"We don't hold the sword. This sword holds us."
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny is the sequel to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, released 16 years after the original. With Yuen Woo-Ping replacing Ang Lee, and Michelle Yeoh reprising her role as Yu Shu-lien from the previous movie, the sequel's cast includes Donnie Yen, Jason Scott Lee, Ngô Thanh Vân, and the Eurasian newcomer Natasha Liu Bordizzo as the new protagonist.Taking place eighteen years after the previous movie and the death of Li Mu-bai, the swordswoman Yu Shu-lien (Yeoh) managed to locate the legendary weapon, the Green Destiny, in Peking. En route to the city, Shu-lien is attacked by a horde of assassins, which she managed to fend off with the assistance of a mysterious masked man who came to her rescue and may have connections to Yu Shu-lien's past.
Also involved in the quest, is the budding young warrior Snow Vase, the thief Wei-fang, and the feared warlord Hades Dai, which will culminate in an epic showdown between all characters.
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny contains examples of:
- And the Adventure Continues: After the climatic finale which leaves most of the named characters dead, the survivors - Yu Shu-lien, Silent Wolf, Snow Vase and Wei-fang - then sets off on a journey to deliver the Green Destiny to the Wudang Mountains.
- All Chinese People Know Kung-Fu: Yes, they all do. Especially during the restaurant battle, where Silent Wolf and his four new allies takes on loads and loads of mooks - at one point a couple of mooks crashes into the kitchen, only to be beaten up by the cook using a pair of ladles.
- Bait-and-Switch: In the final battle, Mantis fatally wounds Snow Vase before dying. This leads to Wei-fang cradling Snow Vase as she prepares to die from blood loss, intentionally mirroring the final exchange between Yu Shu-lien and Li Mu Bai from the first movie. Yu Shu-lien's narration about their status and those of the martial artists plays over her and Silent Wolf on horses, seemingly confirming her passing. Then the camera pans over to Wei-fang and a very much alive Snow Vase.
- Battle Couple: Yu Shu-lien and Silent Wolf in the opening, and Snow Vase and Wei-fang in the finale.
- BFS: Hades Dai's preferred weapon, a massive and painful-looking blade that he wields single-handedly.
- Bloodless Carnage: While this sequel has a much, much larger body count than the previous movie, with plenty of people getting sliced up and carved apart by swords and edged weapons, good luck finding any spray of blood during the big fight scenes. Subverted that sometimes named character do bleed when they expire, but only small trickles of red.
- Chekhov's Skill: Snow Vase's training with Yu Shu-lien, where she practices and tries to thrush a blossom branch through the hole in the middle of a swinging Chinese coin. At the end of the movie, Snow Vase kills Mantis this way, thrushing her sword through the hole in the middle of the medallion Mantis is wearing.
- Contrasting Sequel Main Character: Snow Vase to Jen Yu (Zhang Zi Yi's character from the first film); the former is a swordswoman raised and trained from birth to be a warrior, a travelling vagabond who seeks the Green Destiny, the latter is a noble lady raised in a royal family who learns her skills as a warrior after being abducted by a bandit leader, which she eventually fell in love with, and ultimately becomes a fighter thanks to his teaching.
- Cool and Unusual Punishment: Snow Vase's punishment for mocking Yu Shu-lien? To stand on one foot while balancing a full bottle of wine in a courtyard, for an afternoon and an evening.
- Danger — Thin Ice: Silent Wolf's battle against Wei-fang and Iron Crow takes place on top of an ice pool, which cracks with every step when combatants attempts to fight on it. Wei-fang actually falls straight through the ice into the freezing cold water, and was dragged out by Silent Wolf moments later.
- Destination Defenestration: The final battle between Hades Dai and Wei-fang on Hades' pagoda culminates with Hades chucking Wei-fang through the pagoda's windows, but Wei-fang managed to cling on the edge of the roof outside and from there, pass the Green Destiny to Silent Wolf.
- Distant Sequel: The movie is set 18 years after the original.
- Grim Up North: Silent Wolf's flashback of his past duel with Hades Dai is set in the wintery lands of Northen China, where both of them battles each other on a snow-capped cliff.
- Heroes Prefer Swords: While a variety of different weapons are used throughout the film, the four main protagonists Silent Wolf,Yu Shu-lien, Snow Vase and Wei-fang all uses different kinds of swords.
- In the Back: Mantis kills Flying Blade using this method.
- Late-Arrival Spoiler: The movie literally opens with Shu-lien stating that Li Mu-bai, the swordsman portrayed by Chow Yun-fat from the previous movie, has been dead for 18 years.
- Legendary Weapon: The titular sword, which is a plot relevant element in the previous movie and has now achieved legendary status.
- Long-Haired Pretty Boy: Silent Wolf and Wei-fang, even moreso for the latter.
- Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: Turtle Ma uses a bamboo shield in conjunction with his short sword during fights, which saved him multiple times when battling mooks.
- Malevolent Masked Men: Hades Dai's soldiers are all clad in face-obscuring masks which reveals only their eyes.
- Names to Run Away from Really Fast: The movie's Big Bad is called Hades Dai. Doesn't sound like someone you'd like to have tea with any time.
- Old Flame: Silent Wolf to Yu Shu-lian, they were supposed to be engaged before his alleged death, and then she finds a new love with Li Mu-bai...
- Overly Narrow Superlative: Inverted, when Silent Wolf meets several martial artists in an outdoor restaurant, four of them start introducing themselves:Flying Blade: I am Flying Blade, famed in Shantung.
Thunder Fist: I am Thunder Fist Chan, famed in Zhejiang.
Silver Dart Shi: I am Silver Dart Shi, famed in Fuzhou.
Turtle Ma: And I am Turtle Ma, famed in... this tavern. - Posthumous Character: Li Mu-bai, the swordsman portrayed by Chow Yun-fat from the previous movie. He doesn't appear in any form in the sequel (not even during flashbacks) but his name is mentioned numerous times by Shu-lien.
- Reports of My Death Were Greatly Exaggerated: Silent Wolf was assumed to be dead by Shu-lien, which she spend years mourning his passing until he reappears.
- Retcon: Shu-lien's old fiance, because of whom Mu-bai had to bury his dying love and to die for Shu-lien, turns out to be... well, Silent Wolf, who's all alive and well...
- Right Behind You: During the tavern scene, Snow Vase tries mocking Yu Shu-lian over her strictness in training, even imitating Shu-lien's voice in a sarcastic tone. And then Shu-lien comes up behind her. Oh, Crap! doesn't even cover Snow Vase's reaction after that.
- Scarf of Asskicking: Worn by Silent Wolf, which covers his face for much of the first act of the film, including the Action Prologue.
- Single-Stroke Battle: Most of Silent Wolf's fights ends like this, especially against Iron Crow and the last few seconds where he fights Hades Dai. Both of them made a lunge for their swords which were flung into mid-air, managed to grab hold of each other's weapon... and Wolf sends Hades' own BFS through his midsection.
- Step into the Blinding Fight: Yu Shu-lien vs the Blind Enchantress, in a room enclosed by blinds with all candles put out the moment Shu-lien steps in. Shu-lien, thanks to her Chekhov Skill of listening instead of seeing, managed to kill the Enchantress a minute later.
- Viking Funeral: After the raid on the House of Te which leaves behind plenty of dead bodies (from Redshirts and named characters alike), there is an extended scene where Shu-lien, Snow Vase, and the various survivors sends their souls to heaven through lit paper lanterns on small wooden boats. Among those includes lanterns for Silver Dart Shi, Turtle Ma, and Flying Blade.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: At NO point in the movie, did Jen-yu (the previous film's protagonist) gets mentioned at all. While her fate from the first movie's final scene is somewhat ambiguous (we didn't see what happened to her after she took that plunge), by this sequel nobody - not even Shu-lian - seem to even remember her existance.
- Wire Fu: The action sequences utilize this technique, just like the previous movie.
- World of Action Girls: Hmm... there is Michelle Yeoh's Yu Shu-lien, the new heroine Snow Vase, one of the wandering warriors Silver Dart Shi, the Blind Enchantress who is a competent fighter on her own right, the Dark Action Girl Mantis and the restaurant's cook who happens to know kung-fu, which she use to expertly beat up mooks during both minutes of her screentime.
"Courage. Duty. Honor. I believe these are things worth fighting for."
