''Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon'' is a 2000
epic romantic drama wuxia martial arts film directed by
Ang Lee and written for the screen by
Wang Hui-ling,
James Schamus, and Tsai Kuo-jung. The film stars
Chow Yun-fat,
Michelle Yeoh
Yeoh Choo Kheng (; born 6 August 1962), known professionally as Michelle Yeoh (), is a Malaysian actress. In a career spanning over four decades, Yeoh has appeared Michelle Yeoh filmography, in projects encompassing a wide array of genres, a ...
,
Zhang Ziyi, and
Chang Chen. 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''.
Set in 19th-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).
A multinational venture, the film was made on a US$17 million budget, 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
The Cannes Film Festival (; ), until 2003 called the International Film Festival ('), is the most prestigious film festival in the world.
Held in Cannes, France, it previews new films of all genres, including documentaries, from all around ...
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 Award
The Golden Globe Awards are awards presented for excellence in both international film and television. It is an annual award ceremony held since 1944 to honor artists and professionals and their work. The ceremony is normally held every Janua ...
s, 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.
Plot
In
Qing dynasty
The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing, was a Manchu-led Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China and an early modern empire in East Asia. The last imperial dynasty in Chinese history, the Qing dynasty was preceded by the ...
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...
, Li Mu Bai is a renowned
Wudang swordsman, and his friend Yu Shu Lien, a warrior, heads a private security company. Shu Lien and Mu Bai have long had feelings for each other, but because Shu Lien had been engaged to Mu Bai's close friend, Meng Sizhao
before his death, Shu Lien and Mu Bai feel bound by loyalty to Meng Sizhao and have not revealed their feelings to each other. Mu Bai, choosing to retire from the
life of a swordsman, asks Shu Lien to give his fabled 400-year-old
jian sword
A sword is an edged and bladed weapons, edged, bladed weapon intended for manual cutting or thrusting. Its blade, longer than a knife or dagger, is attached to a hilt and can be straight or curved. A thrusting sword tends to have a straighter ...
"Green Destiny" to their benefactor Sir Te in
Beijing
Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...
. Long ago, Mu Bai's teacher was killed by Jade Fox, a woman who sought to learn Wudang secrets. While at Sir Te's place, Shu Lien meets Yu Jiaolong, or Jen, who is the daughter of the rich and powerful Governor Yu and is about to get married.
One evening, a masked thief sneaks into Sir Te's estate and steals the Green Destiny. Sir Te's servant Master Bo and Shu Lien trace the theft to Governor Yu's compound, where Jade Fox had been posing as Jen's governess for many years. Soon after, Mu Bai arrives in Beijing and discusses the theft with Shu Lien. Master Bo makes the acquaintance of
Inspector Tsai from the local
police
The police are Law enforcement organization, a constituted body of Law enforcement officer, people empowered by a State (polity), state with the aim of Law enforcement, enforcing the law and protecting the Public order policing, public order ...
, and his daughter May, who have come to
Beijing
Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...
in pursuit of Fox. Fox challenges the pair and Master Bo to a showdown that night. Following a protracted battle, the group is on the verge of defeat when Mu Bai arrives and outmaneuvers Fox. She reveals that she killed Mu Bai's teacher because he would sleep with her, but refuse to take a woman as a disciple, and she felt it poetic justice for him to die at a woman's hand. Just as Mu Bai is about to kill her, the masked thief reappears and helps Fox. Fox kills Tsai before fleeing with the thief (who is revealed to be Jen). After seeing Jen fight Mu Bai, Fox realizes Jen had been secretly studying the Wudang manual. Fox is illiterate and could only follow the diagrams, whereas Jen's ability to read the manual allowed her to surpass her teacher in martial arts.
At night, a bandit named Lo breaks into Jen's bedroom and asks her to leave with him. In the past, when Governor Yu and his family were traveling in the western deserts of
Xinjiang
Xinjiang,; , SASM/GNC romanization, SASM/GNC: Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Sinkiang, officially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR), is an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of the China, People' ...
, Lo and his bandits raided Jen's caravan and Lo stole her comb. She pursued him to his desert cave to retrieve her comb. However, the pair soon fell in love. Lo eventually convinced Jen to return to her family, though not before telling her a legend of a man who jumped off a mountain to make his wishes come true. Because the man's heart was pure, his wish was granted and he was unharmed, but flew away never to be seen again. Lo has come now to Beijing to persuade Jen not to go through with her arranged marriage. However, Jen refuses to leave with him. Later, Lo interrupts Jen's wedding procession, begging her to leave with him. Shu Lien and Mu Bai convince Lo to wait for Jen at
Mount Wudang, where he will be safe from Jen's family, who are furious with him. Jen runs away from her husband on their wedding night before the marriage can be consummated. Disguised in men's clothing, she is accosted at an inn by a large group of warriors; armed with the Green Destiny and her own superior combat skills, she emerges victorious.
Jen visits Shu Lien, who tells her that Lo is waiting for her at Mount Wudang. After an angry exchange, the two women engage in a duel. Shu Lien is the superior fighter, but Jen wields the Green Destiny and is able to destroy each weapon that Shu Lien wields, until Shu Lien finally manages to defeat Jen with a broken sword. When Shu Lien shows mercy, Jen wounds Shu Lien in the arm. Mu Bai arrives and pursues Jen into a
bamboo forest, where he offers to take her as his student. Jen agrees if he can take Green Destiny from her in three moves. Mu Bai is able to take the sword in only one move, but Jen reneges on her promise, and Mu Bai throws the sword over a
waterfall
A waterfall is any point in a river or stream where water flows over a vertical drop or a series of steep drops. Waterfalls also occur where meltwater drops over the edge
of a tabular iceberg or ice shelf.
Waterfalls can be formed in seve ...
. Jen dives after the sword and is rescued by Fox. Fox puts Jen into a drugged sleep and places her in a cavern, where Mu Bai and Shu Lien discover her. Fox suddenly attacks them with poisoned needles. Mu Bai mortally wounds Fox, only to realize that one of the needles has hit him in the neck. Before dying, Fox confesses that her goal had been to kill Jen because Jen had hidden the secrets of Wudang's fighting techniques from her.
Contrite, Jen leaves to prepare an antidote for the poisoned dart. With his last breath, Mu Bai finally confesses his love for Shu Lien. He dies in her arms as Jen returns. Shu Lien forgives Jen, telling her to go to Lo and always be true to herself. The Green Destiny is returned to Sir Te. Jen goes to Mount Wudang and spends the night with Lo. The next morning, Lo finds Jen standing on a bridge overlooking the edge of the mountain. In an echo of the legend that they spoke about in the desert, she asks him to make a wish. Lo wishes for them to be together again, back in the desert. Jen leaps from the bridge, falling into the mists below.
Cast

Credits from
British Film Institute:
*
Chow Yun-fat as Li Mu Bai (, )
*
Michelle Yeoh
Yeoh Choo Kheng (; born 6 August 1962), known professionally as Michelle Yeoh (), is a Malaysian actress. In a career spanning over four decades, Yeoh has appeared Michelle Yeoh filmography, in projects encompassing a wide array of genres, a ...
as Yu Shu Lien (, )
*
Zhang Ziyi as Jen Yu (, )
*
Chang Chen as Lo "Dark Cloud" Xiao Hou (, )
*
Lang Sihung as Sir Te (, )
*
Cheng Pei-pei as Jade Fox (, )
* as Governor Yu (, )
* Wang Deming as Inspector Tsai (, )
* Li Li as Tsai May (, )
* Hai Yan as Madam Yu (, )
* Gao Xi'an as Bo (, )
* as Aunt Wu (, )
* Zhang Jinting as De Lu (, )
* Du Zhenxi as Uncle Jiao (, )
* Li Kai as Gou Jun Pei (, )
* Feng Jianhua as Shining Phoenix Mountain Gou (, )
* Ma Zhongxuan as Iron Arm Mi (, )
* Li Bao-Cheng as Flying Machete Chang (, )
* Yang Yongde as Monk Jing (, )
Themes and interpretations
Title
The title "''Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon''" is a literal translation of the
Chinese idiom "臥虎藏龍" which describes a place or situation that is full of unnoticed masters. It is from a poem of the ancient Chinese poet
Yu Xin (513–581) that reads "暗石疑藏虎,盤根似臥龍", which means "behind the rock in the dark probably hides a tiger, and the coiling giant root resembles a crouching dragon".
The title also has several other layers of meaning. On one level, the Chinese characters in the title connect to the narrative that the last character in Xiaohu and Jiaolong's names mean "tiger" and "dragon", respectively. On another level, the Chinese idiomatic phrase is an expression referring to the undercurrents of emotion, passion, and secret desire that lie beneath the surface of polite society and civil behavior,
which alludes to the film's storyline.
Gender roles
The success of the Disney animated feature ''
Mulan
Hua Mulan () is a legendary Chinese folk heroine from the Northern and Southern dynasties era (4th to 6th century Common Era, CE) of Chinese history. Scholar, Scholars generally consider Mulan to be a fictional character. Hua Mulan is depicte ...
'' (1998) popularized the image of the Chinese woman warrior in the west. The storyline of ''Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon'' is mostly driven by the three female characters.
In particular, Jen is driven by her desire to be free from the gender role imposed on her, while Shu Lien, herself oppressed by the gender role, tries to lead Jen back into the role deemed appropriate for her.
[ Some prominent martial arts disciplines are traditionally held to have been originated by women, e.g., Wing Chun. The film's title refers to masters one does not notice, which necessarily includes mostly women, and therefore suggests the advantage of a female bodyguard.
]
Poison
Poison
A poison is any chemical substance that is harmful or lethal to living organisms. The term is used in a wide range of scientific fields and industries, where it is often specifically defined. It may also be applied colloquially or figurati ...
is also a significant theme in the film. The Chinese word "毒" (''dú'') means not only physical poison but also cruelty and sinfulness. In the world of martial arts, the use of poison is considered an act of one who is too cowardly and dishonorable to fight; and indeed, the only character who explicitly fits these characteristics is Jade Fox. The poison is a weapon of her bitterness and quest for vengeance: she poisons the master of Wudang, attempts to poison Jen, and succeeds in killing Mu Bai using a poisoned needle. In further play on this theme by the director, Jade Fox, as she dies, refers to the poison from a young child, "the deceit of an eight-year-old girl", referring to what she considers her own spiritual poisoning by her young apprentice Jen. Li Mu Bai himself warns that, without guidance, Jen could become a "poison dragon".
China of the imagination
The story is set during the Qing dynasty
The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing, was a Manchu-led Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China and an early modern empire in East Asia. The last imperial dynasty in Chinese history, the Qing dynasty was preceded by the ...
(1644–1912), but it does not specify an exact time. Lee sought to present a "China of the imagination" rather than an accurate vision of Chinese history. At the same time, Lee also wanted to make a film that Western audiences would want to see. Thus, the film is shot for a balance between Eastern and Western aesthetics. There are some scenes showing uncommon artistry for the typical martial arts film such as an airborne battle among wispy bamboo plants.
Production
The film was adapted from the novel '' Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon'' by Wang Dulu, serialized between 1941 and 1942 in '' Qingdao Xinmin News''. The novel is the fourth in a sequence of five. In the contract reached between Columbia Pictures and Ang Lee and Hsu Li-kong, they agreed to invest US$6 million in filming, but the stipulated recovery amount must be more than six times before the two parties will start to pay dividends.
Casting
Shu Qi was Ang Lee's first choice for the role of Jen, but she turned it down.
Filming
Although its Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film was presented to Taiwan, ''Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon'' was in fact an international co-production between companies in four regions: the Chinese company China Film Co-production Corporation, the American companies Columbia Pictures Film Production Asia, Sony Pictures Classics, and Good Machine, the Hong Kong company Edko Films, and the Taiwanese Zoom Hunt Productions, as well as the unspecified United China Vision and Asia Union Film & Entertainment, created solely for this film.[
]
The film was made in Beijing, with location shooting in Urumchi, Western Provinces, Taklamakan Plateau,
Shanghai and Anji of China. The first phase of shooting was in the Gobi Desert where it consistently rained. Director Ang Lee noted: "I didn't take one break in eight months, not even for half a day. I was miserable—I just didn't have the extra energy to be happy. Near the end, I could hardly breathe. I thought I was about to have a stroke." The stunt work was mostly performed by the actors themselves and Ang Lee stated in an interview that computers were used "only to remove the safety wires that held the actors" aloft. "Most of the time you can see their faces," he added. "That's really them in the trees."
Another compounding issue was the difference between accents of the four lead actors: Chow Yun-fat is from Hong Kong and speaks Cantonese natively; Michelle Yeoh
Yeoh Choo Kheng (; born 6 August 1962), known professionally as Michelle Yeoh (), is a Malaysian actress. In a career spanning over four decades, Yeoh has appeared Michelle Yeoh filmography, in projects encompassing a wide array of genres, a ...
is from Malaysia and grew up speaking English and Malay, so she learned the Standard Chinese lines phonetically; Chang Chen is from Taiwan and he speaks Standard Chinese in a Taiwanese accent. Only Zhang Ziyi spoke with a native Mandarin accent that Ang Lee wanted. Chow Yun Fat said, on "the first day f shooting I had to do 28 takes just because of the language. That's never happened before in my life."
The film specifically targeted Western audiences rather than the domestic audiences who were already used to Wuxia films. As a result, high-quality English subtitles were needed. Ang Lee, who was educated in the West, personally edited the subtitles to ensure they were satisfactory for Western audiences.
Soundtrack
The score was composed by Dun Tan in 1999. It was played for the movie by the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, the Shanghai National Orchestra and the Shanghai Percussion Ensemble. It features solo passages for cello played by Yo-Yo Ma
Yo-Yo Ma (born October 7, 1955) is a French-born American Cello, cellist. Born to Chinese people, Chinese parents in Paris, he was regarded as a child prodigy there and began to study the cello with his father at age four. At the age of seven, ...
. The "last track" (" A Love Before Time") features Coco Lee, who later sang it at the Academy Awards. The composer Chen Yuanlin also collaborated in the project. The music for the entire film was produced in two weeks. Tan the next year (2000) adapted his filmscore as a cello concerto called simply "Crouching Tiger."
Release
Marketing
The film was adapted into a video game
A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...
and a series of comics, and it led to the original novel being adapted into a 34-episode Taiwanese television series
A television show, TV program (), or simply a TV show, is the general reference to any content produced for viewing on a television set that is broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, and cable, or distributed digitally on streaming plat ...
. The latter was released in 2004 as ''New Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon'' for Northern American release.
Home media
The film was released on VHS and DVD on 5 June 2001 by Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment. It was also released on UMD on 26 June 2005. In the United Kingdom, it was watched by viewers on television in 2004, making it the year's most-watched foreign-language film on television.
Restoration
The film was re-released in a 4K restoration by Sony Pictures Classics in 2023.
Reception
Box office
The film premiered in cinemas on 8 December 2000, in limited release within the United States. During its opening weekend, the film opened in 15th place, grossing $663,205 in business, showing at 16 locations. On 12 January 2001, ''Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon'' premiered in cinemas in wide release throughout the U.S., grossing $8,647,295 in business, ranking in sixth place. The film '' Save the Last Dance'' came in first place during that weekend, grossing $23,444,930. The film's revenue dropped by almost 30% in its second week of release, earning $6,080,357. For that particular weekend, the film fell to eighth place, screening in 837 theaters. ''Save the Last Dance'' remained unchanged in first place, grossing $15,366,047 in box-office revenue. During its final week in release, ''Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon'' opened in a distant 50th place with $37,233 in revenue. The film went on to top out domestically at $128,078,872 in total ticket sales through a 31-week theatrical run. Internationally, the film took in an additional $85,446,864 in box-office business for a combined worldwide total of $213,525,736.[ For 2000 as a whole, the film cumulatively ranked at a worldwide box-office performance position of 19.
]
Critical response
''Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon'' was widely acclaimed in the Western world, receiving numerous awards. On Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...
, the film holds an approval rating of 98% based on 168 reviews, with an average rating of 8.6/10. The site's critical consensus states: "The movie that catapulted Ang Lee into the ranks of upper echelon Hollywood filmmakers, ''Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon'' features a deft mix of amazing martial arts battles, beautiful scenery, and tasteful drama." Metacritic
Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...
reported the film had an average score of 94 out of 100, based on 32 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".
Some Chinese-speaking viewers were bothered by the accents of the leading actors. Neither Chow (a native Cantonese
Cantonese is the traditional prestige variety of Yue Chinese, a Sinitic language belonging to the Sino-Tibetan language family. It originated in the city of Guangzhou (formerly known as Canton) and its surrounding Pearl River Delta. While th ...
speaker) nor Yeoh (who was born and raised in Malaysia) spoke Mandarin Chinese
Mandarin ( ; zh, s=, t=, p=Guānhuà, l=Mandarin (bureaucrat), officials' speech) is the largest branch of the Sinitic languages. Mandarin varieties are spoken by 70 percent of all Chinese speakers over a large geographical area that stretch ...
as a mother tongue. All four main actors spoke Standard Chinese with vastly different accents: Chow speaks with a Cantonese accent, Yeoh with a Malaysian accent, Chang Chen with a Taiwanese accent, and Zhang Ziyi with a Beijing accent. Yeoh responded to this complaint in a 28 December 2000, interview with '' Cinescape''. She argued: "My character lived outside of Beijing, and so I didn't have to do the Beijing accent." When the interviewer, Craig Reid, remarked: "My mother-in-law has this strange Sichuan-Mandarin accent that's hard for me to understand," Yeoh responded: "Yes, provinces all have their very own strong accents. When we first started the movie, Cheng Pei Pei was going to have her accent, and Chang Zhen was going to have his accent, and this person would have that accent. And in the end nobody could understand what they were saying. Forget about us, even the crew from Beijing thought this was all weird."
The film led to a boost in popularity of Chinese wuxia films in the western world, where they were previously little known, and led to films such as ''Hero
A hero (feminine: heroine) is a real person or fictional character who, in the face of danger, combats adversity through feats of ingenuity, courage, or Physical strength, strength. The original hero type of classical epics did such thin ...
'' and '' House of Flying Daggers'', both directed by Zhang Yimou, being marketed towards Western audiences. The film also provided the breakthrough role for Zhang Ziyi's career, who noted:
''Film Journal'' noted that ''Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon'' "pulled off the rare trifecta of critical acclaim, boffo box-office and gestalt shift", in reference to its ground-breaking success for a subtitled film in the American market.
Its success spawned a series of imitations to the basic formula in Greater China, with similar titles and variations in period and location. Producers of these imitators denied claims that their movie was an emulation of ''Crouching Tiger''; while Columbia's manager for Asia compared the copycats to a volcano disaster movie spawning three imitations to cash in.
Accolades
Garnering widespread critical acclaim at the Toronto
Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...
and New York film festivals, the film also became a favorite when Academy Awards
The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence in ...
nominations were announced in 2001. The film was screened out of competition at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival. The film received ten Academy Award nominations, which was the highest ever for a non-English language film, up until it was tied by '' Roma'' (2018).
The film is ranked at number 497 on ''Empire'''s 2008 list of the 500 greatest movies of all time. and at number 66 in the magazine's 100 Best Films of World Cinema, published in 2010.
In 2010, the Independent Film & Television Alliance selected the film as one of the 30 Most Significant Independent Films of the last 30 years.
In 2016, it was voted the 35th-best film of the 21st century as picked by 177 film critics from around the world in a poll conducted by BBC.
The film was included in BBC's 2018 list of The 100 greatest foreign language films ranked by 209 critics from 43 countries around the world. In 2019, ''The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
'' ranked the film 51st in its 100 best films of the 21st century list. The February 2020 issue of ''New York Magazine
''New York'' is an American biweekly magazine concerned with life, culture, politics, and style generally, with a particular emphasis on New York City.
Founded by Clay Felker and Milton Glaser in 1968 as a competitor to ''The New Yorker'' a ...
'' lists ''Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon'' as among "The Best Movies That Lost Best Picture at the Oscars." In 2024, '' Looper'' ranked it number 12 on its list of the "50 Best PG-13 Movies of All Time," writing "It's rare for a movie to conjure up the word "sweeping," but that's just what ''Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon'' does. Whether it's the sight of human beings flying through the sky or the absorbing human drama that drives the plot, Ang Lee's 2000 wuxia feature is a remarkable movie that makes one's jaw drop as often as it makes your heart soar."
Sequel
In 2001, it was reported that director Ang Lee was planning to make a sequel to the film. '' Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny'' was released in 2016. It was directed by Yuen Wo-ping, who was the action choreographer for the first film. It is a co-production between Pegasus Media, China Film Group Corporation, and the Weinstein Company. Unlike the original film, the sequel was filmed in English for international release and dubbed into Chinese for Chinese releases.
''Sword of Destiny'' is based on ''Iron Knight, Silver Vase'', the next (and last) novel in the '' Crane-Iron Series''. It features a mostly new cast, headed by Donnie Yen. Michelle Yeoh reprised her role from the original. Zhang Ziyi was also approached to appear in ''Sword of Destiny'' but refused, stating that she would only appear in a sequel if Ang Lee were directing it.
In the West, the sequel was for the most part not shown in theaters, instead being distributed direct-to-video by the streaming service Netflix.
In popular culture
The names of the pterosaur genus '' Kryptodrakon'' and the ceratopsian genus '' Yinlong'' (both meaning "hidden dragon" in Greek and Chinese respectively) allude to the film.
The character of Lo, or "Dark Cloud" the desert bandit, influenced the development of the protagonist of the '' Prince of Persia'' series of video games.["''Prince of Persia'': Anatomy of a Prince", ''PlayStation: The Official Magazine'' (13 December 2008): 50.]
References
Further reading
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{{Authority control
2000 films
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2000 martial arts films
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Best Film Hong Kong Film Award winners
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Best Foreign Language Film BAFTA Award winners
Best Foreign Language Film Golden Globe winners
Chinese martial arts films
Films based on Chinese novels
Films directed by Ang Lee
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