Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny

The last movie I reviewed that was produced by Netflix to appear both on the streaming service and in some select theaters was Adam Sandler’s egregious Western waste of time, The Ridiculous Six. I hated that movie like I hate racism, cancer, and Elvis impersonators, so pretty much anything else Netflix could produce will be an improvement. Fortunately for everyone, their second big screen production, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny, actually is better. Unfortunately for everyone, this sequel isn’t nearly as good as the original. 

 

It’s the sequel to Ang Lee’s 2000 film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Lee had made a name for himself in Hollywood directing elegant literary adaptations and intense dramas, and so directing a traditional Chinese wuxia film, a martial arts movie that focuses on chivalry, seemed out of left field. But Lee’s lyricism and elegance combined with some world class action choreography made for an unusually potent and successful film. It did great box office and won several awards, including the Oscar for Best Foreign Film.

Sword of Destiny takes place 18 years after the first film, and begins with Yu Shu Lien being attacked on the road as she journeys back to Peking for the first time since the love of her life, Li Mu Bai, died. She handily dispatches a few dozen attackers and figures out that the evil warlord, Hades Dai, is trying to claim the fabled sword, The Green Destiny, so he can be the mightiest warrior in the kingdom and unite all the different territories into one empire under his rule. 

 The good guys try to protect the sword, the bad guys try to get the sword, and a couple of ambiguous characters keep the audience guessing about their intentions. As in the first film, there’s star crossed love, lots of talk about honor and code, and artful, playful, sometimes dazzling and gravity defying martial arts combat chorography. Michelle Yeoh reprises her role as the dignified and powerful Shu Lien and neither the character nor the actor appear to have lost a step in the years since the first film.

New cast members bring a lot of charm and some comic relief. A small band of warriors who are followers of the Iron Way come to defend the Green Destiny, each with a fantastic wuxia name like Silent Wolf, Flying Blade, and Thunder Fist Chan.

While the film is certainly fun and an enjoyable way to spend a hundred and three minutes, it pales in comparison to the first film. Ang Lee’s direction and Chow Yun Fat’s performance and interaction with Michelle Yeoh gave the original Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon both a lyrical, poetic beauty and an emotional weight. The film felt epic and dream-like. The duel in the bamboo forest for possession of the Green Destiny is as lovely and exciting a sequence as I’ve seen in film. As well choreographed and nicely shot as Sword of Destiny is, there’s nothing in it that carries the same power

The film was directed by Yuen Woo-Ping, an accomplished and successful director and fight choreographer in Hong Kong cinema. He does a fine job here and the action sequences look great. But like most sequels, Sword of Destiny fails to deliver the power and resonance of the first film. Despite recurring characters and a very similar plot to the original, Sword of Destiny lacks its distinction. This could almost be any wuxia film. There’s a generic, computer generated feel to it at times that fails to create any real friction or texture between the characters or in the images on the screen.

Still, if you like martial arts action films, you could definitely do worse than this one.

And if nothing else, it’s way, way better than The Ridiculous Six.