A great fantasy adventure wrapped in a love story

Rating: Null/10 (13 January 2001)

If you thought Keanu could fly in The Matrix, you haven't seen anything yet. Ang Lee (The Ice Storm, Sense and Sensibility) directs this action fantasy/love story about two warriors (Chow Yun-Fat & Michelle Yeoh) trying to retrieve an ancient sword from a young master (Ziyi Zhang). The story also involves a lost love, a notorious killer who has yet to been apprehended called Jade Fox (Pei-pei Cheng) and a noticeable but never explored love between the two warriors. The story jumps back and forth between all these stories that at times interconnect. Ang Lee does an excellent job of displaying the areas and surroundings. This is one of those films that a person call tell was set in a far off place. His wide shots and landscape scenes capture the fantasy of the film. The performances are just perfect. Chow Yun Fat is excellent as usual, always cool and calm even under pressure. Although I am partial to him with a gun in each hand blowing people away, it was very cool to see him welding a sword and beating people up. Michelle Yeoh was also very excellent. She was strong yet weak and boy can she move. I don't know why Tomorrow Never Dies is her only American film. I want to see her kicking more butt over here. She can act and fight, a deadly combo. A surprise was from Pei-pei Cheng. She was very real and by the end of the film she had that "care about" characteristics. Something even hard to do with Chow Yun Fat & Michelle Yeoh in the picture but she did steal the show. Now about the action sequences a.k.a. the fight scenes. Whoa! You have never seen fight scenes like the ones in this film. Even The Matrix has a tough time competing with these. The defying gravity and the hand to hand combat, it's unreal. I know certain people will go see the film just to see the fights but trust me this film has a lot more going to it than that. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is a great accomplishment in film making. This is a perfect date film and overall a great fantasy. It's one the year's best and a experience all it's own. If missed in the cinemas you'll be kicking yourself when you see it on video. Trust me, you'll be saying whoa a lot, a whole lot.