'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon' turns 20: Why Jen Yu is the Asian heroine we're still looking for

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Two decades later, we still haven't seen an Asian female-led action movie quite as revolutionary as "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon."

The iconic Ang Lee-directed wuxia film paved the way for other well-known action classics like "Kill Bill," but there hasn't been another movie as complex and rich as this. "Crouching Tiger," which hit theaters on Dec. 8, 2000, tells the story of Jen Yu, a secretly trained Chinese female warrior who steals the sacred sword of a legendary master. Not only is this Oscar-winning movie (it won four Academy Awards, including best foreign film) a nod to feminism, but it also represents a major milestone in Asian representation in the entertainment industry.

"Crouching Tiger" is most memorable to me thanks to its unique antagonist Jen Yu (played by Zhang Ziyi). She's rebellious, ambitious, and, best of all, relatable. It's exciting to see a female lead who beats up men left and right, but even more satisfying to be inspired by a character that physically resembles me, especially after years of white heroines such as Princess Leia, Black Widow and Katniss Everdeen.

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Growing up, I had almost never seen an Asian lead, let alone an Asian female lead, and became accustomed to watching them only in the background. Take "Snowpiercer," for instance, Bong Joon-ho's 2014 film in which the two Asian characters are sidelined to hoist Chris Evans into the spotlight. Or even 2016's "Suicide Squad," which features samurai superheroine Katana (Karen Fukuhara), who is almost entirely wordless throughout the movie. Jacob Batalon merely adds a comedic effect as Spider-Man's geeky gamer buddy in "Spider-Man: Homecoming," and Kelly Marie Tran, the "Star Wars" franchise's first Asian American actress in a lead role, appears for barely more than a minute in "Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker."

This was almost always the norm for me and other Asian Americans: to expect to be seen as ripples in the background, fulfilling diversity quotas but having no relative impact in the overall plot. My people were pushed to the side, reminiscent of a reality that reminds us that our accomplishments always mean less.

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