Not all it's cracked up to be.

Rating: Null/10 (17 June 2003)

WO HU CANG LONG (or, its more recognizable title, CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON) is basically about a man named Li Mu Bai (Chow Yun Fat) who has three goals to make before he retires as a martial arts teacher. The first is to profess his love to Yu Shu Lien (Michelle Yeoh); the second is to avenge the death of his teacher; and the third is to give his sword, the Green Destiny, to a new owner. However, before he can do much, the Green Destiny is stolen by a mysterious figure. Then there are many subplots, involving romance and things like it.
The three lead actors (the two already mentioned, and Ziyi Zhang) are all terrific. The martial arts scenes are ... obviously fake, but awesome nonetheless. The China scenery is very nice, and it's actually pretty nice to watch it with the subtitles. If you watch the dubbed version (which, by the way, was done excellently), it sort of ruins the China feel of it all.
But ... but but but ... this film is certainly not deserving of ten Academy Award nominations, and certainly not "the best film of all time." In my opinion, it is a good film, but not great. Nothing too special. Entertaining, but nothing much more. A 7 out of 10.