Group Facilitation Summary - Sept 10, 2018
As Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon is a fantastical period piece placed in Ancient China, I was curious how my classmates responded to the film, and how they’d suspect others would, had the movie been a new release in America today. They each had interesting takes on the hypothetical situation: some believed that the movie is timeless, and the deep dive into Chinese culture and cinema styles would not take away from the inherent beauty and intrigue that attracted its audiences in the first place. The martial arts component was choreographed Others wondered if that were truly the case, as there would be such a huge disconnect between what is mainstream and popular today—the special effects may be cheesy, the language may deter people from immersing themselves, and the cultures and values of modern day America and China are so different that the moral of the movie and the priorities that the characters uphold may not be understood by American audiences, or, if understood, then at least not agreed upon.
To make the question more personal, I asked how they predict their peers and friends would respond, to which many answered that neither their friends nor they themselves would have had too much of an interest (sans a few film buffs) in a dated film so distant from their own lives and experiences. Although those interested in martial arts films are drawn to it for its renown, beyond that, at least amongst the class, there seems to be not much of an international appeal. Perhaps it would do better digitally, on platforms like Netflix or Hulu, however we questioned its hypothetical success as a new movie in theaters today.
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- ASPA FINAL PROJECT Megan Yip