History Film / CrouchingTigerHiddenDragon

* IHaveTheHighGround: The fight along the tops of the bamboo grove. [[spoiler: Averted when Li Mu Bai lets himself fall so he can kick Jen's tree to knock her out of it.]]

* BaldOfAwesome: Li Mu Bai among others.
** Well, half-bald.

* BelligerentSexualTension: Between Jen and Lo before they got a RelationshipUpgrade.

** Most of the protagonists also engage in secrecy to deal with person matters. Lo makes a few appearances early in the film but does not properly reveal himself to the other characters until the film's midpoint; in addition, Jen pretends to be fine with her ArrangedMarriage to Gou but is actually unhappy with her situation, which leads to [[spoiler:her disguising herself and stealing the Green Destiny]]. Likewise, Mu Bai and Shu Lien privately have romantic feelings for each other, but they repress said feelings to avoid dishonoring the late Meng Si Zhao's memory.

--->'''Jen:''' Steamed whole cod, bite-size meatballs, a little starchy, but keep the sauce light, shark fin soup, mixed vegetables, and some warm wine.
--->'''Waiter:''' I have to order from a bigger restaurant.
--->'''Jen:'''Hurry then.

* UnresolvedSexualTension: There is one between Shu Lien and Mu Bai. Shu Lien was once married to Meng Si Zhao, who was a brother to Mu Bai by oath. After Meng died, Mu Bai and Shu Lien developed feelings for each other but try to hide them for the sake of the late Meng Si Zhao.

* VillainForgotToLevelGrind: Although Jade Fox stole the Wudang 'secrets'[[spoiler:, Jen Yu is the one who learned from them and didn't share it with her master. Jade Fox was aware of this when seeing the fight between Li Mu Bai and her apprentice Jen Yu when she was able to give him more of a fight than herself, thus she tries to kill her apprentice near the end.]]
** Justified: Jade Fox stole their instruction book. She NeverLearnedToRead.

** Lo and Jen are also covert in their own ways. Lo makes a few appearances early in the film but does not properly reveal himself to the other characters until the film's midpoint; in addition, Jen pretends to be fine with her ArrangedMarriage to Gou but is actually unhappy with her situation, which leads to [[spoiler:her disguising herself and stealing the Green Destiny.]]

* {{UST}}: Shu Lien and Mu Bai.

* FamilyUnfriendlyDeath: Tsai getting ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice -- in his ''forehead''.

* HoldingHands: There was a very sweet scene where Mu Bai takes Shu Lien's hand and presses it to his face gently.

** Jen's name in the Mandarin version is Jialong, which roughly translates to "scaled dragon", and Lo's original name is Xiaohu, which roughly translates to "little tiger". This makes the movie's name a ProtagonistTitle hinting at the real protagonists, who are introduced after the appearance of Li Mu Bai and Yu Shu Lien, the {{DecoyProtagnist}}s.

** Jen's name in the Mandarin version is Jialong, which roughly translates to "scaled dragon", and Lo's original name is Xiaohu, which roughly translates to "little tiger".
** The title itself is drawn from a Chinese proverb reminding us to beware those who hide in plain sight.

* DubNameChange: Jen is known as Yu Jiaolong in the original Mandarin, admittedly not a very feminine name to either market.
** Lo was originally named Xiaohu, and Sir Te was Bei Leye.

* MeaningfulName: "Jen" is just what the American translator slapped on her; in Chinese it's "Jiaolong." Likewise, Lo is "Xiaohu." These translate as something about a dragon and a tiger, respectively...
** Not to mention the title itself, which is drawn from a Chinese proverb reminding us to beware those who hide in plain sight.

* NotEvenBotheringWithTheAccent: The producers tried to have the cast speak with the same accent, but since each of the four main actors had a different one (Cantonese, Malaysian, Taiwanese, and Beijing-regional), they decided to give it up as a bad job. Some members of the Chinese audience were not impressed.

* FauxFluency: The dialogue is in Mandarin, but Michelle Yeoh had to learn her lines phonetically, . This could be why the film wasn't as well received in its native country as it was abroad.

* FauxFluency: The dialogue is in Mandarin, but of the four actors, only Zhang Ziyi and Chang Chen are native speakers, and Chen has a very regional accent. This could be why the film wasn't as well received in its native country as it was abroad.

** Tsai gets killed with one of his deer horn knives when he throws it at Jade Fox.

Creator/{{Netflix}} released a sequel called ''Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny'' on February 25, 2016.

* VillainHasAPoint: It may not excuse her actions, but some audience members might not blame Jade Fox for being angry that she was considered good enough to sleep with but not to teach.

* BookDumb: Jade Fox is illiterate. By just copying swordsmanship positions from the pictures rather than reading the texts, she never really learned how or why to fight in those styles. However, she still knows how to create different poisons.

A noble and well-known Wudang fighter, Li Mu Bai, decides to retire in 1778 after failing to catch his master's killer. Li's teacher was murdered by his own mistress, Jade Fox, who took revenge on him for refusing to teach her his art because she was a woman. Although Li's estranged LadyOfWar friend, Yu Shu Lien, tries to talk him out of it, he asks her to deliver his famed sword, the [[NamedWeapons Green Destiny]], to another trusted friend, Sir Te, so Li can leave his warrior past behind. Knowing the sword's deadly potential, however, Sir Te asks Shu Lien to have it safely stored in the capital of Beijing instead. When Yu delivers the Green Destiny to the house of a governor, she meets the governor's headstrong daughter, the RebelliousPrincess Jen, and they become close owing to Jen's fascination with Shu Lien's free warrior life. Shu Lien realizes that Jen resents her ArrangedMarriage, longing to become a romantic adventurer like those of fairy tales.

* WalkOnWater
* WallJump

** Justified: Jade Fox stole their instruction book. [[WeaksauceWeakness She can't read]].

* BareYourMidriff: Jen briefly changes into an outfit that does this after her first bathing scene in the flashback sequence. It's not immediately apparent in the film, but appears in promotional material such as [[https://i.imgur.com/kVM1ZsH.jpg this movie poster]].