Ang Lee does Bruce Lee: Gifts a popular Eastern standard to the West

Rating: 10/10 (28 December 2000)

Bruce gave us "Enter the Dragon." Ang opens Western eyes to the wudan sword epic. Lee brings sense (more than the usual, at least) and sensibility to the genre by giving flesh to the waiting between sword flash and wire-flight. And what flesh! Chow Yu Fat. Michelle Yeoh. Leading stars of Hong Kong make believers of the rest of the world. No matter how blindingly quick their swords or feet move, their hearts and eyes smother quietly, tellingly, in their measured screen time together. Theirs are performances of grace, glances and minimal words, crafting characters as rich as any in Ang Lee's American art house work. Their authority and reality in the mythic landscape of the film channels great silent-era performers. And the scene when they hold hands evokes the wonderful scene in Scorsese's "Age of Innocence" when Fiennes takes the glove off Pfeiffer's desirous hand. Zhang Ziyi is a find who holds her own well with the veterans who also include the Taiwanese icon of Ang Lee's youth, Cheng Pei Pei. The definition of a classic, where no element lets down another, braces this film. From the lush cinematography to the score featuring Yo-Yo Ma's haunting cello, "Croaching Tiger" is held high like the cloud-piercing Wudan Mountains beautifully depicted towards the end of the film.