A Great Achievement in Cinema; a Stunning Epic

Rating: 10/10 (16 February 2001)

A lot of people would agree with the fact that the year 2000 was a bit weak for film, but Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon makes up for that. Put simply, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is an unbelievable film. What makes it so unbelievable is the fact that everything within is so captivating and so well done.
The storyline is interesting and captivating, but it remains fairly simple. The people who made this film did a masterful job of tying in the heart to every scene. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon has that warmth to it that makes a good movie great. All of the actors do a great job of bringing this out. Crouching Tiger is so much more than a karate movie, or an Eastern take on the Matrix (something I have heard a few times).
The storyline moves through some of the most beautiful scenes I have seen in film. Every single shot in the movie is exquisite and a pleasure to look at. Of course, there are the fight scenes. These scenes are some of the most amazing I have ever seen on film; they easily eclipse the work of The Matrix, Woo-ping Yuen's last movie as fight choreographer. The actors move with such grace and fluidity; watching these people do battle is truly poetry. The fact that they perform larger-then-life moves simply becomes part of the movie.
Crouching Tiger has this aura of being a legend; a fantastic myth about a man's journey to get revenge. It's a myth where these warriors fly about with grace and skill. It's a myth where these same warriors do battle to find out what they really are. Ang Lee's brilliant direction certainly propels this. In fact, everything about this movie propels this notion. It's a wonderful, wonderful movie. Everything about it melds effortlessly together, and the end result is a stunning motion picture, and one of the best Ive ever seen.