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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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
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 [2 comments]