Ferocious Fights, Distinctive Drama

Rating: 9/10 (29 December 2000)

When a film immerses us in its surroundings and makes us feel as we have traveled to an exotic locale and been amongst its inhabitants, it succeeds in delivering quite a satisfying movie-going experience. Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, however, transcends the move-going experience and is something more of an experience in itself.
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is a deft mixture of Shakespearean drama and stunning swordplay: set in ancient China, Yun-Fat Chow stars as a former disciple of a powerful Wudan master, Wudan being a form of martial arts mythic and magical in its proportions. When he decides to retire the Green Destiny, a sword of unstoppable strength, and settle down with lifetime love Michelle Yeoh, someone steals the sword. At the same time, there's a love affair going on between a soon-to-be-wed-through-arrangement bride Ziyi Zhanga and her unaccepted true love.
Crouching Tiger has some of the most show-stopping, stunning, and most fluidly photographed and choreographed fight sequences ever captured on film. Though often violent, the fights are something to behold and will surely have you in awe of their beauty, as actors gracefully fly through the air, run swiftly and effortlessly on rooftops, stand on flimsy, dangling tree limbs, and engage in cunning, kinetic swordfights. It's especially interesting that the most intense battles take place between women,
Aside from the jaw-dropping action, Crouching Tiger also denies all Hollywood conventions: the villain in the film is a woman as well, and she is deadlier and exerts more control over her male counterparts. The action also centers around women, and they are no atypical movie creations: they are strong, stalwart, and equally if not more foreboding and intimidating than the male characters in the film. It's a fresh, thoroughly novel approach, especially in a film packed with so much force and action that a testosterone-fueled story is expected.
Crouching Tiger is also surprisingly a lovingly crafted romance film with an underlying theme of breaking away from traditions: all the character want to break free of the mundane rituals they've had to follow all their lives or will have to follow. Chow Yun Fat tires of his seemingly endless thwarting of evil and years to live a peaceful life with Yeoh. Zhanga also wishes to break free of her arranged ties with her soon-to-be husband and live with her outlaw boyfriend. While the latter story may sound cliched, it's handled with such humor and warmth, it hardly seems anything but genuine thanks to the two younger actors.
In Crouching Tiger, director Ang Lee has effectively meshed two genres that have been meshed tritely, messy, and unbelievably before by Hollywood hacks and has come up with a visionary tale of swordplay and romance. This film is not only entertaining and a landmark in the martial arts genre, it also almost makes up slew of disappointing films this year. With awe-inspiring action and a moving love story, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is easily one of the best films of the year.
9 out of 10