Look around. What you see are people: Strangers, acquaintances, friends.

And at first theyre

different. Nothing about them is identical. But if you look a little more, delve a little deeper, you begin
to find every one of them has a common factor. You. Everything you do, your personality and your
characteristics have a profound impact on your relationships.

So what relevance does this have on distinctly visual, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon or A Monster
Calls? What could possibly link these together?

Well, in both Crouching Tiger and A Monster Calls, the composers, through a mixture of forms,
features and language highlight and reshape our values on the ideas of relationships, and how they
can be so utterly complex and multi-layered.

In Crouching Tiger, this idea is exemplified by the polarizing, complex character Jen Yu, and how
certain features are able to impact the construct of her relationship with Yu Shu Lien.

In the second still, Jen Yu is first portrayed as a young, elegant girl. Constant reinforcement of her
delicate appearance is made through costuming designs, featuring light pink as well as silk materials
for her status. But subtle visual techniques such as the direction in which Jen faces the camera and
her facial expressions begin to reveal her true nature to the audience. Her deceptiveness is
portrayed, and Ang Lee is able to utilize this aspect throughout her interactions with Shu.

The 2nd scene employs an over the shoulder shot, both acting to disguise Shus emotions from the
audience as well as showcasing Jens between the two. Both participants convey pleasantries,
conforming to societal norms whilst having ulterior motives- a trait present in Jens character..

Further developing upon this, the interactions between the two become complicated when having tea
with Jens mother. Shu uses this interaction to speak her mind. Here body language is focused on,
with the use of a closeup camera shot of Shus expression as Jen catches a cup without fail. The
complexity of their relationship reaches its peak prior to the fight where Shu consoles Jen. At first
glance, we may be fooled from the depiction of two loving sisters, but it becomes increasingly
apparent the relationship is not as simple as it seems. The tone of Shu, as well as Jens immediate
change in character thereafter allows the audience to perceive this notion of deceptiveness: an
attribute of Jens already highlighted. Lee uses one last scene to exhibit this: the chaos of fighting as
the ultimate peak of the twos convoluted relationship. With the use of visual techniques such as
camera shots, and as well as body language, Ang Lee is able to highlight how our qualities are able to
affect the relationships around us.
The theme prevalent in Crouching Tiger is also seen in A Monster Calls, in a short story about a
prince. Unlike most princes, this particular one is portrayed as cunning and deceiving. Multiple shades
of gray are used instead of black and white, and a silhouette to depict his character, conveying the
princes features well. A relationship with a rural farm girl seems simple, but similar to Crouching Tiger,
is affected by the princes traits of deceit.

We see that this scene depicts the prince using the girl as a means to his own ends, and does so by
ending her life. Through the use of a single picture, Jim Kay is able to project the complexity of the
relationship. Salience is used to draw the audiences attention away from the action. Certain
compositions are utilised to represent the insignificance of the relationship to the prince. Their
positioning in the background as if in afterthought in the story conveys this idea well. Kay is able to
represent the difficulties of relationships by taking advantage of certain techniques.

So through the use of aforementioned techniques, forms and languages, we see Lee and Kay are
able to depict how our characteristics can affect the relationships around us and that they can be so
much more than a simple interaction.