The Netflix has released the first trailer for its anticipated Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon sequel Sword Of Destiny. And I have to say that it has left me a little uneasy.
The first film was a heady cocktail of drama and wuxia action, a combination that is probably hard to capture again fifteen years later. Not that I don’t think director Yuen Wo-Ping won’t bring the martial arts action. After all, he served as the action director for Ang Lee on the original 2000 Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. The new film is also drawing from the classic Crane-Iron Pentalogy novels by wuxia novelist Wang Dulu that the first film did.
Maybe it is the choice of music for the trailer. The original film was so evocative of a legendary time if Chinese history that the intrusion of a version of a song originally written by 1970s rockers Credence Clearwater Revival feels wildly and inappropriately anachronistic. Hopefully, the song is just in the trailer to help set a mood that will be explored in the film.
Here’s the film’s official synopsis from Netflix.
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny tells an epic story of lost love, young love, a legendary sword and one last opportunity at redemption, set against breathtaking action in an epic martial arts battle between good and evil that will decide the fate of the Martial World.
The film hits IMAX theaters and Netflix’s streaming service on February 26, 2016.
