) that’s one of my all time favorite kung fu movies, and it’s loosely based on a true story, it’s about the Kung fu master who trained Bruce Lee.

Gilbert Gonzalez

"IP Man" (1 and 2 at least though there are more), has Donnie Yen, a familiar face you'd recognize!

Riley

You will find ther are generally two types of Chinese "Martial Arts" movies. The first type is often set in modern times and has a more action-y sort of feel (The Jackie Chan movies fall into this category). The other style all (or mostly) have a similar feel to this. Set in a non-specific historical period, contain elements of magic/mysticism blended with the martial arts, has an ambiguous and often melancholy ending. I personally love movies like this. So glad you watched the subtitled version rather than the dubbed version. The subtitles stick closer to the the original dialog and and maintain the tone/mood more than the version dubbed into English.

D. T. Nelson

Best line ever. Cass: “I think they should fight.” (Talking about Li Mu Bai and Shei Len, and their difficulty expressing their feelings for one another.)

Uncle Phoenix

I understand that people enjoy this bio-pic. What I don't understand is why they'd recommend it before Cassie has even seen a single Bruce Lee movie. Let her at least watch Enter the Dragon first.

Richard Maurer

I really appreciate your diversity and taste when choosing movies. It is nice to observe someone with an open mind, when watching movies. This one was not my cup of tea. I would have chosen Dragon the Bruce Lee story. However, this one won the Poll fair and Square Hopefully you get to watch Dragon the Bruce Lee story. It’s a love story with really good martial arts fighting scenes. It’s a fictionalized biography of Bruce Lee. They took liberties. However, his wife Linda was involved in script, of the movie, so there was a lot of truth in it as well. Bruce Lee was the OG of modern martial arts movies.

Doc Larry

I'd like to see something called Scene Roulette where Carly and Cassie pick out like 3 to 5 clips for one another to react to. For example, even though Carly won't watch Silence of the Lambs, Cassie could choose a clip from the movie that she knows Carly can handle. Could be fun!

Author Travis Adams Irish

Yeah I saw that, with Donnie yen and Vien Hoa Binh. But to tell the truth, I didn't like it very much. It just didn't have that same feeling as the first, course that ist just me.

Edgar Gonzalez

My second time to watch this movie. I like it. Other movies to consider are: -IP Man (2008) -Shanghai Noon (2000) [Jackie Chan, Owen Wilson]. But you may want to move on from martial arts for a while.

Clay F

Agreed

Uncle Phoenix

Donnie Yen is in the sequel on Netflix, "CTHD; Sword of Destiny” (2016).

Uncle Phoenix

Netflix actually made a sequel to “CTHD” (2000) called "CTHD; Sword of Destiny” (2016).

Uncle Phoenix

On the subject of dragons. I was born in the year of the dragon. 2024 will be another year of the dragon on the Chinese Zodiac Calendar. 🐲🀄 Therefore, I think you should watch Dragonheart (1996). It's not a martial arts movie but there's lots of sword play and of course a dragon. 🐉 😉 Happy New Year, everyone! 😁

Zane From Canada

Absolutely 'Singin in the rain' following 'The King and I' & 'My Fair Lady' making it a week.

Celeste McAllister

The scene with the calligraphy is considered some of the best acting in film history.

Author Travis Adams Irish

That's what I like about Wikipedia,it's blogging with punctuation,I understood the meaning,I was being sarcastic and quoting Steve Martin. ..Thank you professor. :)

Celeste McAllister

Did they do Kung Fu Hustle? That one is epic!

Author Travis Adams Irish

Also, the number two choice was Enter the Dragon which is no doubt a great film, but I think Jackie would be a better introduction to the genre for the girls than Bruce

Neill Shaughness

It’s kinda sad most reactors think of Rush Hour when they think of Jackie Chan. Not that Rush Hour is bad. But if they want to see Jackie in peak form, they need to watch some of his earlier films

Robert da Spruce

Carly! Even coughing she's damn adorable. Disclaimer (for the prudes): Not a flirtation, no ulterior motive, just stating a fact. I love that these ladies are down to check out some Eastern film culture. This movie has a tragic love story, and the female characters kick ass, but in a realistic way. So amazing to watch their deep roots of honor, love, and sacrifice. Thank you for this moment, Popcorn Crew!

Author Travis Adams Irish

They are there but indeed hidden. From Wikipedia: The title "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" is a literal translation of the Chinese idiom "臥虎藏龍" which describes a place or situation that is full of unnoticed masters. It is from a poem of the ancient Chinese poet Yu Xin (513–581) that reads "暗石疑藏虎,盤根似臥龍", which means "behind the rock in the dark probably hides a tiger, and the coiling giant root resembles a crouching dragon". The title also has several other layers of meaning. On one level, the Chinese characters in the title connect to the narrative that the last character in Xiaohu (Lo "Dark Cloud" Xiao Hou) and Jiaolong's (Jen Yu) names mean "tiger" and "dragon", respectively. On another level, the Chinese idiomatic phrase is an expression referring to the undercurrents of emotion, passion, and secret desire that lie beneath the surface of polite society and civil behavior, which alludes to the film's storyline.

Gábor Árki

If you like this kind of martial arts movie Hero and House of Flying Daggers are great also. If you want more "traditional" martial arts films, Enter the Dragon, Ip Man, and Fist of legend are great examples.

Richard Maurer

Excellent let's see if we can encourage other PIB Patrons to encourage Cassie to watch all three, though I am not greedy, I'd still be very happy if all she wanted to watch is Singing In The Rain. I am sure you are aware of the interesting spoiler; I am not going to spoil about this film. It was a very creative way to continue developing the theme.

John Liebling

This is full reactions with Cassie weekend for me. Finished my third full Cassie reaction watch of LotR yesterday with RotK (single greatest reaction to any movie by any reactor, imo). Now I just finished CT,HD and I'll be watching Wrath of Khan either later today or tomorrow.

Richard Maurer

Hero, also.

Richard Maurer

Absolutely. I've been pushing this musical for a long time. I think Cassie would love it.

Stick Figure Studios

What a great movie, eh? I had a feeling that you ladies would get really emotionally invested in the characters and yet hate the ending. ;-) In spite of all the spectacular action, at heart this is really a love story and a tragic one at that. Two people who wasted their lives not telling the other how they felt. Still, "I would rather be a ghost on your shoulder then enter heaven without you" has to be one of the most moving romantic lines I've ever heard in a film. I can't wait to watch this reaction.

Stick Figure Studios

Police story, starring Jackie Chan Jackie Chan actually invented kung fu comedy with the film, drunken master, but police story definitely one of his very best and you can’t really say you’re familiar with martial arts movies until you’re familiar with Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee

Thomas Thompson

Did you notice the similarities between Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Shang Chi. The beauty of the fighting styles. Nature is involved. Now it is time for Enter the Dragon. and you too after watching Bruce Lee; would say " once upon a time in Hollywood" was pure fiction. Because Bruce Lee is a legit fighter and no way at all would an American stuntman show him up. lol.

Jimmy Reyes

Interestingly this was considered something of a breakout roll for her, while at the same time she got to work alongside another female pioneer in the Martial Arts film genre. Legendary Wuxia film veteran Cheng Pei-Pei, considered one of the first female action stars, played the character Jade Fox.

william aaron sleeper

I actually think Hero is a better Wuxia film than CTHD

william aaron sleeper

This movie is technically Wuxia, a form of Chinese historical fantasy/fiction, however Wuxia literally translates to “Martial Heroes.” Yes a fantasy first and foremost, but almost all Wuxia stories have some martial art elements. 👍

william aaron sleeper

GREAT martial arts films, but also different from CTHD, I think it’s good Cassie expanded her horizons and dipped her toe in the world of Wuxia storytelling. Maybe Enter the Dragon will be her next martial art film.

william aaron sleeper

Lol, that’s getting a like

william aaron sleeper

The police story films with Jackie Chan. The first two are easy to find they are on max so

Night King01

Musical #3 "An American In Paris" It came out only about 5 months before Singing In The Rain. Once again staring Gene Kelly and a very Lesile Caron, she is still alive today, she's 92. I would also recommend you watching these movies in the order I've listed. I hope this encourages you to give musicals a try. So far, every genre you were not sure about before he watched them, you were happily surprised and liked what you were watching. Musicals were all very popular in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. Thanks for considering my choices.

John Liebling

Musical #2 "Singing In The Rain". You've reacted to Star Wars with Carrie Fischer, her mom Debbie Reynolds is a teen at the time, and the man who was supposed to be the dancer in White Christmas, Donald O'Conner stars alongside Gene Kelly. No spoilers, it's got a very interesting, nobody knew about at the time twist...I'll divulge after you've watched the movie.

John Liebling

That's fanciful indeed,however I saw no tigers or dragons! Perhaps that's because of the Tigers and dragons were crouching and hidden...

Celeste McAllister

Over the years Cassie has boldly gone where no other PIB reaction has gone before. There is a way to enter the new year counting the warm happy wholesome feelings. There is only one genre Cassie has not tried yet. The movies which have everything she likes. Let us all encourage Cassie and Carly to react to the following feel-good movies: 1. "On The Town" One of the stars is Vera-Ellen. Cassie, she was the dancer in White Christmas. And it came out 15 years before White Christmas. In 1949 Frank Sinatra and Gene Kelly were huge stars. The musical and lyrical, and writing teams were all young at the time, in their 20s and 30s.

John Liebling

No matter your time zone, we're all inching closer to 2024. Wishing everyone a happy, and healthy new year. India will be celebrating the new year in about 20 minutes. In a little more than nine hours it will be 2024 in Brazil, and six hours for Ireland. Australia has been partying for about six hours now.

John Liebling

Time for Kung Fu Hustle. The ladies would love it.

Just Plain Bob

Your empathy is inspiring. No matter what fantasy world you watch, or society you know nothing about, or characters you seemingly could never relate to; you both find the "humanity" in every thing you see. 🥰

Jon Johns

Hi Cassie, In addition to the Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan and Jet Li movies people have mentioned, I would love to see you react to House of Flying Daggers with Ziyi Zhang (Jen) and then Memoirs of a Geisha with both Ziyi Zhang and Michelle Yeoh. The cinematography for both movies is beautiful.

Tara

Aw, crap...I'm gonna cry on New Year's Eve...

Steve Mercier

Love CTHD but you really, really need to see a proper Bruce Lee film. My personal favorite of his is WAY OF THE DRAGON but ENTER THE DRAGON would definitely be more your speed in terms of accessibility (and it's in English).

Matt Rose

Going by IMDB this is not a Martial Arts film but a Fantasy Adventure. Now Enter The Dragon a Bruce Lee film is considered a Martial Arts film. Which makes sense as to why I voted for the Bruce Lee film. Which makes sense with the lack of martial arts in the film.

Zachary K. (Verified Swiftie)

Just a quick note, Wrestling is absolutely a martial art. It's just a western based martial art. Boxing is a martial art also. Martial arts are simply the fighting arts. Yes, here in the west we tend to think of martial arts as karate, kung fu, judo, tae kwon do, jiu jitsu, etc... but wrestling, boxing, even fencing, are all equally considered martial arts by those of us who take/teach them. And I tried to watch the movie with subtitles, but I can't do it. I just can't. I really tried, but I just can't. Good for the two of you sticking by it.

Art of Free Speech

Cassie, if you liked this, you would LOVE Hero. The cinematography was similar to this one but set in a fantastic dream-scape. The love story is absolutely crushing. I'm glad you liked this one 💖💖💖

Kuskesh Haramzadeh

thanks for doing this one, Cassie, can't wait to do the watch along later!

Johnny Liu

The service I found it on is a free streaming service in Australia, so commercials are to be expected. If any of the paid streaming services start putting commercials on and I am still paying them, that service will no longer be getting a cent from me, especially if those commercials are displayed during the movie.

Brian McGovern

Yeah this is becoming a real problem! I heard that Amazon is putting ads in Prime Video in my country some time in the next several months. I'll have to pay a few extra bucks per month to get rid of the ads. There's no way I'm going to put up with commercials during a watch-along reaction video

Thoko

Michelle Yeoh is one of the greatest female action stars ever. She has never had formal martial arts training but developed a mastery of martial arts through her film roles and has performed most of her own stunts. She’s crazy talented! Ballet was her passion. She studied at the Royal Academy of Dance in London but a spinal injury ended her dreams of becoming a professonal ballet dancer. After winning the 1983 Miss Malaysia title, she did a commercial with Jackie Chan and the rest is history. Her dance background gave her the flexibility to learn the moves; she’s a self-taught martial artist. Her earlier films shot in Hong Kong didn’t have rehersals, so actors would watch and learn the action sequences on the spot and then shoot. “Supercop“ (the third movie in Jackie Chan’s classic Police Story Franchise) shows her mettle - this woman is absolutely fearless. I have so much respect and admiration for her! Michelle Yeoh and Zhang Ziyi also worked together in “Memoirs of a Geisha.“

Rose

I'm always amused to see women of a similar age to me referred to as "ladies". I still feel like a man-child, and it was not long ago that people my age used that word as the more polite way of saying "old women"

Thoko

I just looked into recent news about him, and what I found is that he was literally the highest paid actor in the world, getting offered roles like Neo in the Matrix and he just turns everything down: multiple $20 million dollar offers. And now in interviews he keeps giving excuses for why he refuses to play certain types of roles, like his iconic character in the Friday franchise. He says that he has grown and wants to play characters that reflect where he is in his life. I'm skeptical about this, because the whole point of being an actor is that you pretend to be somebody else (unless you are Seth Rogan). It looks like he is trying to be polite, but deep down is saying "i don't want to play an immoral character, I want to play an uplifting character"

Thoko

Police Story - Love that movie! That mall sequence would blow her mind. She needs to see the 80s Jackie Chan. He’s an absolute legend and Michelle Yeoh is a beast.

Rose

Don’t think that’s true. He’s talked about wanting to make a 4th movie. I believe he still does stand-up tours too.

Shehab Dawoud

Also, I'd have to say it was real fun watching this reaction. I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season. Happy new year to both you ladies and the rest of the community

AzraRillian

Unfortunately, the last I heard about Chris Tucker was that his faith has caused him to be ashamed of his career as a comedic actor and abandon it completely. As a christian myself, I don't agree with his views or recent decisions.

Thoko

You haven’t seen Rush Hour? Well, there’s your new buddy cop franchise after Lethal Weapon! And it’s Chris Tucker, not Chris Rock. Please don’t ever mix up the two. One of them is actually funny, the other is not.

Shehab Dawoud

The Ip Man series with Donnie Yen is one of the best martial arts series imo. Highly recommend.

Odd Thomas

This is one of my absolute favorite films! I'm so glad that ya'all watched and....basically....enjoyed it. The story is set in the 1800's and it is supposed to have a certain fantasy element to it, hence the fighters being able to fly a little bit during the chase scenes. Martial arts as a term is just an umbrella phrase for any sort of hand to hand fighting. The term is derived from the Japanese phrase 'bugei'. I am THRILLED that ya'all are adding this genre to your reaction path. I really enjoy Zhang Ziyi and she has a LOT of movies that you could watch AND, importantly, plenty of those films are NOT fighting movies. I would like to recommend a few: ZZ films: House of Flying Daggers, Hero (jet li is in that one), Memoirs of a Geisha, Jasmine Woman, The Road Home (her film debut in 1999), The Grandmaster, and Rush Hour 2 (I would love for ya'all to react to the Rush Hour films) Jet Li has TONS of great films: Fearless, Romeo must die, Unleashed, Kiss of the Dragon, and the Once upon a time in china series Jackie Chan has MANY MANY MANY films for you to enjoy (I think if a reactor WANTED to, they could have an entire channel devoted to one JC movie a week and be in business for YEARS...) I have yet to see someone on youtube OR patreon react to the original Drunken Master from 1978, but I consider it a must see. One of his best Hong Kong action flicks. Some others (which I am guessing have prolly been recommended to you before but I will still suggest them: Rumble in the Bronx, Who am I?, First Strike, Super Cop (Michelle Yeow is one of his costars), Operation Condor, and of course, Rush Hour franchise films. Donnie Yen wasn't in CT,HD but he is another highly talented martial artist and actor: Ip Man franchise (ip man was a real person who, among other things, trained Bruce Lee), Iron Monkey, and others.... I could go on and on and on but I will cut it off here.....Hope you ladies had a wonderful holiday seasons with your loved ones!

David Bennett

So, in Chinese culture and literature, this would be classified as a "Wuxia" story, which often are stories about warriors set in ancient China, and often contains some "superhuman" elements to the martial arts. Basically, in Wuxia, martial arts isn't just a technique to fight, but also allows the practitioner to do superhuman feats, like leaping great distances with the wind, or smashing great boulders or mountains. A Martial Artist is then different from an ordinary fighter. Wuxia stories often deal with the themes of honour, brotherhood, romance, and rivalry. edit: Wuxia stories also often have different martial arts clans or schools, often divided between the orthodox and unorthodox, where the orthodox are portrayed as the lawful/good and unorthodox are the lawless/evil, and many times the "Martial Society" is an hidden society separate from the ordinary civilians with it own rules and codes of honour. Examples of Wuxia movies are House of Flying Daggers, Hero, and of course this movie. There's also a different genre called Xianxia that is more like fantasy where people cultivate their bodies and minds and actually gain mystical/magical powers and immortality through martial arts or other techniques. Often these techniques are based on Taoism, Buddhism or other religious/spiritual teachings. Not a lot of well known examples of Xianxia movies, but the novel Journey to the West is probably an example best known in the western world. Though a lot of popular anime has taken elements of Xianxia, like Naruto and Dragon Ball (which is based loosely on Journey to the West)

AzraRillian

If you liked this, I would also recommend "house of flying daggers"

Edgar Gonzalez

Michelle and Jackie Chan did a "SuperCop" movie together that should be on your list. It was Michelle's first big break. Waiting for Bruce "The Legend" Lee !!!!!!

Bill Maurer

Martial arts movies are considered a subgenre of action movies where the primary focus is on some martial arts combat between characters. This movie is categorized as wuxia, which is a subgenre of the martial arts movies featuring fictional adventures of martial artists in ancient China. So, Cassie, Carly, don't expect every martial arts movie to be like this. Looking forward to watching this later today. I haven't seen this movie for a long time, but I remember it as beautiful piece of art and feeling like poetry put onto motion picture.

Gábor Árki

Oh wow. Found a service that is streaming it and it expires in 4 hours. Very fortuitous. Only problem is dealing with commercials

Brian McGovern

I do not remember too much about the ending. Have to see where this is streaming to watch along tonight to see in the new year. All the best to you and your family, Cassie. All the best to Carly as well. Hope everyone here has a safe and happy new year.

Brian McGovern

Ive been waiting for this one. It's 12:41 AM where im at and im gonna stay up an watch this whole reaction. THATS HOW MUCH IVE BEEN WAITING FOR IT! much love and god bless Cassie!

Edgar Gonzalez

I hope Cass checks out some Jackie Chan movies going forward. I think she'd like the sense of humor. The Police Story movies are a really fun place to start. Plus Michelle Yeoh shows up in them!

Neill Shaughness


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