Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is the first martial-arts movie from Taiwanese-born director Ang Lee, better known for masterful character-driven dramas like Eat Drink Man Woman and The Ice Storm.

Shot in China, the mandarin-language movie features Chow Yun-Fat as a swordsman in search of the sword he mistakenly gave away. During his quest, he runs into swordfighters Michelle Yeoh (Tomorrow Never Dies) and Chang Cheh (Wong Kar-Wai's Happy Together). According to producers Good Machine, there will be both drama and action, with martial arts choreography courtesy of Hong Kong maestro Yuen Wo-Ping, best known in the West for his work on Lethal Weapon 4 and The Matrix.

The movie is produced and co-scripted by Good Machine topper James Schamus, whose previous scripts include Lee's Eat Drink Man Woman, The Ice Storm and Ride With The Devil. Moving Pictures asked him to cut loose on Crouching Tiger in New York's Columbia University, where he is Associate Professor of History and Aesthetics.

Moving Pictures: Chinese swordfighting movies have a different aesthetic to Western action movies. Is Crouching Tiger following the Chinese or the Western path?

James Schamus: We've tried to do it both ways. We've tried to be true to Chinese culture and aesthetics as well as realising the potential for a worldwide audience. Martial arts movies have never really translated to a wide audience in the West. So-called kung-fu movies have been colonised by an acne-infested teenage boy culture. There is real potential to break out to a wider audience, while remaining traditional enough to interest the core [Chinese] audience.

MP: Will the plot unfold in a Hollywood manner, or in a more layered Chinese style?

JS: We tried to avoid an either/or solution. The most suitable analogy is opera. There is a landscape of characters and situations and the tonality is high-pitched. It's not a sombre portrait of daily life in the Qin Dynasty. There is a lot of action and a lot of emotion. It cuts across high and low culture, Asian and Western cultures, and all kinds of genres. It has spectacle as opposed to plot points.

MP: How about the action scenes?

JS: Ang's efforts are to pull the kung-fu movie away from the Southern style [the fighting style of Bruce Lee, for example] to a more balletic style. We think this will also help us appeal to a female audience.

MP: In Hong Kong films, the action scenes are often set pieces. I read that you are trying to use them to develop the characters.

JS: The fight sequences are certainly about character. We thought through every aspect of the sequences in terms of narrative and the emotional point of view. They are about relationships, as well as displaying skill.

MP: Did you get the action scenes down in detail, or leave them open for Ang and Yuen?

JS: Ang talked me through what we needed. I wrote enough so the crew knew what the action was going to be. One purpose of a script is to inform people how to organise themselves. But once on set, they worked it out specifically. I just described in broad strokes the essential aspects of the sequence. In terms of the actual staging, I knew Ang, Yuen and the crew would come up with something better than I could write.

MP: Did you refer to any specific martial arts movies for your research?

JS: I stayed away. I've seen a fair number over time, but I didn't organise a research programme in watching stuff. I tried to stay closer to the literary sources than the films.

MP: How about detailed historical research?

idea of the period. It's a fantasy China in many ways. It's a China that Ang is very interested in exploring ­ he understands its mythic quotient.

MP: Is it anything like Tsui Hark's idea of a mythical China?

JS: It's more magic realist than Tsui. Powers like qinggang [the art of leaping long distances] are magical to us, but they take them matter of factly. From a design point of view we were probably more interested in historical verisimilitude [than Tsui]. It doesn't have that 'wedding photo' kind of look.

MP: It's a Mandarin-language movie, so a worldwide audience will see it with subtitles. Are you taking care with the subtitling?

JS: I write in English, it's translated into Mandarin, then I have it translated back into English. Going from English to Mandarin, and back into English is like crossing five oceans -- by sail. You are going to another mental place. For the subtitles, we go to the original English text, move through the Chinese and come back to English subtitles. In fact, I have written the screenplay in the "international subtitle" style.

MP: How would you describe your working relationship with Ang?

Richard James Havis