50 Fun Facts About Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

Who directed Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon?

It was his first film shot in mainland China; he worked 15-hour days for eight months and said he nearly had a stroke.

In which year was the film released?

It premiered at Cannes in May and opened in just 16 US cinemas that December before going wide in January 2001.

Who plays the retiring swordsman Li Mu Bai?

A native Cantonese speaker, he struggled with the Mandarin dialogue on set.

Who plays Yu Shu Lien?

She was the only original star to return for the 2016 sequel.

What is the name of the treasured sword that is stolen?

A 400-year-old jian that Mu Bai wants to give away when he retires from the sword.

The film's dialogue is in which language?

Lee, who was educated in the West, personally edited the English subtitles.

Who plays Jen Yu, the governor's daughter?

It was her breakthrough; she later refused the sequel unless Lee directed it.

Li Mu Bai pursues Jen into which setting for their famous duel?

Lee said the only computer work was removing the wires: 'That's really them in the trees.'

The film belongs to which Chinese martial-arts genre?

Its success introduced the genre to Western audiences and is credited with the marketing of Hero and House of Flying Daggers.

Who is the villainess who killed Mu Bai's teacher?

She has been hiding for years as Jen's governess in Governor Yu's household.

What is the name of the desert bandit Jen loves?

Nicknamed Dark Cloud, he stole her comb in the desert and she chased him to his cave to get it back.

What does Jen do in the film's final scene?

It echoes Lo's legend of a man who jumped from a mountain and, because his heart was pure, flew away unharmed.

Li Mu Bai is a swordsman of which martial school?

Its secret manual is what the villainess killed for and what Jen secretly mastered.

The film is set in 1778 under which Chinese dynasty?

The date is never spoken aloud; it appears only on documents seen on screen.

What was the title of the 2016 sequel?

Unlike the original it was shot in English and, in the West, went straight to Netflix.

The Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film was presented to which territory?

In truth it was a co-production across China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and the United States.

How many Academy Award nominations did the film receive?

A record for a non-English-language film until Roma tied it in 2018.

How is Li Mu Bai fatally wounded?

Jen rushes off to make an antidote; he uses his last breath to confess his love for Shu Lien.

Mu Bai sends his sword to Sir Te in which city?

It is stolen from Sir Te's compound that very night, prompting the rooftop chase.

How many Oscars did the film win?

Foreign Language Film, Art Direction, Original Score and Cinematography; it lost Best Picture to Gladiator.

It was the first non-English-language film to pass what US box-office milestone?

It finished at $128 million domestically over a 31-week run.

Who composed the score?

The whole score was produced in two weeks, and he later reworked it as a cello concerto.

Which cellist plays the solo passages in the score?

The score won the Academy Award for Best Original Score.

Which streaming service distributed the 2016 sequel in the West?

It was one of Netflix's first original feature films.

Yeoh grew up speaking English and Malay in which country?

She learned her Mandarin lines phonetically; Chinese-speaking audiences noticed.

What does Yu Shu Lien do for a living?

She and Mu Bai have loved each other for years without saying so, out of loyalty to her dead fiancé.

Whose Hero and House of Flying Daggers rode the wave of its success in the West?

Zhang Ziyi starred in both of those too.

The film is based on a 1940s novel by which author?

It was serialised in a Qingdao newspaper between 1941 and 1942.

Who plays Lo, the desert bandit?

The Taiwanese actor's character went on to influence the hero of the Prince of Persia video games.

At which festival did the film premiere in May 2000?

It screened out of competition there, then built its reputation at Toronto and New York.

Who choreographed the fights and later directed the sequel?

He had just choreographed The Matrix; the actors did most of their own wire stunts.

Who leads the mostly new cast of the 2016 sequel?

Michelle Yeoh returned as Shu Lien; Zhang Ziyi declined.

Which star turned down Li Mu Bai to care for his pregnant partner?

The story of his sacrifice reportedly fed into his 2001 film Kiss of the Dragon.

Who plays the villainess, a veteran of 1960s Shaw Brothers swordplay films?

Yeoh recalled that she too was originally going to keep her own regional accent until nobody could understand anyone.

Who sang the closing song 'A Love Before Time'?

She performed it at the Academy Awards, where it was nominated for Best Original Song.

What was the film's budget?

It grossed $213.5 million worldwide, more than twelve times its cost.

The Chinese idiom of the title describes what?

It also puns on the names of Lo Xiaohu (little tiger) and Yu Jiaolong (delicate dragon).

Jen first met Lo when his bandits raided her caravan in which desert region?

Shooting began there in July 1999, and it rained constantly in the Gobi.

What is Lo's bandit nickname?

His given name Xiaohu means 'little tiger', one half of the title.

Which film broke its record for Oscar nominations by a non-English-language film?

Roma tied the ten in 2018; the 2024 musical got 13.

Which company distributed the film in the United States?

The same company re-released it in a 4K restoration in 2023.

Lo's character influenced the hero of which video-game series?

The 2003 reboot, The Sands of Time, arrived three years after the film.

The year 1778 falls in the reign of which Qing emperor?

Lee aimed for a 'China of the imagination' rather than strict history.

The source novel is the fourth book of which series?

The sequel adapted the fifth and final book, Iron Knight, Silver Vase.

Who was Lee's first choice for Jen before she turned it down?

The part went to a 20-year-old Zhang Ziyi instead.

How many takes did Chow need on day one because of the language?

'That's never happened before in my life,' he said.

The title idiom comes from a poem by which ancient Chinese poet?

The sixth-century line speaks of a tiger hiding behind a rock and a root coiled like a dragon.

Which pterosaur genus, meaning 'hidden dragon' in Greek, alludes to the film?

Yinlong, a horned dinosaur, means the same thing in Chinese and was named for the film too.

Which American producer-writer co-wrote the screenplay?

Lee's long-time collaborator at Good Machine, which co-produced the film.

Where was the film edited and completed?

The soundtrack was recorded in Shanghai and the looping done in Hong Kong first.