Lee's Movie Takes Flight (And So Do Its Actors)

Rating: 8/10 (12 July 2010)

Versatile director Ang Lee ("The Ice Storm," "Sense and Sensibility," "Brokeback Mountain") made a certain type of Chinese martial arts film a crossover hit with "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," and it's only because of this film that later similar movies, like "Hero," "House of Flying Daggers" and "Curse of the Golden Flower" received even the attention they did in America.
"Tiger/Dragon" is the kind of movie that feels more profound than it actually is, because all of the lines are delivered in a foreign language and with stoic import. But the plot and ideas are really just typical kung fu movie melodrama -- and that's not a criticism. The movie takes flight, as any good martial arts movie does, when it's fighting, and the combatants literally take to the air, defying the laws of gravity to chase each other through roof and tree tops.
And it certainly doesn't hurt that we get the twin eye candy of Michelle Yeoh and Ziyi Zhang.
"Tiger/Dragon" became only the third film ("Z" and "Life Is Beautiful" being the others) to be nominated for both Best Picture and Best Foreign Language Film Oscars in the same year. In all three cases, each went on to win the latter award.
Grade: A