Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (film)

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is an award-winning film from 2000, directed by Ang Lee. It is based on the fourth novel of the Crane-Iron series of books by Wang Dulu, although it incorporates portions of the other books in the series as well.

Plot and spoilers

As part of an ongoing story, the storyline was complex. It centrally featured the relationship between Li Mu-bai (played by Chow Yun-Fat) and Yu Shu-lien (played by Michelle Yeoh), an unconsummated love relationship between two martial arts warriors. Shu-lien and Mu-bai are arranging for the transport of a legendary sword, Green Destiny, and encounter Jen Yu (played by Zhang Ziyi) —

who turns out to be a Wudan master. Jen Yu must choose between life with her lover, a desert bandit (played by Chang Chen); training with Mu-bai who wishes her to be his apprentice; training with Mu-Bai's enemy, Jade Fox; or the life she was born to as one official's daughter and another's wife.

The story ends tragically: Mu-bai dies after defeating Jade Fox; Shu-lien's heart is broken; and Jen Yu's fate is uncertain: She leaps from the mountain into the clouds below, rejecting her lover's offer.