Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is a 2000 wuxia martial arts adventure film directed by Ang Lee and written for the screen by Wang Hui-ling, James Schamus, and Tsai Kuo-jung. The film stars Chow Yun-fat, Michelle Yeoh, Zhang Ziyi, and Chang Chen. It is based on the Chinese novel of the same name serialized between 1941 and 1942 by Wang Dulu, the fourth part of his Crane Iron pentalogy. The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on 18 May 2000, and was theatrically released in the United States on 8 December. Receiving universal acclaim and a box office hit, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon won over 40 awards and was nominated for 10 Academy Awards in 2001