Women who have agency beyond their relationship with a leading man are a lot easier to find these days than they were 25 years ago. Lee knew this and delivered in Shu Lien one of cinema's great female leads. Yeoh delivers in the role as a martial arts expert who works with Mu Bai (Chow Yun-Fat) in the protection business. When the priceless sword the Green Destiny is stolen from the compound of an important governor, they strive to recover it, hardly suspecting that the thief is from the governor's own household, the governor's daughter Jen Yu (played by She's Got No Name star Zhang Ziyi), who is about to be married off.
Mu Bai's unrequited love for Shu Lien forms quite an important subplot, but Yeoh never allows the romantic connection between the two to take center stage. Unlike so many other female roles at the time—even in action films—Shu Lien dictates events rather than reacting to them. The first fight scene is a breathless, stylishly filmed, and technically perfect confrontation between Shu Lien and a masked Jen Yu that unfolds in a thrilling chase across Beijing's rooftops and sees the warrior repeatedly calling the shots. Having given Jen Yu an ultimatum—to return the sword in exchange for freedom—the two repeatedly clash, Shu Lien preventing Jen Yu from fighting in the way she wants, a dynamic expressed by several clever directorial flourishes, particularly a dirty two-shot of Shu Lien placing her foot over Jen Yu's to restrict her movements.
Shu Lien Technically Loses ‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’s Best Fight Scene
The gulf between the wayward daughter and the older, wiser warrior is exploited to the utmost by Yeoh and Ziyi. Theirs is a coming together of contrasts: Shu Lien cleaves to her duty as a warrior, whereas Jen Yu is eager to shirk hers as the daughter of a prominent official with a reputation to protect in imperial China; Jen Yu sees everything in black and white, whereas Shu Lien—by dint of her ambiguous relationship with Mu Bai, perhaps—is more aware of the nuances life throws one's way. It is in the increasingly taut exchanges between the pair that Yeoh's restraint shows, as Jen Yu betrays her trust, leading to a second, fateful sword fight between the pair that is still celebrated by movie fans a quarter of a century later.
Except Shu Lien loses the fight. At the end, left with only a stump of a sword—as her opponent severed the blade at the last moment—Shu Lien is wounded and vulnerable before Mu Bai enters the fray and takes off in pursuit of a fleeing Jen Yu. Not very bad-ass, one might think; and yet Lee's genius here is in the telling: Jen Yu only "won" the fight because she was using the Green Destiny—a sword so exceptionally powerful that it can cut other swords in half. "You would just be a novice without it," Shu Lien says prior. Lee underscores this point at the moment the fight ends, showing a close-up of Jen Yu's neck, with the blunt stump of Shu Lien's sword resting against it. If it had not been for the Green Destiny's power, Jen Yu would be dead. It perfectly encapsulates her essential weakness, despite her exceptional talents, and also Shu Lien's bad-assery: a woman who, only minutes before, was praising Jen Yu as being like a sister, was willing to kill her for her crimes. Yeoh's had many great roles since, including, of course, her Oscar-winning turn in Everything Everywhere All At Once; but few roles show her in such an uncompromising light as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon did.
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is available to stream on Prime in the U.S.
Image via Sony Pictures Classics
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