Blank Check — Patreon: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with David Ehrlich (Ad-Free)

Published 2018-08-12; 2:13:42 by the feed.

As extracted (engineer-sonnet-2026-10-13)

The extraction calls the show “Blank Check with Griffin & David (Patreon)” and the episode “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with David Ehrlich (Ad-Free)”.

Hosts: Griffin Newman, David Sims. Guests: David Ehrlich, Ben Hosley (producer, in the room, speaks little).

Subject films: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000).

On the transcript: Auto-transcript with no speaker labels and frequent homophone errors; speaker attributions are mostly guesses. times_mentioned counts transcript lines matching name variants (not exact mentions).

Films that came up

Claims (68)

industry (industry): Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon → Hulk. Domestic grosses of CTHD, Hulk, Life of Pi were very similar.
“This Life of Pi and Hulk all ended up very similar.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with David Ehrlich (Ad-Free) · 0:02:22 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
career (career): Sense and Sensibility → The Ice Storm. After the Sense and Sensibility hit, Lee made the most depressing movie ever made, which got no Oscar nominations.
“But before he made that decision, he was like, what if I make like the most depressing movie ever made?”
Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with David Ehrlich (Ad-Free) · 0:19:35 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
career (career): Ride with the Devil → Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. CTHD follows closely after the flop Ride with the Devil, as a re-centering back to his own thing.
“It does feel like a bit of a like, let me get back to my shit.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with David Ehrlich (Ad-Free) · 0:20:17 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
lineage (lineage): Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon → Westerns (genre). Lee reviving an old genre like making a Western, but engineered for a worldwide audience.
“It was like if somebody made a Western, but it also was implicitly built to and engineered to appeal to a worldwide audience as much as it appealed to an American one.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with David Ehrlich (Ad-Free) · 0:23:14 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
unmapped (parody): Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon → Scary Movie. Wire-work parody in pop culture (Scary Movie that year) made it hard for a young Griffin to take the genre seriously.
“Well, there's like scary movie this year.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with David Ehrlich (Ad-Free) · 0:24:52 · Griffin Newman (0.35 sure it was them)
craft (craft): Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon → The Matrix. CTHD's choreographer is the same as The Matrix's.
“obviously this has the same actual choreographer as that movie”
Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with David Ehrlich (Ad-Free) · 0:24:55 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
lineage (lineage): Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon → King Hu. CTHD plays in the milieu of King Hu and the wuxia classics, but with a more modern sensibility.
“this movie is playing in a, in a Milu that is inherent to like King Hu movies and Musha, like the classics”
Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with David Ehrlich (Ad-Free) · 0:24:55 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
craft (craft): Yuen Wo-ping → Iron Monkey. The balletic fight choreography echoes Iron Monkey and the 90s Donnie Yen and Jet Li films.
“It's the same sort of like balletic fight choreography you'd find in like Iron Monkey or something like that”
Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with David Ehrlich (Ad-Free) · 0:25:12 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
theme (theme): Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon → Sense and Sensibility. Ang Lee's bottled-emotion movies; CTHD as Sense and Sensibility with a magic sword.
“This is one of his great bottled emotion movies, which is like a big running theme for people who don't know how to express those. Sensibility with a magic sword.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with David Ehrlich (Ad-Free) · 0:30:13 · David Ehrlich (0.45 sure it was them)
people (people): Chow Yun-fat → Clint Eastwood. Li Mu Bai is the greatest warrior ever with baggage, like Clint Eastwood.
“So he's like Clint Eastwood, right?”
Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with David Ehrlich (Ad-Free) · 0:31:59 · Griffin Newman (0.35 sure it was them)
career (career): Chow Yun-fat → John Woo. Chow and Woo were a crossover pair, and the studios wanted both in the States.
“He and John Wu were one of those pairs where like their movies were crossover success and they were like, let's get those guys to the states.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with David Ehrlich (Ad-Free) · 0:32:46 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
lineage (lineage): Jackie Brown → The Killer. Jackie Brown has a monologue about The Killer, showing Woo's aesthetic was known to Western audiences.
“Jackie Brown has a whole monologue about the killer.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with David Ehrlich (Ad-Free) · 0:33:35 · David Sims (0.35 sure it was them)
industry (industry): John Woo → Rutger Hauer (transcribed 'Ruckerhauer') and Paul Verhoeven. Hollywood importing Woo and Chow is like importing Rutger Hauer and Paul Verhoeven.
“it's one of those things, like Ruckerhauer and Paul Verhoven, where they were like, let's get both these guys over here.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with David Ehrlich (Ad-Free) · 0:33:39 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
career (career): Chow Yun-fat → The Replacement Killers. Chow's US run: The Replacement Killers, The Corrupter, Anna and the King, then Bulletproof Monk.
“And Cha-Yon Fat was doing, like, the replacement killers.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with David Ehrlich (Ad-Free) · 0:33:44 · David Sims (0.35 sure it was them)
career (career): Andy Tennant → Anna and the King. Anna and the King was a more prestigious play for Chow, directed by Andy Tennant.
“Which is a little more of a prestige play, right?”
Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with David Ehrlich (Ad-Free) · 0:34:20 · David Sims (0.30 sure it was them)
career (career): Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon → Bulletproof Monk. After CTHD Chow made no film for three years, then Bulletproof Monk.
“And after this, he doesn't make a movie for 3 years, and when he does it, it's bulletproof monk.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with David Ehrlich (Ad-Free) · 0:34:33 · David Sims (0.35 sure it was them)
craft (craft): James Schamus → Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Schamus wrote the lyrics to the closing-credits song of Crouching Tiger.
“And our love, to quote the James Seamus lyrics from the closing, the closing song, is... Close like a drug, right?”
Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with David Ehrlich (Ad-Free) · 0:36:50 · unclear (a host or the guest) (0.30 sure it was them)
theme (theme): Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon → Sense and Sensibility. After 15 minutes the movie goes full Jane Austen.
“But like 15 minutes later, when the movie goes full, Jane Austen”
Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with David Ehrlich (Ad-Free) · 0:37:29 · Griffin Newman (0.30 sure it was them)
career (career): Chow Yun-fat → Daniel Day-Lewis. Li Mu Bai is in a Daniel Day-Lewis retirement mode: the best at something that no longer satisfies him.
“I think he's in like Daniel De-Louis retirement mode.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with David Ehrlich (Ad-Free) · 0:38:01 · Griffin Newman (0.30 sure it was them)
verdict (verdict): Michelle Yeoh → The Lady. It is hard to remember how much you like Yeoh when you are watching her in The Lady.
“It's really hard to remember how much you like Michelle Ye when you're watching her and the lady.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with David Ehrlich (Ad-Free) · 0:38:37 · David Sims (0.35 sure it was them)
craft (craft): Michelle Yeoh → Daniel Kaluuya. Her eye acting reminded the speaker of Kaluuya's eye performance in Get Out.
“I thought of Daniel Kaluya in Get Out.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with David Ehrlich (Ad-Free) · 0:39:21 · David Ehrlich (0.40 sure it was them)
career (career): Michelle Yeoh → Tomorrow Never Dies. Yeoh's Hollywood break was the Bond girl who is tougher than Bond.
“I mean, I just remember when the Tomorrow Never Dies came out and it was the 1st of 4 consecutive, like, finally, a Bond girl who's even tougher than Bond.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with David Ehrlich (Ad-Free) · 0:39:36 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
career (career): Michelle Yeoh → Jackie Chan. She was the only actress Jackie Chan let do her own stunts.
“She was the only actress that Jackie Chan would let do her own stunts in his movie.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with David Ehrlich (Ad-Free) · 0:41:15 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
theme (theme): Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon → Lady Bird. Seen as a coming-of-age story where Jen is the surrogate daughter holding the adults together and apart.
“I never really looked at it through this lens until I was just, you know, on ambient and trying to apply ladybird quotes to everything”
Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with David Ehrlich (Ad-Free) · 0:42:52 · David Ehrlich (0.55 sure it was them)
what-if (what-if): Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon → Sense and Sensibility. What if Kate Winslet's Sense and Sensibility character could fly and was a bandit: Jen.
“What if Sense and Sensibility, Kate Winslow's character could fly and was a bandit?”
Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with David Ehrlich (Ad-Free) · 0:43:22 · David Ehrlich (0.40 sure it was them)
career (career): Zhang Ziyi → The Road Home. She broke out with The Road Home before CTHD.
“I mean she had broken out with the road home, right?”
Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with David Ehrlich (Ad-Free) · 0:45:46 · David Sims (0.35 sure it was them)
career (career): Zhang Ziyi → Rush Hour 2. After two Asian-cinema legends, Zhang followed up by working with Chris Tucker and Brett Ratner.
“And then she gets to follow it up by working with 2 more legends.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with David Ehrlich (Ad-Free) · 0:46:05 · David Sims (0.35 sure it was them)
career (career): Tom Wilkinson → Rush Hour. Wilkinson told an interviewer Rush Hour is what made Hollywood take him seriously.
“rush hour, like transformed his career.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with David Ehrlich (Ad-Free) · 0:47:43 · Griffin Newman (0.30 sure it was them)
career (career): Tom Wilkinson → Michael Clayton. Without Rush Hour there is no Michael Clayton.
“You don't get Michael Clayton.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with David Ehrlich (Ad-Free) · 0:48:12 · Griffin Newman (0.30 sure it was them)
unmapped (joke): Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon → Blade 2. The film's first 20 minutes inspired a bad feeling akin to Harry Knowles's Blade 2 review.
“Like Harry Knowles reviewing Blade 2.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with David Ehrlich (Ad-Free) · 0:48:40 · David Ehrlich (0.45 sure it was them)
people (people): Tan Dun → Yo-Yo Ma. On the opening fight cue the composer goes wild and the cellist matches him.
“Tandon is wild and out. Ends up just going crazy. Yo-Yo Ma is sitting there throwing him, like, throwing him layout.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with David Ehrlich (Ad-Free) · 0:50:38 · David Ehrlich (0.40 sure it was them)
craft (craft): Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon → Breakfast at Tiffany's. Jen staring at the sword is a Breakfast at Tiffany's moment.
“A little breakfast at Tiffany's moment, just staring.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with David Ehrlich (Ad-Free) · 0:52:07 · Griffin Newman (0.35 sure it was them)
craft (craft): Ang Lee → Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Lee wrote the subtitles himself so they would be clear and carry the plot.
“Angley wrote the subtitles because he wanted the subtitles to be clear and to like convey plot.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with David Ehrlich (Ad-Free) · 0:53:28 · Griffin Newman (0.60 sure it was them)
contrast (contrast): Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon → American action movies (genre). Compared to CTHD, American action looks awful because Hollywood lacks the trained talent and time.
“it's because you just don't have the talent required to pull it off.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with David Ehrlich (Ad-Free) · 0:56:34 · David Ehrlich (0.35 sure it was them)
craft (craft): Yuen Wo-ping → Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. With more time than he had ever had, the choreographer used every big kick he had been saving.
“choreographing it had a time that he never really had before. And so he like busted out the big guns, all like the kicks that he had been holding in his back pocket for all those years.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with David Ehrlich (Ad-Free) · 0:57:21 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
craft (craft): Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon → Zhang Ziyi. Zhang approached the fight scenes as dance with no martial arts background.
“Xi Jang had no martial arts background, only a dance background and she just approached all of this like dance routine.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with David Ehrlich (Ad-Free) · 0:57:38 · David Ehrlich (0.35 sure it was them)
contrast (contrast): Iron Fist (TV series, said "Iron Fest") → Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Iron Fist's star was shown each fight the morning of and had 30 minutes to learn it, against the year of rehearsal Crouching Tiger's actresses had.
“they pretty much like on the morning when I got to set, they'd show me what the fight was. We just had 30 minutes to learn.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with David Ehrlich (Ad-Free) · 0:58:20 · David Sims (0.35 sure it was them)
craft (craft): Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon → John Wick. Only the John Wick / Atomic Blonde filmmakers in the West think about action with this depth.
“John Wick, John Wick 2, Atomic Blonde, that their whole companies is based around the action built up.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with David Ehrlich (Ad-Free) · 0:58:36 · David Ehrlich (0.30 sure it was them)
craft (craft): Chad Stahelski → John Wick. The Stahelski and Leitch school of action wants you to see the whole stunt, the whole fight.
“I like that because, right, again, they want you to see the whole stunt.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with David Ehrlich (Ad-Free) · 0:59:20 · David Ehrlich (0.40 sure it was them)
people (people): Chad Stahelski → Keanu Reeves. Stahelski was Keanu Reeves's stunt double on The Matrix.
“Chad Zahelski, Keanu Reeves' stunt double on the Matrix”
Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with David Ehrlich (Ad-Free) · 0:59:30 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
craft (craft): John Hyams → Universal Soldier (direct-to-video sequels). He choreographs and shoots action similarly despite crazy limited budgets and schedules.
“He choreographs and shoots action in a very similar way, which is even more astounding because he's working on crazy, limited budgets and schedules.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with David Ehrlich (Ad-Free) · 0:59:43 · David Ehrlich (0.30 sure it was them)
lineage (lineage): Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon → Last Action Hero. Jen worshipping Shu Lien and living her dreamed-of story is very Last Action Hero.
“It's very last action hero.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with David Ehrlich (Ad-Free) · 1:07:21 · Griffin Newman (0.30 sure it was them)
industry (industry): Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon → The Artist. Foreign hits that do well overseas get dismissed by us, like The Artist.
“And I think, I think, like, the artist was kind of viewed that way”
Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with David Ehrlich (Ad-Free) · 1:10:46 · David Sims (0.30 sure it was them)
contrast (contrast): Zhang Ziyi → Memoirs of a Geisha. Zhang later was in Memoirs of a Geisha, which has an even worse language/accent problem.
“It's funny that Jung Zi was then in memoirs of a geisha, which has an even worse problem.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with David Ehrlich (Ad-Free) · 1:11:16 · David Sims (0.35 sure it was them)
career (career): Chang Chen → A Brighter Summer Day. Chang Chen was a child star in A Brighter Summer Day.
“He's in a brighter summer day.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with David Ehrlich (Ad-Free) · 1:24:08 · Griffin Newman (0.35 sure it was them)
programming (programming): Edward Yang → A Brighter Summer Day. Joke pitch for a Blank Check Edward Yang miniseries.
“When's the Edward Yang cast?”
Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with David Ehrlich (Ad-Free) · 1:24:11 · Griffin Newman (0.35 sure it was them)
career (career): Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon → Lust, Caution. CTHD's sensuality was the most Lee had filmed until Lust, Caution.
“prior to lost caution, far and away, the most sensual thing that Angley had ever filmed.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with David Ehrlich (Ad-Free) · 1:25:59 · David Ehrlich (0.35 sure it was them)
theme (theme): Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon → The Remains of the Day. The repressed never-expressed love is very Remains of the Day.
“Yeah, I mean, it's very remain to the day.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with David Ehrlich (Ad-Free) · 1:30:33 · David Sims (0.30 sure it was them)
theme (theme): Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon → Lady Bird. Jen compared to Christine 'Lady Bird' McPherson: a dimensional woman who is villain and hero at once.
“She reminds me a lot of Christine Ladybird, whatever the fuck her last name is, McPherson.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with David Ehrlich (Ad-Free) · 1:31:01 · David Ehrlich (0.45 sure it was them)
unmapped (joke): Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon → Phantom Thread. Jen's bar-ordering is like a Phantom Thread order.
“She does like a fucking phantom thread order.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with David Ehrlich (Ad-Free) · 1:32:27 · Griffin Newman (0.35 sure it was them)
contrast (contrast): Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon → Marvel movies (genre). In Marvel fights the set-up is justified but the fight itself is devoid of story or character; in CTHD fights carry story.
“But it's like we've justified why they now need to fight, but then the fight is totally devoid of story or character.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with David Ehrlich (Ad-Free) · 1:35:00 · David Sims (0.35 sure it was them)
career (career): Jet Li → Romeo Must Die. Li took Romeo Must Die instead of CTHD.
“it's not just fucking Romeo must die, which Jet Lee took instead of this film.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with David Ehrlich (Ad-Free) · 1:35:41 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
industry (industry): Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon → Fearless. Fearless was marketed as another Chinese movie for people who liked CTHD.
“which was sort of advertised as like, if you like Crashing Tiger, here's another Chinese movie for you.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with David Ehrlich (Ad-Free) · 1:36:26 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
what-if (what-if): Jet Li → Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Maybe Jet Li wasn't ready for CTHD because he hadn't yet turned down CTHD; he took Romeo Must Die instead.
“Oh, that's an interesting point that maybe Jet Lee wasn't ready to do Crouching Tiger because he hadn't yet turned down Crouching Tiger.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with David Ehrlich (Ad-Free) · 1:37:25 · David Ehrlich (0.35 sure it was them)
theme (theme): Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon → Lady Bird. Jen and Shu Lien's big fight is Lady Bird fighting with her mother.
“And it is also ladybird fighting with her mother.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with David Ehrlich (Ad-Free) · 1:37:46 · David Ehrlich (0.50 sure it was them)
theme (theme): Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon → Wonder Woman. CTHD tapped into female strength that Wonder Woman had to catch up to 18 years later.
“this movie was tapping into things that Wonder Woman would have to like run around to 18 years later.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with David Ehrlich (Ad-Free) · 1:38:16 · David Sims (0.35 sure it was them)
industry (industry): Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon → Hero. Without CTHD's success Hero would not have been released in the US.
“Well, you know, without this movie, you don't have hero coming out in the United States.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with David Ehrlich (Ad-Free) · 1:38:48 · David Sims (0.35 sure it was them)
industry (industry): Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon → Slumdog Millionaire. CTHD spawned 'Crouching Blank, Hidden Blank' naming, as Slumdog did for 15 years.
“In the same way that like some dog millionaire for 15 years after is just like, oh, look, it's slum dog blank over here.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with David Ehrlich (Ad-Free) · 1:41:10 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
theme (theme): Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon → Roman Holiday. The ending, loving in hearts but never together, is like Roman Holiday.
“But no, it's like a Roman holiday sort of.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with David Ehrlich (Ad-Free) · 1:44:26 · David Sims (0.30 sure it was them)
lineage (lineage): Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon → Brokeback Mountain. CTHD as the first of Lee's 'fuck mountain diptych' of transgressive sex movies, with Brokeback.
“This is the 1st of Angley's fuck mountain diptych.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with David Ehrlich (Ad-Free) · 1:46:30 · David Ehrlich (0.35 sure it was them)
industry (industry): Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon → Gladiator. The Oscar race looked even between Gladiator, Traffic and CTHD.
“But I feel like people thought it was a pretty even race between gladiator traffic and crouching tiger that it could go any one of the 3 ways.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with David Ehrlich (Ad-Free) · 1:47:21 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
industry (industry): Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon → Traffic. Traffic won four Oscars to CTHD's four, with Soderbergh splitting the director vote.
“Everyone thought he was going to win best director because they thought Soderberg would cancel himself out.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with David Ehrlich (Ad-Free) · 1:47:37 · David Sims (0.35 sure it was them)
industry (industry): Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon → Gladiator. Gladiator beat CTHD for Best Picture with 12 nominations to 10.
“Glad you got 12.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with David Ehrlich (Ad-Free) · 1:48:58 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
industry (industry): Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon → Sony Pictures Classics. Sony Pictures Classics had no experience releasing a film this wide; it was slow, steady expansion.
“And they had like no experience releasing a film this wide.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with David Ehrlich (Ad-Free) · 1:52:12 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
verdict (verdict): Martin Campbell → Vertical Limit. Martin Campbell is only good at making James Bond movies; Vertical Limit is a good first scene only.
“It's a great example of Martin Campbell only being good at making masterpiece James Bond movies”
Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with David Ehrlich (Ad-Free) · 1:56:30 · Griffin Newman (0.30 sure it was them)
people (people): Dungeons & Dragons → Courtney Solomon. The D&D director also made An American Haunting and Getaway.
“He made an American haunting.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with David Ehrlich (Ad-Free) · 1:59:53 · Griffin Newman (0.30 sure it was them)
career (career): Courtney Solomon → The Getaway. Solomon directed Dungeons & Dragons, then An American Haunting and Getaway.
“His name is Courtney Solomon.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with David Ehrlich (Ad-Free) · 2:00:47 · Griffin Newman (0.30 sure it was them)
people (people): Meet the Parents → Jay Roach. Susanna Hoffs, who performed with Randy Newman, is married to Jay Roach.
“J-roach, one of the Bengals is married to J-Rose.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with David Ehrlich (Ad-Free) · 2:01:57 · David Sims (0.30 sure it was them)

Fun items (33)

fun, about Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Cold-open gag: the fake tagline about two warriors who would never podcast.
“A timeless story of strength, secrets, and 2 warriors who would never podcast.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with David Ehrlich (Ad-Free) · 0:00:20 · Griffin Newman (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about Ang Lee: Grosses compared: this grossed 128 domestic vs Hulk 132 and Life of Pi 124; worldwide Life of Pi 609, this 213, Hulk 245.
“It made 609.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with David Ehrlich (Ad-Free) · 0:02:45 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Blank Check: The nickname bit: Griffin finds reciting the producer's nicknames stressful.
“I get no enjoyment out of doing it.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with David Ehrlich (Ad-Free) · 0:10:56 · Griffin Newman (0.60 sure it was them)
fun, about Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Ehrlich took a train from Connecticut to Lincoln Plaza Cinemas the opening day, brought four friends, and went again.
“Scratching Tiger came out of Lincoln Plaza Cinemas on December 8th, 2000, and I got on a train from Connecticut to New York.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with David Ehrlich (Ad-Free) · 0:13:17 · David Ehrlich (0.70 sure it was them)
fun, about Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Ehrlich's first Ang Lee film; he had not seen Ice Storm or Ride with the Devil and had only seen Sense and Sensibility because his mom made him.
“This was my 1st Angly movie unquestionably.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with David Ehrlich (Ad-Free) · 0:15:15 · David Ehrlich (0.55 sure it was them)
fun, about Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Griffin and his dad disliked it at 11, but his memory of it kept improving: perfect recall played better and better.
“Sure. And my dad and I were both like, what's the fucking deal with that thing?”
Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with David Ehrlich (Ad-Free) · 0:16:22 · Griffin Newman (0.60 sure it was them)
fun, about Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: 11-year-old Griffin's literal mind: they don't explain why they can fly.
“I was so literal minded where I was like, but they don't explain why they can fly.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with David Ehrlich (Ad-Free) · 0:17:40 · Griffin Newman (0.60 sure it was them)
fun, about Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Ehrlich's first-ever movie review, for his high school newspaper, was of CTHD.
“This brings me back to the very 1st movie review I ever wrote”
Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with David Ehrlich (Ad-Free) · 0:18:43 · David Ehrlich (0.65 sure it was them)
fun, about Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: The four leads speak different accents on camera; Yeoh learned her Mandarin lines phonetically and took a year of no other work.
“Right. One of them is one of them is essentially speaking lines phonetically.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with David Ehrlich (Ad-Free) · 0:21:44 · David Sims (0.35 sure it was them)
fun, about Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Joke: Schamus and Lee did not speak for two years after Lee cut Chow Yun-fat's mirror scene.
“Yeah, James Seamus and Engley actually didn't talk for 2 years after he cut that.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with David Ehrlich (Ad-Free) · 0:31:10 · Griffin Newman (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about Michelle Yeoh: Debilitating knee surgery at the start of filming; she flew back and forth for surgery, action pushed to the end.
“Right. And she had to keep on flying back to the States for surgery and then she'd fly back to set, do dialogue scenes while she was recovering, fly back to the States for further surgery.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with David Ehrlich (Ad-Free) · 0:41:27 · David Sims (0.35 sure it was them)
fun, about Tom Wilkinson: His mother interviewed Wilkinson for In the Bedroom; he said Rush Hour transformed his career.
“My mother interviewed Tom Wilkinson many, many, many years ago.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with David Ehrlich (Ad-Free) · 0:47:34 · Griffin Newman (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about Blade 2: Harry Knowles's infamous Blade 2 review that Ehrlich says he wanted to avoid echoing.
“Just Google Harry Knowles Blade 2, if you want to feel really uncomfortable.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with David Ehrlich (Ad-Free) · 0:48:59 · Griffin Newman (0.35 sure it was them)
fun, about Zhang Ziyi: Spoke no English on Rush Hour 2; Jackie Chan translated everything, so she never had to talk to Brett Ratner.
“Zijing didn't speak a word of English when she did rush hour too.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with David Ehrlich (Ad-Free) · 0:50:11 · David Sims (0.35 sure it was them)
fun, about Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Lee wrote the English subtitles himself; a Mandarin-speaking girlfriend laughed throughout at the idioms.
“And I watched this with my girlfriend who speaks Mandarin and she was like laughing all the time.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with David Ehrlich (Ad-Free) · 0:53:34 · Griffin Newman (0.45 sure it was them)
fun, about Memoirs of a Geisha: Trivia: most of it was shot in San Francisco.
“Do you know that most of that movie was shot in San Francisco?”
Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with David Ehrlich (Ad-Free) · 1:11:24 · Griffin Newman (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: The first fight: the whole first 35 minutes are people talking about how good Li Mu Bai is, then he shows up and it takes three moves.
“The entire 1st 35 minutes of the movie are people talking about how good he is at fighting.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with David Ehrlich (Ad-Free) · 1:12:10 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Griffin's favorite weapon: Michelle Yeoh's weird candy cane claws, plus the curtain rod.
“Michelle Yeoh's weird candy cane claws.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with David Ehrlich (Ad-Free) · 1:13:13 · Griffin Newman (0.35 sure it was them)
fun, about Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: The silent teacup catch: the foley-heavy film goes silent to show effortlessness.
“That teacup thing is like silent.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with David Ehrlich (Ad-Free) · 1:17:17 · David Ehrlich (0.45 sure it was them)
fun, about Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Merch: a line of Crouching Tiger toys two years after a Sony Pictures Classics release.
“It had made such a cultural impact that there were like crouching tiger toys at RIP Toys R Us?”
Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with David Ehrlich (Ad-Free) · 1:19:03 · David Ehrlich (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: 20-minute Gobi desert flashback and the comb meet-cute; Griffin's favorite shot going up the ridge.
“drops the hammer, a 20-ish minute flashback, which rules?”
Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with David Ehrlich (Ad-Free) · 1:22:02 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Bar fight trivia: the stuntman who falls off the banister is the same man later holding an abacus because he broke his arm.
“how the guy who does that immortal fall off the banister is the same guy who has the abacus”
Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with David Ehrlich (Ad-Free) · 1:33:14 · David Sims (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about Jet Li: Turned down CTHD for Romeo Must Die, famous for its x-ray bone-breaking gimmick.
“Romeo Mustai has that gimmick where when he kicks someone, it cuts to like an x-ray and you see their bones breaking.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with David Ehrlich (Ad-Free) · 1:35:49 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Camera and wires for the bamboo-top fight: Ehrlich/Griffin still can't figure out how it was done.
“I still don't know how they got the camera up there.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with David Ehrlich (Ad-Free) · 1:42:21 · David Ehrlich (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: The dying monologue the speakers call classic Schamus: 'I would rather be a ghost drifting by your side'.
“I would rather be a ghost drifting by your side.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with David Ehrlich (Ad-Free) · 1:43:41 · David Sims (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Nominations: Gladiator got 12, CTHD 10; CTHD won score, art direction, cinematography, foreign language film.
“Best art direction, best cinematography, and foreign language film.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with David Ehrlich (Ad-Free) · 1:49:07 · David Sims (0.35 sure it was them)
fun, about Wonder Boys: Best Original Song: Dylan won and appeared by satellite while the others were nominees.
“Which that wins?”
Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with David Ehrlich (Ad-Free) · 1:49:55 · Griffin Newman (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about Ehrlich: Recognized he was in love with his wife the night she got him to wear Bjork's swan dress.
“This is the moment I realized I was in love with my wife.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with David Ehrlich (Ad-Free) · 1:51:07 · David Ehrlich (0.60 sure it was them)
fun, about Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sony Pictures Classics co-president Michael Barker realized they'd crossed $100M when two kids at a mall raved about the cool subtitles.
“they were like, man, the fucking subtitles were so cool.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with David Ehrlich (Ad-Free) · 1:52:33 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Opened at number 15 on 16 screens with a strong per-screen; widest release took four months.
“It opens at number 15.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with David Ehrlich (Ad-Free) · 1:53:09 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about How the Grinch Stole Christmas: The number one movie the weekend CTHD opened; top five: Grinch, Vertical Limit, Proof of Life, Unbreakable, Dungeons & Dragons.
“It's the number one movie of 2000, and it is called Dr. Seuss is How the Grinch Stole Christmas.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with David Ehrlich (Ad-Free) · 1:53:30 · David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)
fun, about Proof of Life: Russell Crowe and Meg Ryan's on-set affair; Dennis Quaid sad.
“Russell Crowe and Meg Ryan boning down.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with David Ehrlich (Ad-Free) · 1:57:42 · Griffin Newman (0.35 sure it was them)
fun, about The Getaway: Courtney Solomon's Getaway has an illegal-looking final shot; Sims interviewed him.
“Oh, wait, I interviewed him.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with David Ehrlich (Ad-Free) · 2:00:06 · David Sims (0.35 sure it was them)

Who's talking

Griffin Newman (host): Loves high-concept, big-swing filmmaking and sees deep emotion in the fights of CTHD; adores sword-and-flight spectacle, dumb-sweet characters like Inspector Tsai, and Lady Bird comparisons. Can't stand Brett Ratner and tired-looking Marvel fights; a sucker for bit-heavy tangents.
David Sims (host): Box-office and awards nerd; loves Michelle Yeoh and the craft of fight choreography; is dismissive of Rush Hour as a boring sweaty cop movie and of Gladiator winning. A sucker for trivia and Oscar-night lore.
David Ehrlich (guest): Loves CTHD uncritically ('the best film you guys have ever done'), Michelle Yeoh, Lee's bottled-emotion films, and emotional fight choreography; has an unabashed love of Robocop and Broadcast News (via the hosts' list). Not a fan of studio-franchise fights with no story.
Ben Hosley (guest): Producer, present in the room; barely speaks. Nothing to hold on taste beyond mock nicknames and a sound-effect button.

The show's recurring bits

Names the transcriber got wrong

'Black Jack'/'Right Jack' = Blank Check
'Anli'/'Angley'/'Engley'/'Emily' = Ang Lee
'Seamus' = James Schamus
'Yum Wu Ping' = Yuen Wo-ping
'Chia Young Fat'/'Chow Yen Fat'/'Chai Un Fat'/'Giant Fet' = Chow Yun-fat
'Michelle Yo'/'Yao' = Michelle Yeoh
'Zijang'/'Xijang'/'Shang Xi'/'Jung Zi' = Zhang Ziyi
'Tandon' = Tan Dun
'Changpei' = Cheng Pei-pei
'Si Hong Lung' = Sihung Lung
'Jangimo' = probably Zhang Yimou
'Ruckerhauer' = Rutger Hauer
'Daniel De-Louis' = Daniel Day-Lewis
'Kaluya' = Kaluuya
'Himes' = John Hyams
'Broke Pod Mountcast' = a Brokeback Mountain pun for the series name
'Lost caution'/'balls caution' = Lust, Caution
'Bartman begins' = Batman Begins
'Wooksia'/'Musha' = wuxia
'Limubai' = Li Mu Bai
'Jade Fox' fine

Blank Check — Patreon: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with David Ehrlich (Ad-Free)

As extracted (engineer-sonnet-2026-10-13)

Films that came up

subject (1)

passing (53)

compared (29)

anecdote (24)

dismissed (2)

Claims (68)

Fun items (33)

Who's talking

The show's recurring bits

Names the transcriber got wrong