Ang Lee’s film aesthetics in “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”
The 2000 film “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” directed by Ang Lee won the 73rd Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film It won four awards for "Best Art Director", "Best Film Music" and "Best Cinematography", and set a record of over 100 million box office for foreign language films in Europe and the United States. It also marked the worldwide success of Chinese martial arts films. "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" is an art film with Chinese characteristics and a slightly philosophical meaning. It has profound cultural connotations and rich humanistic colors. The film uses Chinese-style techniques to describe a period of grievances and grievances in the world, and interprets the love-hate relationship between the male and female protagonists in the film. Through many gorgeous martial arts scenes and a series of diversified film and music elements, the audience was presented with a very wonderful audiovisual feast.
1. Orientalized ink painting
"Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" reveals traditional Chinese culture, and the overall color makes people feel very peaceful. The whole film Just like a Chinese ink painting, it uses a lot of beautiful shots in the style of landscape painting, giving it a fresh and elegant feeling. The scenes that appear at the beginning of the film include green mountains, green water, small bridges, boats, bamboo forests, and Jiangnan-style buildings, with traditional Chinese folk music as the background music. It makes people feel the comfort and tranquility contained in Chinese culture, as if they are in a real world. This simple and elegant scenery looks like a static Chinese landscape painting. In the film, the graceful protagonist in white clothes uses light kung fu to leap across the lake, which not only embodies the elegance of the martial arts characters, but also makes the whole picture more agile, giving people a dreamlike feeling. The ensuing fight in the bamboo forest, with a large amount of green in the background, is impressive, as if you are watching an antique dynamic Chinese style scroll. In terms of the color of the image, in order to be closer to the feeling of Chinese ink painting, the saturation of the entire film is not very high. The entire film is dominated by soft and elegant tones, almost all of which show blue tones, full of poetic beauty. The film uses white as the main color, which symbolizes purity, kindness, peace, emptiness and other meanings. It is a metaphor that the protagonist can achieve a state of spiritual transcendence when his external pursuit ends in nothingness. In the play, the emotions between Li Mubai and Yu Xiulian are repressed. Most of the scenes of the two of them indoors or outdoors are dim white light against a dark background. The tone of the gray-white light shows the spiritual purification of humanistic self-cultivation, which also serves as a metaphor for the film. Confucianism is the essence of pursuing nothingness and peace. The vast golden yellow in the desert and the green of the bamboo forest are also the main colors of the film. Green symbolizes life, kindness, regeneration, beauty and other meanings.
There are many oriental renderings in this movie. Rendering is a painting technique in Chinese painting that uses ink or some light colors to smear the picture to enhance the artistic effect. It can enhance the entire picture. Artistic appeal, conveying a complete artistic feeling. In the film "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", Ang Lee used three scenes of delicate and gentle transitions of color to show the ups and downs of the storyline in the film. The first scene describes a quaint small town in the south of the Yangtze River. From the rolling distant mountains, the deep and calm near water, to the black tiles and white walls of the ancient town illuminated by the setting sun, the scenery everywhere seems to be a carefully dyed ink painting. The opening shots present an ethereal, tranquil, landscape-like mood. The hero Li Mubai in a long gown walked into the movie screen in this peaceful atmosphere, showing a peaceful atmosphere. In the second act, a flashback lens was used to advance into the vast Gobi Desert and the boundless desert. There are no warm green waters and green mountains here. The emphasis is on highlighting the desolation and emptiness. The overall tone has also turned into a profound gray-yellow. The Tianshan Mountains and the Gobi Desert The magnificent momentum comes into view. Under this scene, Yu Jiaolong and Luo Xiaohu performed a song-like love movement together. The last part of the movie turns to a vast and quiet green tone, and then returns to the green mountains and green waters. In a lush green bamboo forest, Li Mubai implicitly expressed his feelings to Yu Xiulian. The two of them chatted and drank tea in the quiet pavilion. The hollow window was like a large natural picture frame, inlaid with the verdant outdoor scenery in the picture frame, just like a dynamic landscape painting with the wind blowing in the bamboo forest. The subsequent scene of Li Mubai chasing Yu Jiaolong is very classic. The lush bamboo forest dances in the wind, and the figures in the bamboo forest follow each other.
Yu Jiaolong took advantage of the unique toughness of bamboo and jumped into the forest to hide himself, while Li Mubai used Qinggong to stand at the top of the forest and watch Yu Jiaolong's whereabouts. This part does not have the brutal killings between rivers and lakes, nor the bloody fighting between the rivers and lakes. It presents a Zen rhythm that calls for the soul to return to goodness. Some obvious Chinese elements are also used in the film, such as the drumbeats of Beijing-style drums, small bridges and flowing water, Chinese martial arts, and the red hijab with jade dragons, dragons, and phoenixes showing auspiciousness, etc. Director Ang Lee inadvertently showed the pen, ink, paper and inkstone that symbolize traditional Chinese culture, the pavilions and landscapes of the deep house compound, and used these ink painting-like landscapes as the background of the martial arts scenes, revealing his deep attachment to traditional Chinese culture. The film "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" has an oriental cultural atmosphere and relaxed rhythm that is more like the beginning, succession, transition, and harmony in Chinese landscape paintings. The blank space is also just right, allowing the audience to deeply savor and appreciate the story. think.
2. Diversified film music
The film music of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" was created by Tan Dun, a famous Chinese composer. He used music to express the confusion and helplessness of life with Chinese plots. The expression is a soothing and beautiful melody, a melancholy and sad life. Tan Dun changed the usual gorgeous classical music style, using a three-part theme music, accompanied by a violin concerto and fresh guitar chords, to build a pure music world in which the light of swords, blood and shadows, desert scenery and love themes complement each other, and The sensitive and delicate inner world of the hero and heroine is rendered in a soft and beautiful tone. In the beautiful natural scenery, complex emotions and resentments are expressed. In the beautiful music and painting, the heroes and heroines meet, fall in love, part, reunite and transcend life and death. The film's soundtrack consists of three parts: theme music, background music and scene music. The theme music as the prologue is divided into three sections. First, the concerto of cello and guitar shows the audience the vast scenery of the desert. Then the theme music took a sudden turn, and the band added a melody with a love theme. The lingering music was tear-jerking and highly contagious, interpreting the hero and heroine's persistence in love in the film. The background music is mainly played by erhu, with the love story of Li Mubai and Yu Xiulian, Yu Jiaolong and Luo Xiaohu as the main line, and then followed by orchestral music, through the performance of erhu and wind instruments, and the singing of female voices, it highlights the poignancy of love. The atmosphere also enhances the visual aspect of the music. The movie's scene music has a fresh and elegant soundtrack, the melody is fresh and simple, and the deep tone of the cello interprets the vast scenery of the grassland. At the same time, the scene music also changes continuously with the plot, such as the tender music when Li Mubai and Yu Xiulian gaze affectionately; the unforgettable love-themed music when Yu Jiaolong and Luo Xiaohu are passionate and lingering; the exciting and tense music when the blue-eyed fox fights with everyone, etc. . The movie theme song "Moonlight Lover" is a gentle classical love song. The melody and arrangement of the song break the flamboyant and gorgeous style of Europe and America. It uses the currently popular monosyllable decorative sentences. The melody is beautiful and affectionate. The lyrics use typical Chinese Intention? The moon. It shows deep longing, a touch of sadness and a chivalrous feeling of helping the world, with a strong oriental color. Using a performance technique that combines Chinese folk music erhu with Western wind instruments, the famous Chinese cellist Yo-Yo Ma combines modern performance techniques with retro styles to show the unique charm of oriental music culture and combine the love and chivalry expressed in the film. The theme, the melancholy of the tragic fate of two lovers who were ruthlessly separated, is vividly highlighted. Singer Coco Lee uses a slightly tense and sexy singing voice to express a euphemistic and delicate tone. She is bold and delicate in the song processing, and performs the song in a soul-stirring way. Integrated with the implicit and deep love of the movie, this theme song has become an epoch-making classic masterpiece of the fusion of Chinese and Western music. In addition to using a variety of Chinese ethnic instruments, the music of the film "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" also incorporates special sound effects of Western instruments, female accompaniment, distorted guitar, electronic synthesis and other modern methods. The use of traditional Chinese national musical instruments enhances the atmosphere and adds a mysterious national custom. For example, in "Going South", the clear and transparent tone of the bamboo flute is accompanied by the brisk drum music with a borderland sentiment, which expresses Yu Jiaolong's lively and willful character. In "Confrontation", the cold Pipa outlines the magnificent battle of confrontation.
In "Eternal Vow", Revafu is used, which is a traditional musical instrument of the Uyghur people in Xinjiang. It uses the unique syncopated rhythm of Xinjiang ethnic minorities to show a rich exotic style. At the same time, the use of Western musical instruments also added sound effects to the film, and Yo-Yo Ma's cello performance became an important part of the film's music. The solemn and long theme melody, the cello is used in the scene soundtrack to imitate the glissando of the erhu and the morinouqin to create a desolate and sad sound effect. The ingenious fusion of Chinese national musical instruments and Western musical instruments produces a classical romantic music effect with oriental characteristics.
3. The Aesthetic Thought of Combining Chinese and Western
Ang Lee’s films not only integrate the aesthetic education character of Chinese Confucian humanistic spirit and the aesthetic wisdom of Zen Buddhism, but also place part of the storyline in Western It developed under the humanistic background and formed a unique film culture. He connected Chinese Taoist thought with the plot, martial arts and the fate of the characters, taking into account the Oriental "love" theme that Chinese martial arts movies focus on. The artistic conception in the image theory of Chinese aesthetics is the unity of conception and image, emotion and scenery. It has a transcendent view of time and space, hides a dignified sense of loneliness, and also pays attention to the agile "selfless state", which represents the highest level of the Chinese nation. aesthetic ideal. The style of "freehand brushwork" and "landscape" lies not in the image, but in the inner expression of charm. The film begins with a freehand shot of a water town in the south of the Yangtze River, with a small winding bridge lying across the water, a boat gently gliding across the calm water, and the water patterns extending to several well-proportioned houses. These shots embody the ethereal and serene beauty of the film, showing a calm spiritual space. The scene of Li Mubai and Yu Jiaolong fighting in the bamboo forest: the two shuttled up and down in the misty and swaying bamboo forest, sometimes flying, sometimes calmly, as if they were integrated with the bamboo forest, poetically conveying the aesthetic idea of ??"the unity of nature and man" . In the artistic conception of various images and empty shots, they all represent people's emotional experience and life process. Of course, there is also a fusion and compromise between reason and emotion in the film. There is always a hidden word "emotion", which embodies the concept of traditional Chinese culture based on rationality and plot. In the film, Yu Jiaolong is the embodiment of emotion. Feudal ethics, marriage ordered by her parents, and eternal vows could not lock her young and leaping heart. In her mind, Luo Xiaohu's transformation from existence to nothingness reflects the turning point of her state of mind and her character of constant transcendence. Li Mubai and Yu Xiulian are the embodiment of reason. At the end of the film, Li Mubai revealed his long-term friendship with Yu Xiulian before his death, which was the final release of his emotions. And Yu Jiaolong came to Wudang Mountain and jumped into the cliff after Li Mubai died, which was a tribute to her own growth and the ultimate achievement of her spiritual transcendence. Yu Jiaolong's act of transforming life into nature fulfills the story Luo Xiaohu once told her that sincerity leads to spirituality, and fits the harmony of heaven and man in traditional Chinese culture: sincerity leads to clarity, clarity leads to sincerity, and sincerity can reach heaven and earth. 1. Thoughts. The whole film reveals a fresh, ethereal, elegant and elegant style, with a strong Taoist style. The movie "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" demonstrates the Confucian humanistic spirit. The heroine Yu Xiulian in the film is a model. Her tepid love for the male protagonist Li Mubai confirms Confucius's doctrine of "nothing too great" and "impartiality". Tao, and also pursues the ideological realm of "doing what one wants without breaking the rules" and having rules within freedom, and freedom within rules. Ang Lee used this traditional cultural foreshadowing to elevate the theme of the movie to a new level. The fighting scenes in "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" perfectly integrate the rivers and lakes with the mountains and rivers, reflecting a unique flavor. From the picture point of view, most of the characters are shown against the background of vegetation and mountains, with medium and long shots, giving the impression of a fusion of man and nature, and allowing the audience to feel the lightness, elegance, and otherworldliness. The charm of it, and you can experience the comfort of being away from the hustle and bustle of the world. The actors' martial arts scenes contain grace in their fierceness, lightness in their bravery, and naughtiness in their seriousness. Most of them display poetry and beauty, creating a Zen-like artistic conception that is exquisite, delicate, rich, and ethereal.
Ang Lee has a refined literati temperament. His films convey the traditional Chinese humanistic spirit. He pays attention to people and culture with insight and compassion.
He uses his artistic intuition to convey different audio-visual experiences to the audience. His film works have Chinese artistic beauty and create a film world with unique Chinese traditional characteristics. While his films are permeated with the cultural spirit of combining Chinese and Western elements, they also give the films deeper humanistic thoughts and cultural connotations. ;