2000. Director: Ang Lee starring Chow Yun-Fat, Michelle Yeoh and Ziyi Zhang.
"Crouching tiger hidden dragon" is a quote from Chinese mythology. It refers to hiding your strength from others; advice which is followed too well by the characters in the film.
In 2001, this became the first foreign language film to earn over $100 million in the United States.
Action choreography by Yuen Woo-ping.
The film is an adaptation of the fourth novel in a pentalogy, or five-novel cycle, known in China as the Crane/Iron Pentalogy and written by noted wuxia (kung-fu) novelist Du Lu Wang. The novels are "Crane Frightens Kunlun", "Precious Sword, Golden Hairpin", "Sword's Force, Pearl's Shine", "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", and "Iron Knight, Silver Vase". Much of the story is not about Li Mu Bai and Yu Shu Lien; they are in fact secondary characters who only become important later in the series. When a comic-book adaptation of the fourth book in the pentalogy was slated, illustrator Andy Seto re-watched the film to get inspiration for how to depict the fight scenes.
From: gentleghostuk
