A Brief Review

Rating: 9/10 (30 January 2012)

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is a grand depiction in Wuxia style film. Director, Ang Lee, creates a wonderful dynamic in a situation high in intensity. There is a constant pressure between fighting factions, but an underlying level of respect is still conveyed, much in the Wuxia style. The actors and actresses seem to portray their roles with class and exacting without ever over acting; their work makes some of the film's surrealism appear to be normal, believable. From a cinematographic perspective, the camera angles and filming style make the often small scale battles scenes seem of the utmost intensity. The skills of the camera people make the viewer feel as if they were in the same scene as the combatant. The choice in setting accompanies this nicely, with some scenes being placed in beautiful, captivating locations. In all, this is one of the most interesting and well done foreign films I've seen, especially on such a small budget.