Asia Society presents Water and Oil: The Movies of Ang Lee; a complete retrospective from February 14-23 with select appearances by the filmmaker and collaborators.

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon 
Ang Lee, Taiwan/China/Hong Kong/US, 2000, 35mm, 120 min.
In Mandarin with English subtitles.

*25th Anniversary Screening*

Ziyi Zhang, Michelle Yeoh, and Chow Yun-Fat star in a sinuous tale of ambition, deceit and unrequited love, propelled by the changing hands of a centuries old sword known as the Green Destiny.

Adapted from Wang Dulu’s novel of the same name and indebted to 1970s wuxia movies by the likes of Hong Kong directors King Hu and Chang Cheh, Crouching Tiger departs from tradition in its unwavering focus on the female characters. “I really intended to make the movie as Sense and Sensibility with martial arts,” Lee quipped while promoting the film. Still, he paid homage and paved continuity by hiring Yuen Woo-ping, choreographer and director of countless wuxia classics, to choreograph the fight scenes, and actress Chang Pei-Pei (Golden Swallow, The Lady Hermit) in the role of jealous master Jade Fox.

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was nominated for ten Academy Awards and won four; it was also nominated for 11 Golden Horse Awards and won seven, including Best Feature Film. It inspired a revival of the wuxia genre— notably preceding Zhang Yimou’s Hero— and became the first non-English language film to cross the $100 million mark at the U.S. Box Office. Presented on 35mm.

Followed by a Q&A with Ang Lee.

—Elvis Mitchell, NY Times