Ang Lee blends action and romance with strong production values resulting in one good Wu Xia film.

Rating: 9/10 (23 July 2010)

I haven't seen many Chinese films in my early years so I wouldn't know much about Wu Xia, but apparently it's a broad sort of film genre that evolved from Chinese fictions concerning the adventures of martial artists set in ancient China. Ang Lee had mentioned quite a few times that he wanted to make a Wu Xia film, and I don't see why he shouldn't, it sounds like a very interesting scenario that would definitely attract some audiences. Finally he followed through with it in the year 2000 and received immaculate results from both Chinese and American viewers. It went on to being nominated for 10 Academy awards, coming out victorious in four categories including Best Foreign Language Film.
Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon is a wonderful experience with excellent production qualities and a near perfect line up of Chinese actors. There's so much to like about this film that it makes it almost impossible to deny its brilliance.
Crouching Tiger is a story of passion, revenge, tradition and above all things, love powered by three main characters. Li Mu Bai and Shu Lien are two warriors and long time friend's that both have deep feelings for each other, but past and current events keep them from admitting their true feelings. Jen Yu is the young governor's daughter who is unsure of where or who her heart and loyalty lies with, her master, her love, or herself. Jen seems like a confused mind. She makes rash decisions and jumps from place to place with no real intentions, which is actually something I noticed in a lot of the characters in this movie. The decisions they make don't seem to keep within their character very often and their intentions are seen as unclear throughout most of the film. The story progresses somewhat aimlessly making it difficult to appreciate, never the less it doesn't stop the story from taking toll with the themes nor does it lower interest in the invigoratingly romantic scenes and the oddly appealing conflicted relationships between characters.
Like I said, it's really hard not to like this movie. There so much to offer that it stages out all possible criticisms and eliminates any doubt that it will appeal to audiences of all kinds. Like for example if your one of those action folk that are not really into the touchy, feely love story, no worries, your needs will be satisfied with Crouching Tiger. The martial arts choreography is kick-ass fantastic that matches some of the best Matrix inspired films, and while I found the wire-work in this movie to be way to obvious it was nice to see an action flick that wasn't ruled by visual editing, I guess that's Ang Lee's take on traditional Wu Xia film making. He takes us back to a time where we didn't have advanced computer programs to distract people from the decreasing population of good storytellers. Mr Lee proved himself to be a good storyteller for that very reason and I applaud him for it.
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is in my opinion Ang Lee's best achievement ever. He takes hold of us visually and emotionally and it's very hard to let go. I highly advise you to see this movie, it's beautiful and breathtaking, you will love it so many ways.