An awesome instant classic

Rating: 10/10 (8 July 2000)

I had the fortunate opportunity to watch CTHD while visiting Singapore. CTHD is not a typical kungfu movie that's short on story, big on actions. Instead, CTHD spent time in character development and in its story. The actions and sceneries were breathtaking. There were many amazing fight scenes, particularly some very fast and furious fights and flying on rooftops and beautifully choreographed fighting scenes (flying and floating) atop swaying bamboo branches. The locations in Western China's arid desert and lush, misty Wudan Mountains were simply gorgeous and the period details were done into perfection. The movie's two big stars, Chow Yun Fat and Michelle Yeoh actually had more of supporting roles as the older and wiser warriors. The movie really belongs to Zhang Ziyi, a new actor whose face bears a resemblance to Gong Li. Zhang was amazing as the governor's daughter whose youthful, arrogant, and emotional character is the center of the story. The best kungfu scenes are the girl fights between Yeoh and Zhang, including the first fight scenes, with the femmes flying on roof tops and fighting hand to hand, kick to kick. The love story between Zhang's Jen and Chang Chen's Lo, set in the Gobi Desert, lent a romantic feel to the movie. As always, Chow showed all charisma whenever he appeared. 60s martial arts femme Cheng Pei Pei is also in CTHD as the villain Jade Fox.