Where does the film fit in the martial arts genre?
There’s no such thing as just a martial arts film. The genre itself, as we understand it, is a collection of many different kinds of genres. If you look back to some of the great Mandarin efforts of the Sixties – people like King Hu who made “Touch of Zen” – there was a moment in the history of the martial arts film that represented its height at this time, before Bruce Lee came and really kicked the shit out of it. This time was very much associated with a classical, traditional, more Northern Chinese Mandarin-speaking, very historically orientated culture. It was a class act. Ang making this film doesn’t go back to King Hu. There isn’t an enormous sense of patro-lineage there, but there is a sense in which he’s deriving a lot of what his film does from strands that were already nestled in tradition. Read a review of “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”. Read an interview with “Crouching Tiger” star Michelle Yeoh. Read an interview with “Crouching Tiger” director Ang Lee. Will “Crouching
