A Valentine’s Day homage to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

The thief turns out to be Jane, who has been secretly studying martial arts. And Jane is not really looking forward to her upcoming arranged marriage as she has fallen in love with a robber named Lou “Dark Cloud” Xiao Hou (Chang Chen). They are symbolic of the tiger and dragon, with Lo as the immutable yin (tiger) and Jen as the dynamic yang (hidden dragon).

(Warning: Major spoilers below. Stop reading now if you haven’t seen the entire movie.)

There are several skirmishes between our main characters, notably Zhen battling Shu Lien, and a famous sequence where Mu Bai pursues Zhen into the treetops of a bamboo forest, deftly balancing on the swaying branches and easily avoiding Zhen’s increasingly undisciplined sword strikes. It’s really impressive wire work (all the actors did their own stunts), okay wuxia legacy. Jane is talented, but arrogant and defiant, rejecting Mu Bai’s offer of advice; She thinks that with the Green Destiny she will be invincible and has nothing more to learn. Ah, the arrogance of youth.

Eventually, Jane is betrayed by her former teacher, Jade Fox, who is unhappy that Jane has outgrown her skills – mostly because Jade Fox is illiterate and has to rely on sketches from stolen manuals, while literate Jane can read the text yet she did not share those insights with her teacher. Jade Fox is drugging her in a cave with the intention of poisoning her, when Mu Bai and Shu Lien come to the rescue. In the ensuing battle, Mu Bai is hit by one of the Jade Fox’s poison darts. Jane runs to retrieve the antidote, but arrives too late. Mu Bai dies in Shu Lien’s arms, as the two finally confess how much they love each other.

(sniffs) Sorry, there’s something in my eye. Anyway, the ever-kind Shu Lien forgives the young woman and tells her to remain true to herself and join Lo at Mount Wudang. But things don’t end well for our young lovers either. After spending the night together, Lo finds Jane standing on a bridge at the side of a mountain. Legend has it that once a man made a wish and jumped off the mountain. His heart was pure so his wish was granted and he flew away unharmed, never to be seen again. Jane asks Lou to make a wish before the swan dive into the mist-filled abyss. Was his heart pure? Did Lo get his wish to return to the desert and live happily as a renegade? Or did he kill himself? We will never know. Jane is now part of the legend.