A movie-goer's dream come true.

Rating: 10/10 (22 May 2001)

Wow! Ang Lee's latest film, "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" is a martial arts masterpiece that certainly has punch and kick added to it. Chow Yun-Fat and Michelle Yeoh, who both are very athletic veterans of the genre, head the all-Asian cast in this film. I don't know a great deal about the old kung fu films, but when I watched it in the movie theater (twice). I felt like I had learned something yet I can't put my finger on it.
The film's story follows the furious pursuit of a legendary sword (The Green Destiny) that has been stolen and how two warriors (Fat and Yeoh) reunite to find the suspect(s) who are involved in the theft. But that's only one of the movie's two main subplots and the other one consists of a bearucrat's daughter (Ziyi Zhang) and a notorious bandit (Chen Chang) who fall in love.
Besides the story, the musical score that's masterfully composed by Tan Dun, the breath-taking cinematography by Peter Pau, and the film's harrowing fight scenes also stand out here. Out of all the fight scenarios, the one that breaks out in the restaurant is my pick.
"Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" is a movie-goer's dream come true and should have earned BEST PICTURE at the Oscars.