lirion,
I wouldn't call you a hick, nor an ugly American; but I do think that
Americans in general take too seriously the attitude that they should
be able to "get" everything they are exposed to the first time.
Crouching Tiger has great coherency and plot for those who have become
somewhat used to storytelling styles that are different than the standard
hollywood fare. One thing to understand is that other parts of the world
do not feel the need to create a "happy ending" for their stories as
much as us Westerners do. A benefit of living in a free country is that
we can allow ourselves exposure to those other interpretations for the
opportunity to learn new ways of looking at things.
IMO, the movie was meant to end they way it did to make you stop and think
about what had gone on in the story and what meaning it has to the final
result. Also, even though there were action scenes, this was not supposed
to be an action oriented movie.
While the quality of dubbing (and the care that studios put into dubbing
projects) has improved in recent years, the problem inherent in dubbing
efforts is that they cannot completely match the acting being done on-
screen. Subtiltes are not a perfect solution, but one of the better
methods used to attempt to allow the story to be understood without
doing disservice to the original acting effort.
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To try to answer your other questions.
As pdiddy said, she jumped (to whatever result...) because her life had ended
up too complicated to be able to make the simple choice to run off with Lo possible.
Lo's wish could not be fulfilled, because the Jen he wanted to spend forever with
no longer existed. She had been thru too much both of truimph and grief;
and had her life manipulated and planned for by too many other people,
to ever truly again be the innocent girl he had loved. Whether she lived
or died from that jump is not important, as it was symbolic of her making
the only choice she saw open for here, which was to free herself by turning
her back to all the secret lives she had lived before.