Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is a 2000 wuxia film directed by Ang Lee and written for the screen by Wang Hui-ling, James Schamus, and Tsai Kuo-jung. It is based on the Chinese novel of the same name, serialized between 1941 and 1942 by Wang Dulu, the fourth part of his Crane-Iron Series. It stars Chow Yun-fat, Michelle Yeoh, Zhang Ziyi, Chang Chen and Cheng Pei-pei in the leading roles. Set in 18th-century Imperial China, the plot follows two master warriors, Li Mu Bai (Chow) and Yu Shu Lien (Yeoh), who are faced with their greatest challenge when the treasured Green Destiny sword is stolen by the mysterious thief Jen Yu (Zhang).
The three producers credited with launching the project include Bill Kong, L.K. Hsu and Ang Lee. They represent two local companies, Edko Films Ltd (Hong Kong) and Zoom Hunt International Production Co Ltd (Taiwan). A multinational venture, the film was made with a budget of US$17 million, and was produced by Edko Films and Zoom Hunt Productions in collaboration with China Film Co-productions Corporation and Asian Union Film & Entertainment for Columbia Pictures Film Production Asia in association with Good Machine International. The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on 18 May 2000, and was theatrically released in the United States on 8 December. With dialogue in Standard Chinese, subtitled for various markets, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon became a surprise international success, grossing $213.5 million worldwide. It grossed US$128 million in the United States, becoming the highest-grossing foreign produced film in American history. The film was the first non-English language film to break the $100 million mark in the United States.
Universally acclaimed by critics, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon won over 40 awards and was nominated for 10 Academy Awards in 2001, including Best Picture, and won Best Foreign Language Film, Best Art Direction, Best Original Score, and Best Cinematography, receiving the most nominations ever for a non-English-language film at the time; the record was later tied by Roma, and broken by Emilia Pérez. The film also won four BAFTAs and two Golden Globe Awards, each of them for Best Foreign Film. For retrospective years, Crouching Tiger is often cited as one of the finest wuxia films ever made and has been widely regarded as one of the greatest films of the 21st century.
Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)
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