A work of almost painful beauty

Rating: 9/10 (18 February 2001)

I arrived at the theater to see Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with a great deal of emotional baggage. I've seen the great kung fu films and enjoyed them, the hype for CTHD had been building up for a while so I went expecting a masterpiece and nothing else would really satisfy. Actually at the time I was a bit worried, going into a film with that kind of expectation and finding something merely good can ruin a decent filmgoing experience... and could Ang Lee (who's made some wonderful character dramas) really do a film with martial arts?
Several hours later I was numb on my seat and practically weeping. And I wasn't the only one, the audience burst into spontaneous applause (something I've just never seen before at a film) What makes this film so extraodinary is not its action scenes (which are gorgeous, but probably not as technically sophisticated as some of the classic Jet Li/Jackie Chan flics), or it's characters, its beautiful scenery, the romance, the humor, or the sophisticated philosophy at it's core. Rather it's the combination of the elements working in harmony to produce a perfect cinematic experience. Something which, in my humble opinion, is a necessary requirement in any truly great film.
This is, strangely, an extraodinarily American film in it's focus on concepts like honor, sacrifice, duty, and a yearning to rebel against societal roles and relationships. And in it's use of self and genre-referential humor and the focus on production values. Which, I suppose explains the strange dichotomy of the IMDB boards where ordinary Americans rave about a subtitled, art house, foreign film while bemused non-yanks complain about its low action content and loose plotting.
All I can say is go see this movie with an open mind and you won't be disappointed.