The best of both worlds

Rating: 9/10 (6 January 2001)

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is the best picture of the year ...... blah blah blah. Many good words have been said about CTHD, and I have no wish to repeat them.
It is simply a wonderful experience that combines the best of both worlds. Ang Lee has captured the essence of the Wuxia genre from the traditional Chinese cinemas and add some Hollywood production values to it. The result is a romantic-martial-art-fantasy epic with breathtaking cinematography and a hauntingly beautiful score, that I have never seen before.
Most Westerner viewers, who have no previous exposure to the Wuxia genre, are dumbstruck by the action sequences. The actions in CTHD are very very good but you can find more outrageous (if not better) fight scenes in Jet Li's in China series and Donnie Yen's New Dragon Inn and Iron Monkey, just to name a few. However, these above-mentioned flicks are usually filled with a weak plot and hollow characters.
Some minor complaints:
1) The desert flashback sequence does seem a bit too long even it is essential to understand Jen's character.
2) The way that Ang Lee handled Mui Bai and Shu Lien's relationship is great but I wish there is more screen time on it.
3) As a Chinese, I do notice the actors' varying accents but it doesn't bother me as much as other Chinese viewers. It is a fact that people from different part of China do speak Mandarin with different accents.
With these complaints aside, I still find CTHD to be a wonderfully rewarding movie experience!