Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon Trivia
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48 free Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Sep 2026.
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon took a 1940s wuxia serial, four stars who spoke Mandarin with four different accents and a $17 million budget, and turned them into the first non-English-language film to gross $100 million in America. It earned ten Oscar nominations, a record for a foreign-language film that stood for nearly two decades, and sent a generation of Western viewers to discover Hero and House of Flying Daggers. This quiz covers the story of Li Mu Bai, Yu Shu Lien, the rebellious Jen and the stolen Green Destiny sword, from the rooftop chase to the bamboo forest to the leap into the mist. It also covers the making of it: the star who turned down the lead, the first choice for Jen, the 28 takes on day one, the composer and cellist behind the score, the fight choreographer who later directed the sequel, and the poem that gave the film its title. Fifty questions, four options each, with a short explanation after every answer. The easy tier is for anyone who has seen it; the expert tier is for people who read the credits.
30 of 48 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Ang Lee pitched Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon as which of his earlier films "with martial arts"?
Sense and Sensibility
Sense and Sensibility, his 1995 Jane Austen film. He planned a story about two women with the men in supporting roles, and one American critic duly called the result that film "with a body count".
Q 02Which film beat Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon to Best Picture?
Gladiator
Gladiator took the top prize for 2000. Crouching Tiger still won four Oscars and thrilled the West, while audiences in China greeted it more coolly.
Q 03Who plays Li Mu Bai in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon?
Chow Yun-fat
Chow Yun-fat had made his name in John Woo's Hong Kong gangster thrillers. Known at home for taking public transport, he pledged in 2018 to leave his fortune to charity.
Q 04Before playing Yu Shu Lien in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Michelle Yeoh starred in which James Bond film?
Tomorrow Never Dies
Tomorrow Never Dies cast her as a Chinese agent who teams up with 007. For Crouching Tiger she had to learn her lines by sound, because she could not yet speak the language they were written in.
Q 05In Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, what is the name of Li Mu Bai's stolen sword?
Green Destiny
Green Destiny is the fabled blade Li Mu Bai gives away so that he can retire. Its theft soon afterwards drags him straight back into the fighting life he wanted to leave.
Q 06The dialogue of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is in which language?
Mandarin
Mandarin, which only one of the four leads spoke in the accent the director wanted. One star needed 28 takes on his first day because of the language, something he said had never happened to him before.
Q 07Zhang Ziyi, who plays Jen in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, made her Hollywood debut in which Jackie Chan film?
Rush Hour 2
Rush Hour 2 cast her as a villain in 2001. Crouching Tiger was only her second feature film, and she got the part of Jen only after the director's first choice had turned it down.
Q 08In Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Li Mu Bai pursues Jen into which setting for their duel?
Bamboo forest
Bamboo forest: the pair duel high on the swaying treetops. The stars really were up there, hanging from wires, and computers were used only to erase the cables.
Q 09Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon belongs to which Chinese genre?
Wuxia
Wuxia tales of wandering sword-fighting heroes were old news to Chinese audiences but little known in the West. The film's success changed that, and Hero and House of Flying Daggers were soon being sold to the same crowds.
Q 10Which villainess killed Li Mu Bai's teacher in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon?
Jade Fox
Jade Fox killed him because he would take her to bed but refused to teach a woman. She then hid for years as governess to the governor's daughter, Jen.
Q 11In Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, what stops Li Mu Bai and Yu Shu Lien declaring their love?
Loyalty to her dead fiancé
Loyalty to her dead fiancé, who was also his close friend, keeps the pair silent for years. He finally tells her he loves her with his dying breath.
Q 12What does Jen do in the final scene of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon?
Leaps from a mountain bridge
Jen leaps from a mountain bridge, acting out a legend her lover once told her: a man jumped from a mountain so that his wish would come true.
Q 13In Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Li Mu Bai belongs to which martial school?
Wudang
Q 21Who composed the Oscar-winning score of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon?
Tan Dun
Tan Dun won both an Oscar and a Grammy for the score. He then rearranged its themes into a concert piece for soloist and orchestra, the Crouching Tiger Concerto.
Q 22Which classical star plays the solo passages in the score of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon?
Yo-Yo Ma
Yo-Yo Ma plays the cello solos that run through the film. On Oscar night he performed excerpts from the nominated scores live on stage, and this one took the award.
Q 23Which streaming service released the 2016 sequel to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon in the West?
Netflix
Netflix announced it in 2014 as its first original film, to open in Imax cinemas on the same day. Big US chains threatened a boycott, and in the end it barely played in Western cinemas at all.
Wudang is a Taoist school, and Jen has secretly been studying its stolen manual. The name travelled far: the rap group Wu-Tang Clan took theirs from a 1983 kung fu film about it.
Q 14Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is set under which Chinese dynasty?
Qing
Qing rulers made Han Chinese men shave their foreheads and braid their hair into a queue. It was no fashion choice: those who refused faced execution.
Q 15Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon won the audience-voted People's Choice Award at which film festival in 2000?
Toronto
Toronto festival-goers voted it their favourite film of 2000. Their prize has a record of spotting Oscar contenders early, and this winner went on to ten nominations.
Q 16Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon won its foreign-language Oscar as the entry of which territory?
Taiwan
Taiwan, the director's homeland, submitted it. In truth the film was a four-way production, with companies from mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and the United States behind it.
Q 17What kills Li Mu Bai in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon?
A poisoned needle
A poisoned needle catches him in the neck as he fights off the woman who murdered his teacher. Jen rushes away to mix an antidote, but she returns too late.
Q 18In Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, the sword is sent to Sir Te in which city?
Beijing
Beijing is where the sword is stolen from Sir Te's compound, which sets off a night-time chase across the rooftops. The production was based in the city too, travelling out only for its location shoots.
Q 19Peter Pau's Oscar for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon honoured what?
Cinematography
Cinematography won Peter Pau his Oscar, alongside the film's wins for foreign-language film, art direction and score. Its director lost his own category, though Hollywood's directors' guild had already handed him its top prize.
Q 20Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was the first foreign-language film to pass which US box-office milestone?
$100 million
$100 million had never been reached in the US by a film in another language. It got there from a standing start, opening in just 16 cinemas, and finished on about $128 million, over seven times its budget.
Q 24Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon star Michelle Yeoh grew up in which country?
Malaysia
Malaysia: she was born in Ipoh and at 20 won the Miss Malaysia title, which sent her to Miss World in London. Films came next, and she became known for doing her own stunts.
Q 25What is Yu Shu Lien's trade in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon?
Runs a private security company
Yu Shu Lien runs a private security company, escorting merchants' goods along dangerous roads. She rides with the convoys herself, and few fighters in the story can match her.
Q 26Which director's Hero and House of Flying Daggers followed Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon into Western cinemas?
Zhang Yimou
Zhang Yimou made both films and cast Zhang Ziyi, Crouching Tiger's breakout star, in each of them. He had given her a first leading role a year before it, in The Road Home.
Q 27The novel Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon first appeared in the early 1940s in what form?
Newspaper serial
A newspaper serial: Wang Dulu's story ran in instalments in 1941 and 1942 as the fourth of five linked novels. The film borrows elements from the other books as well.
Q 28In Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, what does the bandit Lo steal that sends Jen chasing him across the desert?
Her comb
Her comb is all he takes. Jen rides after the bandit to get it back, fights him to a standstill and ends up falling in love with him.
Q 29Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon had its world premiere at which film festival?
Cannes
Cannes screened it out of competition, with no prize at stake. Hardened critics there still broke into applause in the middle of the fight scenes.
Q 30Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon's fight choreographer came fresh from which Hollywood hit?
The Matrix
The Matrix had shown Western audiences Yuen Wo-ping's wire-work the year before. In Hong Kong he was already famous as the director whose two 1978 comedies turned Jackie Chan into a star.