The “sequel” to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon made its recent debut on Netflix. I know a lot of critics poo poo’d it but I really enjoyed it. Any movie showing Michelle Yeoh kicking ass is a positive thing for me, the lady has sweet moves and it’s nice to see her still starring given Hollywood’s agism. Throw in the legendary Donnie Yen from Iron Monkey and you’ve got a killer Kung Fu flick.
It was rather weird they shot this in English. I’m guessing the West is the audience not the Chinese market business types are falling all over themselves to appease. Maybe Netflix cannot. The Great Firewall of China does prohibit a lot of stuff. My point with the English is unlike many Americans, I don’t mind subtitles however the cast has impeccable English for many have done the Hong Kong stuff with the Shaw Brothers for years and other actors are from Western nations originally.
Destiny‘s premise surrounds the infamous Green Destiny Sword again but now there’s this warlord called Hades Dai who wants the weapon because of the legend; whoever wields this sword is invincible. Yu Shu Lien has to come out of her semi-retirement to convince the weapon’s current protector in Beijing/Peking to have it moved back to Wudang Mountain where the monks can keep it safe. There’s the usual intrigue over who really wants Green Destiny: a mystery student, a thief, Hades Dai’s operatives and the big twist, Lien’s dead fiancé from the first movie…has returned.
I thoroughly enjoyed it. There were few exposition scenes or long stretches of blah blah. The director balanced all the fighting with drama. Chinese Kung Fu movies over the years have picked up on Western sensibilities in their endings though. Recently I’ve seen a handful of Shaw Brothers stuff from the Seventies and Eighties and they have this comical abrupt endings which are rather jarring. Maybe it’s Hong Kong storytelling or a budget thing. Destiny doesn’t go with a corny American ending neither. I was satisfied on how things wrapped up plus I “mourned” the loss of the lesser heroes who followed the Iron Way to help defeat Hades Dai. Their names were rather cool too: Turtle Ma, Iron Crow, Thunder Fist Chan and my favorite Silent Wolf. Definitely inspirational for whenever I want to make a Monk character in D&D.
Destiny is recommended if you liked Crouching and you’re a casual fan of these films. Diehards who follow Jackie Chan, Chow Yun Fat, Shaw Brothers, Donnie Yen, etc. might be disappointed and/or bored. The people behind this may have followed Netflix’s algorithm yet I think they made it for a wider audience. Besides, it’s on Netflix, it doesn’t cost anything beyond a couple hours of your time.