Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon Structure Breakdown

The Intro

Once again, I partnered with Podcast 241, this time for an analysis of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. So checkout the podcast and read my breakdown below.

As always, these breakdowns contain SPOILERS, and are only recommended if you've already seen the movie. You can check my introduction to these breakdowns, to get an overview of my process and philosophy.

The Basics

Director: Ang Lee
Writers: Hui-Ling Wang, James Schamus, Kuo Jung Tsai, Du Lu Wang (based on the book)
Release Date: 2000
Runtime: 120 minutes
IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0190332/ref_=nv_sr_srsg_6_tt_4_nm_4_q_crouch

Movie Level Goals

Protagonist: Shu Lein
External: Save Jen
SUCCESS | FAILURE | MIXED
Shu Lein saves Jen from Jade Fox, but can’t save Jen from own guilt
Internal Goal: Let go of the bonds of tradition
SUCCESS | FAILURE | MIXED
Shu Lein encourages Jen to be true to herself, but is unable to follow her own advice due to the death of Li Mu Bai

Protagonist: Li Mu Bai
External: Kill Jade Fox and avenge the death of his master
SUCCESS | FAILURE | MIXED
Li Mu Bai kills Jade Fox
Internal Goal: Let go of violence to be with Shu Lein
SUCCESS | FAILURE | MIXED
In killing Jade Fox, Li Mu Bai dies and cannot be with Shu Lein

Protagonist: Jen
External: Find Freedom
Internal Goal:
SUCCESS | FAILURE | MIXED
Jen find physical freedom from marriage and her family, but becomes trapped by the guilt of her choices

Three Observations

Observation #1: Who is the protagonist?

In a typical arch plot structure, there is a single protagonist whose movie-level goal provides structure to the movie, keeps the movie focused, and makes it relatively easy to follow for the audience. CTHD does things a little differently. Shu Lein is very clearly set-up as the protagonist in Act 1. Li Mu Bai gives her the Sword of Destiny to deliver to Sir Te. When it is stolen shortly after delivery, she is the one who fights to try to recover it. She follows up on clues and leads, and suspects Jen, or at least someone from Governor Yu’s home, based on Bo’s account. Yet during the climactic battle at the end of Act 1 between Tsai, May, and Bo on the one hand and Jade Fox and Jen on the other, it is Li Mu Bai who shows up out of nowhere to participate in the battle. He fails to stop Jade Fox or recover the sword. Yet, in any typical arch plot, it would have been Shu Lein who engages in the battle. Not only is this unusual, but on the surface might even seem sexist, given the man replaces the woman when it really counts. So what’s going on? First of all, CTHD dispenses with the usual single protagonist structure. Though it is still an arch plot, and the movie level goal is to stop Jen, Jade Fox, and recover the sword, the protagonist role seems to switch effortlessly between Shu Lein and Li Mu Bai (and also Jen, which we'll discuss in Observation #2). Shu Lein and Li Mu Bai function as a team and often interact with the antagonists interchangeably. This could be problematic as it might lessen the individuality of the two characters. However, this is alleviated by a somewhat multi-dimensional movie-level goal. The goal(s) of stopping Jen, Jade Fox, and recovering the sword is split nicely between Lu Shein and Li Mu Bai. Stopping (or really helping) Jen is a shared goal of both characters. Shu Lein sympathizes with Jen’s position as a woman, unable to live her life freely. Li Mu Bai sees the unique power and skill Jen possesses and wants to train her (in part to keep her from harming herself and others). Stopping Jade Fox is primarily Li Mu Bai’s goal, as she was responsible for the death of his master years before, and he expressed in the movie’s first scene his need to avenge his master’ death. Finally, recovering the sword is primarily Shu Lien's goal. Though it is Li Mu Bai’s sword, he has an ambivalent relationship with the sword and even explicitly states he doesn’t care about the sword. If anything, the sword gets in the way of his desired relationship with Shu Lein. She, on the other hand, works in security, and feels responsible for losing the sword and therefore securing its return (we might also hypothesize that returning the sword to Li Mu Bai might allow her to avoid the decision as to whether to being a romantic relationship with Li Mu Bai–something she wants, but is afraid of due to her previous engagement to Li Mu Bais “brother by oath.”

Observation #2: But Jen is also a protagonist…?

Sort of. Since arch plots generally have a single protagonist, each act is normally driven by the protagonist’s goal for each act. Occasionally, though, you’ll find examples of acts driven by another character’s goal or by the internal or secondary goal of the protagonist. This is more common in four act films, where leaving the main plotline for a quarter of the film is not as problematic. For example, in Jerry Maguire, Jerry’s Act Three external character is to secure a new contract for his client Rod. However, this isn’t an especially dynamic goal, and there really isn’t much Jerry can do other than have a meeting or two. So instead, the movie focuses heavily on Jerry’s internal goal to develop a relationship with his girlfriend Dorothy (and therefore focuses on Dorothy’s external goal of developing a relationship with Jerry).

But CTHD’s focus on Jen is more extreme. After Li Mu Bai fails to recover the sword at the end of Act 1, it seems natural (though repetitive) that the Act 2 goal would be for him and Shu Lein to recover the sword. However, Jen returns the sword around five minutes into the act. Instead of continuing to focus on Shu Lein and Li Mu Bai, the film switches directions and spends most of Act 2 in a flashback, telling us the story of Jen and Lo’s romance. This is precipitated by Lo’s arrival at Jen’s house after years of separation. Presumably, he finally shows himself because she has returned the sword. He notes that there was so much traffic on her roof (because of the theft) that he couldn’t safely visit her. With the sword returned and her roof “clear” he can finally visit her without risking being found. The flashback then shows us their backstory (lasting over 20 minutes). When the flashback ends, the audience has a context for the decision she must make–carry through with the arranged marriage or go with Lo when he crashes the wedding. In the end, Jen does neither. Not wanting to get married, resenting Lo’s demands, and perhaps overwhelmed with the lack of a good choice, Jen re-steals the sword and runs away. 

Does this make her a 3rd protagonist? Theoretically it could, but unlike Lu Shein and Li Mu Bai, and despite her importance to the story, she does not have separate external and internal goals. Instead, she has one goal which combines the external and internal–to be free. Additionally, because she often opposes the goals of Shu Lein and Li Mu Bai, rather than thinking of her has another protagonist, it makes much more sense to think of her as a highly sympathetic antagonist…

Observation #3: Who is the antagonist?

Oftentimes we define the antagonist as simply the “the bad guy (or woman).” By this definition, Jade Fox is clearly the antagonist. However, it’s more accurate to say the antagonist is the person who in any moment opposes the goals of the protagonist–and the person who does this the most often is the movie-level antagonist. With this definition, both Jade Fox and Jen serve as almost interchangeable antagonists, since like Lu Shein and Li Mu Bai, they often work as a team. But over the course of the movie, it’s Jen, rather than Jade Fox who most often opposes Shu Lein and Li Mu Bai (though we understand Jade Fox to be the root of the evil, and therefore an antagonist to Jen as well). With this in mind, I think we can view both characters as antagonists with Jen being a highly sympathetic antagonist and Jade Fox being the more evil. Having said that, Jade Fox is sympathetic in her own right–she is a victim of the sexism of Wudan and the classism of Jen, but in the end her highly destructive reactions to these issues results in her attempting to kill the protagonists and eventually Jen as well.