Is the Academy brave enough to vote this Best Picture?

Rating: 9/10 (6 March 2001)

When was the last time you found a martial arts film beautiful and touching? Ang Lee wants to give you something that holds your interest because of its visuals. The story is tailored around the many fight sequences that it contains. The difference, as it turns out, is that these people are allowed to live and breathe and have depth. Lee is not afraid to stop and explore his characters in a way that action/adventure films never do (chicks and dudes alike will enjoy this one, but probably for different reasons).
The result is a completely unique cinematic experience. It didn't blow me away like it did for some. I haven't heard many people talk about how comedic this film really is. Lee can't help but borrow this trait from the Bruce Lee or even Jackie Chan school of filmmaking (the fight scenes were orchestrated by `Matrix' choreographer and long-time Jackie Chan collaborator Yuen Wo Ping). In this case, the humor is more obscure. For example, the climactic fight scene (which will go down in history as one of the best ever) between Shu Lien (Michelle Yeoh) and her would-be apprentice Jen Yu (Zhang Ziyi) begs for laughter. They fight in the middle of an arsenal. Lien keeps grabbing larger, more imposing weapons to use against the magical, indestructible sword Jen has stolen. It lasts quite a long time and by the end, still you wish it would go on.
Then there's the Peter Pan' aspect of the combat these warriors use. It didn't work for me much of the time. To Lee's credit, though, at least he's attempted to create something fresh. At times, you can almost see the cable it's so obvious. At other times though, the effect is so cool you can't believe what you're seeing. I rule in favor of its incorporation, but wish they'd used it more sparingly.
`Tiger' deserves the acclaim it's received as much as any movie this year. What makes `Tiger' so appealing is that it's not trying to be an Oscar contender, nor any other kind of contender. It's like Crash Davis (you know, from `Bull Durham'). It just wants to Be. Same can be said of all the films nominated for a lot of hardware this year, `Traffic', `Gladiator', `Almost Famous' for example: they just ended up being really good. For one reason or another, they were weeded out of that vast pool of worthy films (well, not so vast this particular year). `Tiger' is certainly worthy. If it cleans up on March 25, I'll be happy for it.
Grade: B