Wuxia film to beat all others

Rating: Null/10 (27 October 2019)

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, often cited as one of the greatest of its genre, was directed by Ang Lee. The interesting thing here is that he had never directed a wuxia film before this one, nor has he directed one since. He was apparently content to make this one masterpiece, studying the intricacies of its genre, and then move to other projects, other ideas.
And we thank him for this one. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is a wuxia film in its purest form. It's a film about mythical China, where great martial artists walk the Earth and clash against one another. Where old grudges carry from the hands of the masters into those of their students. Where swords are mighty, but in the end it's the hands that wield them that matter.
It's a sprawling tale, full of turns, characters and locations. As much of an epic as anything the West has produced in Lawrence of Arabia or Ben-Hur, albeit not taking as much time in-universe. Yet there's weight to the world. The sheer beauty of the production of course helps, but it's also entrenched in culture and history. I don't know enough about Chinese history to comment the accurateness of the film's look, but I can safely say that this is the film I think about whenever this period of time in Chinese history is mentioned. It's that iconic.
And of course it has a well-earned reputation as one of the best martial arts films ever made. Sure, some of the fight scenes are pretty out there, jumping from one bamboo branch to another, but the fact that the actors performed most of their own stunts and that the wire work on display is so well-made, gives it heft. And there are some truly great battle scenes happening on the ground where you can feel every blow, grit your teeth with every near miss and gasp in pain whenever a hit is scored. The fight between Michelle Yeoh and Zhang Ziyi in the dojo is especially noteworthy in this regard. Still one of the best fight scenes I've ever seen, even after all these years.
One of those rare action films that have a definite serenity to them. A film only two hours long, yet telling a story most TV series would struggle to fit into a season. And making it look breezy and effortless. Easily one of Ang Lee's best and one of those film I can easily name a masterpiece.