Beautiful parable

Rating: 10/10 (15 August 2001)

Some movies should be viewed like a painting at a museum: You sit and slowly absorb the mastery of detail, and the interpretive expression the artist labored long hours to convey. "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" is such a picture. (Kubrick's "Barry Lyndon" was another.)
The main flaw in this masterpiece, and perhaps the reason it has garnered so many negative reviews in this forum, is that its opening scenes provide very little guidance to Western audiences for what follows. We are therefore unprepared for sudden breaks from "reality" as characters begin to fly in the middle of fight scenes, and we don't understand the rules of this ancient, mythical Chinese civilization. Also, there is a certain "language" that develops around certain film genres, and without having viewed previous movies of this type, it may be difficult to grasp the significance of many scenes. Imagine, for instance, someone from China viewing "High Noon" without ever having watched another American Western. The heroic depth of Gary Cooper's refusal to leave town can only be fully appreciated by having viewed countless similar films, and knowing that the "code of the West" requires certain things of its heroes. Lacking this context, it was difficult at times to truly appreciate the characters. (However, viewing the DVD supplementary material helps enormously).
Despite these handicaps, this is one of the most stunningly gorgeous films ever created, with a simple, but compelling, parable at its center that can be appreciated by any viewer regardless of what movies he or she may have seen before.