Everything Everywhere All at Once is possibly the best movie of the year thus far, and does something extremely bold. It presents a story about a multiverse within months of two of Marvel's biggest films of all-time, Spider-Man: Far From Home and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. But the best part of the movie is Michelle Yeoh's performance as Evelyn Wang — who was also recently in Marvel's Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.
The film has rightfully brought Wang back to the forefront of big screens everywhere, as she is an incredible talent who deserves more starring roles than she currently gets. But many fans will probably recognize her in another film about heroes: the 2000 wuxia film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was an anomaly in international cinema. During a time mass audiences didn't usually go to the theater to see an international film, this film succeeded and became a legend of its own. And rightfully so, as the film has everything that a true cinematic experience needs. It has a great story, amazing and engaging characters, tension, fun, awe-inspiring action sequences, and fantastic production design. It is one of the best movies of the 2000s, and at a time when superhero movies weren't as plentiful, serves as the perfect blueprint for what comic book-inspired movies should try to be.
The wuxia genre offers great framework for tales of superheroes, as this Chinese genre focuses on tales of martial arts heroes, who take on roles similar to those of heroes in modern comics. The name is derived from "wǔ," meaning "military" or "armed"; and "xiá," meaning "chivalrous", "vigilante", or "hero."
For the most part, many comic book movies do employ some of the aspects that Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon does. This is especially present with the characters found in comic book films now, but arguably has not been done nearly as well done as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. There are so many well-developed characters in the film that it's hard to know where to start. There's Li Mu Bai, the renowned swordsman who is looking to retire by officially hanging up the metaphorical boots by giving his sword to an old friend, Sir Te. Yu Shu Lien is the repressed warrior who is close to Li Mu Bai. Jade Fox is the villain of the story, who had killed Li Mu Bai's master because of her repression from him as he still used her for his own pleasure. Finally, there's Jen, the young fighter with natural talent trying to find herself and be free of the gender roles that the other two women have fallen victim to. She is learning all of the lessons from the other three older characters as they try to make them conform to their wants and ideals.
Every character is someone who could be found in a comic book movie, but what differentiates Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon from the rest is how each character's motivation and backstories weave and bounce off of each other in a coherent way. Every character is linked to each other in some way, and they have meaningful interactions that affect their development and personalities. Although many comic book movies do the same, they rarely work past just two characters having that meaningful relationship with each other — usually protagonist and antagonist. By making every character link to every other in some way, it creates much deeper and more involved stories that expand and fully flesh out the world and plot of the movie.
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But all the characters' motivations and repressions have to do with their physical abilities, which brings us to the highlights and the thing that comic book movies should embrace: the mythical, awe-inspiring action sequences. This film leans into the melodrama so hard it that seeps into the action scenes themselves, creating some of the greatest scenes put to screen. The greatest thing about the action sequences in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is that because the melodrama from the story spills out into the action scenes, the fights themselves tell a story. That is the benefit of using the exaggerated and unrealistic abilities of the characters in their physical conflicts, their political conflicts are also represented there.
There is nothing inherently wrong with wanting action scenes to be "realistic" or "grounded." But rarely in film today are they any more than just fight scenes — and in the case of Marvel, basic fights with some quips thrown in there for good measure. But these are tales about people with superhuman abilities, and by making them grounded in the audience's reality instead of the film's own, it is taking away the over-the-top nature of those super tales. Meanwhile, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon uses all of that to its advantage. It isn't afraid to be serious about its melodrama and its sincerity. The problem is that many think it would come off as "cheesy" — yet, that can work well in an over-the-top story like the ones that Marvel and DC tell. Comic book movies have so much potential. If they would allow themselves to go that extra step and dive deeper into that mythicism that Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon has done so expertly, they could truly take themselves to the next level.