Good but overrated

Rating: Null/10 (4 August 2004)

Ah. It's amazing to see how such a common film like Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon can manage to garner such an intriguing fan war. For the record, I liked this movie, and what has been said is true, the cinematography was amazing. However, considering that we're talking about a movie that is but one amongst many of the same wuxia genre, this movie is highly overrated.
I realize that a lot of the attention garnered for this movie was thanks to the fact that it is an Eastern movie that seemed to appeal to a Western audience. I don't mean for it to sound insulting, but we in the West tend to have a unique attention span that is easily distracted by new things. CTHD is certainly that for the West. However, considering how I've grown up on HK movies and Chinese serial dramas, this movie was nothing new. In fact, it was much of the same old stuff but almost worse in a way since Ang Lee didn't bother bringing the first 3 novels of a quintology to life and jumped head first into the 4th. Don't get me wrong. I love Ang Lee and think he's quite the amazing guy, but that does not mean the guy is constantly batting 1000 in my book.
For one, why Mandarin? I realize that Lee wanted to appeal to a larger audience with that, but I believe that enough of the Eastern world is so used to seeing dubbed movies and serials that it wouldn't really bother them.
Secondly, why did Lee choose to go with a more balletic style of choreography versus the more traditional heavier-feeling style of choreography? While I didn't feel that it took too much away from the movie, many of my Asian friends did complain that making the choreography that balletic took away what little semblance of belief you had left. (FYI, the wuxia genre traditionally employs the "flying" technique with wires, but it is usually not done in such an...effortless feel. I'm not really sure how to describe it, but watch CTHD against the choreography in any Asian serial of recently years, and you'll understand what I mean.)
Third, why the 4th book? Many of the complaints toward this movie concerned how disconnect the plot felt, and I have to agree. While I had a good deal of background on this movie, I still felt there were too many details that were just left hanging in the air.
However, despite all that, Lee does an admirable job of constructing a coherent story. The actors, despite the language hurdles and various other issues, performed rather decently in their parts. The thing about the wuxia genre is that the movies/serials have to be view as more than just the sum of its parts. With rare exceptions, one good actor can't carry such dept of story and a good cast can do nothing to improve a poorly constructed plot. In Lee's case, the end result was more than just the sum of its parts. Deconstructing CTHD makes one wonder why one would view such a flick in the first place. However, put everything together in one place, and you've got a fairly decent way to waste a few hours. Granted, my preferences for this particular story would run more toward seeing the recently made Chinese serial rather than this movie since the story is better developed, but hey, to each his own.
Overall, an admirable six stars out of ten.