Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

We looked at a lot of martial arts films, both classic and modern. We looked at everything from the Shaw Brothers films to Kurosawa’s films, like Seven Samurai and Ran, for their sense of epic scale and character. We also looked at more recent films like Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Zhang Yimou’s Hero and House of Flying Daggers for their choreography and visual poetry. We wanted to combine the grandeur of those films with the fun of our own story.

Darren Aronofsky screened Ingmar Bergman's Persona and John Cassavetes's A Woman Under the Influence for Natalie Portman before filming began, these are the films that showed him how to make a psychological breakdown feel bodily. Bergman's Persona is the direct model: an identity that dissolves under pressure, two women who begin to merge. The horror in Black Swan is Bergman horror, no monsters, just the face.

The action sequences from films like 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,' 'Hero,' and 'House of Flying Daggers' were particularly inspiring. I looked at the way they composed shots and the way they used color. The visual aesthetic and emotional content of those films, especially in the martial arts sequences, really resonated with me. I wanted to bring that level of beauty and artistry to the animated action in Kung Fu Panda 2.

Director Destin Daniel Cretton studied Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) for the balletic grace of wuxia fights, bodies moving through space as if gravity were optional. He also drew from Stephen Chow's Kung Fu Hustle (2004) for how to blend martial arts mastery with comedic timing. The bamboo forest scene is pure Lee; the absurdist humor comes from Chow.