I was both amazed and disappointed.

Rating: Null/10 (22 February 2001)

(Spoiler notice!!!!) I just came from watching Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. I am a great fan of the modern Mandarin Chinese Cinema that really flourished in the 90's. I'm also a fan of some of the sillier Hong Kong kung-fu movies that are usually in Cantonese. Being familiar with both types of films, I know what to expect. I expected a lot, especially being a fan of Ang Lee. Halfway through, during the big fight between the two female heroines, I was already planning to see it again with my sister. But, I must say that on some levels I was disappointed with this movie. People tended to focus more on the martial arts aspect of it, so I was under the impression that it was going to be a well-done kung-fu movie. Not an over-the-top Chinese tragedy. Chinese tragedies are some of my favorite movies, like Raise the Red Lantern, but I have to be in a certain frame of mind to watch them. CTHD really ruined my day, to tell you the truth. It's a fantastic film, but in some ways I feel manipulated as I always do during certain tragedies. In tragedies where the characters aren't developed in a certain way, it does seem like certain things happen just to advance the plot in the way the filmmakers intend. I'm just not buying the suicide at the end. In fact, Jen wasn't really a heroine if you think about it. She was the villain until halfway through the movie. As I was driving home, I wondered why did she jump and why do we care? She was an impetuous jerk the entire movie, so why was I rooting for her? In some ways she had gotten everything she wanted, and I don't believe that she jumped because of guilt (over Li Mu Bai) or grief over Jade Fox. When Shu Lien told her to be true to herself is what I am guessing. She realized that she has no place in this world. It reminds me of "Xiu Xiu, the Sent Down Girl.", a film which I also found troubling. I'm not saying it's a bad movie, but Roger Ebert gave it 4 stars. He admits that parts of the plot are "plain silly" and focuses on its martial arts aspects. But this isn't a martial arts film--it has fighting in it, but during most of the screentime it's a drama. And as a drama, I don't think it has the stuff Oscar-worthy films are made of. I guess it some ways you have to see it for what it is. Kung Fu legends are like opera: epic, grandiose tales not necessarily meant to be literal or realistic. As a viewer, it was difficult to know which I was watching:is this serious, or is it not? Many if not most Chinese dramatic films feature suicides, and repressed love but few of them have plots this contrived. It is a watered down version of common threads in other films of these genres. So many people loved this film, and it is perhaps received the most exposure in America of any Chinese language film. This is both good and bad in my opinion. Perhaps it blended the two genres too well--it's definitely one-of-a-kind and I know that it will definitely hold up to repeated viewings.