The flaw in Rushdie's argument is that Crouching Tiger isn't Hong Kong cinema: it's a very hip Western take on the martial arts film by an American director (born in Taiwan but educated in a US film school). A better example would be Jackie Chan movies like a Return of Drunken Master. Chan is popular because he does certain things (kung fu and death-defying stunts) better than Hollywood. A rise in real foreign films will come because audiences gravitate to something clearly superior to Hollywood's anemic product.
I agree that Jackie Chan's work is a better example. And Crouching Tiger is not Hong Kong cinema, but hardly a different take on the Kung Fu flick. Had Ang Lee's name not been on the credits, the Hong Kong audience, or anyone aquainted with his work, would probably assume that it was a film by Tsui Hark.
I don't know Tsui Hark's work well enough to comment, but wouldn't you say Ang Lee added a strong feminist message (and art-house ambiguity) to the standard kung fu scenario? A lot of people I talked to weren't sure why the girl dived off the mountain at the end. With the Hong Kong cinema I've seen (admittedly mostly Chan and John Woo) you don't have an enemy as amorphous as "the way women are treated in a patriarchal society."
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- Tom Moody 3-10-2001 9:24 pm
I agree that Jackie Chan's work is a better example. And Crouching Tiger is not Hong Kong cinema, but hardly a different take on the Kung Fu flick. Had Ang Lee's name not been on the credits, the Hong Kong audience, or anyone aquainted with his work, would probably assume that it was a film by Tsui Hark.
- steve 3-11-2001 4:03 am [add a comment]
I don't know Tsui Hark's work well enough to comment, but wouldn't you say Ang Lee added a strong feminist message (and art-house ambiguity) to the standard kung fu scenario? A lot of people I talked to weren't sure why the girl dived off the mountain at the end. With the Hong Kong cinema I've seen (admittedly mostly Chan and John Woo) you don't have an enemy as amorphous as "the way women are treated in a patriarchal society."
- Tom Moody 3-11-2001 5:11 am [add a comment]