Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) — bamboo treetop duel
See our character’s iconic-scene parody →Two swordsmen stand on the tops of swaying bamboo and duel, using the rippling branches as stepping stones. Borrow it when you want to show weightless, graceful movement that is closer to dance than to fighting (dance, fashion, tea, or fragrance brand videos; fantasy action).
From below the forest, you look up at two people crossing the tips of the bamboo against the sky (clip around 0:25).
To recreate it: Write even the stalk bending under the feet, as in 'low angle, a figure balanced on the tip of a bending bamboo stalk against a pale sky'.
Two figures in white stand small, facing each other, above the rippling treetops (clip around 1:22).
To recreate it: If you keep the people small in the frame, the AI makes a "floating" motion without wires look more natural.
Seen from above the forest, only the figures seem to float over a sea of green leaves (clip around 0:40).
To recreate it: Make the overhead shot with 'seen from above the canopy' so the ground isn't visible; that keeps the sense of height.
Upright bamboo stalks and leaves densely fill the frame and create a rhythm.
To recreate it: Put 'dense rows of tall green bamboo' in every cut as the same phrase so the forest doesn't look different from cut to cut.
The treetop shots leave the sky above wide open, so the figures seem to hang in midair.
To recreate it: If you leave more than the top half of the frame empty as sky, the feeling of weightlessness grows.
It cuts in the middle of the leaping motion, and the next cut lands on a different branch. Martial arts director Yuen Woo-ping called it "the hardest scene I've ever done" because safety gear was hard to set up outdoors, and enlarged his usual team of 15 to 40 (Globe and Mail).
To recreate it: Make the leap-start cut and the landing cut separately, and match the direction the body faces.
It is the wide, soft light of a cloudy sky, so the shadows are faint and the green looks calm (observation).
To recreate it: Block deep shadows with 'soft overcast daylight filtered through bamboo leaves', so the light matches between cuts.
Cinematic multi-shot sequence, 11 seconds total. Shot 1 (3s): static wide shot over a swaying green bamboo canopy, two swordfighters in pale silk robes balanced on stalk tips far apart; Shot 2 (2s): low-angle tracking shot of a young woman leaping between bending bamboo tops against a pale sky; Shot 3 (3s): slow tilt up a tall bamboo stalk to a calm older swordsman landing lightly on its tip; Shot 4 (3s): static high-angle shot of both crossing swords above the rippling canopy. Consistent two fighters in pale silk robes, soft overcast daylight, muted green palette, 35mm film look.
According to a DGA interview, the actors hung from large construction cranes at the top of bamboo about 18m (60 feet) high, and 20 to 30 people pulled lines from several directions to imitate the swaying of the bamboo. The computer was used only to erase the safety wires, and in the director's words, "those are really the actors up in the trees" (Wikipedia). With truly bending bamboo and real faces on view together, a flight that does not exist in reality becomes believable.
Wide shot over a vast swaying bamboo forest canopy, two swordfighters in pale silk robes balanced lightly on bending stalk tips far apart, a wide empty overcast sky above them; static camera, soft diffuse daylight, muted green palette, 35mm film look.
Low-angle tracking shot of a young woman in a pale silk robe leaping from one bending bamboo top to another against a pale sky, a sword held behind her, leaves scattering; soft overcast daylight, muted green palette, 35mm film look.
Slow tilt up along dense rows of tall green bamboo stalks to a calm older swordsman in a pale robe landing softly on one tip, the stalk bowing under his weight; soft overcast daylight filtered through leaves, muted green, 35mm film look.
High-angle shot from above the canopy looking down at two fighters in pale robes crossing swords while swaying on bamboo tips, green leaves rippling below them like waves; static camera, soft overcast daylight, muted green palette, 35mm film look.
Show the height and the distance between the two first in Shot 1, then use a cut on action that cuts in the middle of the leap in Shot 2 and links to the landing in Shot 3. Keep the leaps always in the same direction (e.g. left to right) so the space stays clear, and in the last Shot 4, turn up the sound of clashing swords and bamboo leaves.
If the bamboo doesn't bend with the weight of a person, it looks fake at once, so be sure to write the bend, as in 'the stalk bows under his weight'. If you give a sword fight to one clip for a long time, limbs tangle, so generate the leap, landing, and sword clash in 2–3 second pieces. Light-colored silk clothes tend to change color from cut to cut, so repeat the same outfit phrase in every shot.
DGA Quarterly — Shot to Remember: Flying Tiger · The Globe and Mail — Wired and ready for action · Wikipedia — Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon