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What's Noteworthy
The overseas hit Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is performing so well in America that it nearly broke into the top ten this week despite playing on only 31 screens. Christian critics are saying Ang Lee's film combines the most impressive stunts and choreography from the martial arts genre with the nuanced acting and layered storylines of the art-house genre. "[It's] one of the great cinematic pleasures of this past year," says the Phantom Tollbooth's J. Robert Parks. He marvels at the "eye-popping, gasp-inducing, jump-out-of-your-seat, I-can't-believe-I-just-saw-that fight sequences that are liberally sprinkled throughout the film," but praises it equally as "a fantastic 'date' movie, with not one but two moving love stories and enough lush images of China (both Beijing and the desert wilderness) to sweep us into another realm." Movieguide was impressed with how it "explores the mythic themes of love and enlightenment, family and duty, morals and revenge," and, unlike many martial arts movies, "there's very little bloodshed" and "eastern mysticism is refuted. ... An ardent Taoist would be upset that love is given prominence over self-realization." Stephen Liggins of Culture@Home says it's a good old-fashioned epic with a modern twist. "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is an 'epic' in the classic sense—love, hate, honor, revenge, action and romance. ... Consistent with the 'epic' concept, the story could be described as revolving around two romances, or around two women struggling with their fates, or around the struggle between good and evil. Less consistent with some of your classic epics is the fact that the two heroines are not your stereotypical passive celluloid females." Parks elaborates on the role of women in this typically male-dominated genre: "Here's the difference between Hollywood's ever-growing exploitation of women and the powerful feminism of Ang Lee. Despite the fact that he has two genuinely gorgeous women in leading roles, the movie never focuses on their beauty or sex appeal. Instead it portrays them as strong, extraordinarily effective women who can do anything a man can do, while at the same time overcoming the obvious prejudice against them."

Steve Lansingh is editor of TheFilmForum.com, an Internet magazine devoted to Christian conversation about the movies.

See earlier Film Forum postings for these movies in the box-office top ten: How The Grinch Stole Christmas, Vertical Limit, Proof of Life, Unbreakable, 102 Dalmatians, Dungeons & Dragons, and Rugrats in Paris.

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December (Web-only) 2000, Vol. 44