Must see Martial Arts Film...

Rating: 8/10 (6 March 2003)

'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon' could easily be seen as the Star Wars of the Chinese dynasties, the 'weightless leaps,' swordfights, the vagabond warriors, magical elements and fantasy worlds all echo those seen in George Lucus' Star Wars some 20 years ago. However you could say it's the other way round. Both these films are based loosely on the film culture of Wuxia, with 'Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon' taking a more traditional approach. The Wuxia genre can be analogised the story of a swordsman or knight, who is able to mentally break away from the physical world and therefore defy gravity and the limitations of the human body. These people were highly feared and glorified as noble swordsman who fought not for state or lord but for themselves but were however honest, compassionate and loyal. This movie truly exemplifies the beauty of this making the movie almost a piece of art.
The first action scene which features Yu (Michelle Yeoh) chasing the mysterious thief of the Green Destiny, a Sword owned by the great warrior Li (Chow Yun-Fat) When Yu begins to climb up the sides of buildings with mere hops and the characters fly through the air as if they are, temporarily, weightless, it seems to become too un-realistic and fantastic, however as the film progresses, both the Wuxia and Zen culture are slowly revealed to show how these warrior's can defy the laws of nature an physiology.
This is Ang Lee's last Chinese film was 1994's Yin shi nan nu since then he has Directed the English film's Ice Storm (1997) and Sense & Sensibility (1995) This is Lee's first martial arts movie and he felt obligated to film and produce it in Chinese as he says: "Making a martial arts film in English to me is the same as John Wayne speaking Chinese in a western." Ang Lee
Lee has however created a martial arts masterpiece, one of the best scene for many years. It may come as a surprise however none of the scenes in 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon' are computer generated, all the stunts performed were on wire, especially the scene where Li (Chow Yun-Fat) and Jen (Ziyi Zhang) fly through the trees, that really is them, flying through the trees. The directing of a movie with some many aspects, love, action, can be an overwhelming task, however for the most part Lee has successfully created an entertaining film.
The script sets up an intricate storyline, full of interesting characters and events, however there is one particular, part of the film that seems to go for too long, which is the desert flashback. It might have been wise to remove some of these scenes as most are simply not needed, perhaps a single fight in the desert would be enough to establish the abilities and feelings of the characters, however the section goes for a few too many minutes, leaving you wondering when are we going to get back to the main plot. Aside from that the acting is excellent from the main characters, actors have been well chosen for these characters, and dialogue is also very well written and presented, a compliment to the writers and actors. It is unfortunate that this film did not reach its full potential, not it was a bad movie, but because people were daunted because of the 'foreign film branding' as well as the long love story, even though the film was first and utmost a love, not action story. This is also disappointing as the love story seems shallow and stereotypical, two people who cannot truly be with each other, but in the end express their love for each other, and I'm not going to even say in how many movies I have seen two enemies fighting, rolling on the floor to end up in each others embrace. However these few problems are more than overwhelmed by an excellent cinematographic style, and great performances.
The Wuxia genre has never been portrayed nearly to its true stance; however 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon' has put an immense amount of detail, and thought into the script, storyline and characters to become as true to the culture as they possibly could.