Transcending Genres

Rating: 10/10 (29 December 2000)

When I was a child, living in a rural area with few playmates, I read to entertain myself. In books, I found wondrous places and people and dreamed that my life might also be so grand and exciting. Later, in some movies, I would occasionally see glimpses of the same wondrous things--in Lawrence of Arabia, The Wizard of Oz, Raiders of the Lost Ark and Star Wars. Others showed me the inner life of people that sometimes kept me thinking for days--Room with a View, Sense and Sensibility, Il Postino, etc. With Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Ang Lee has stepped beyond the traditional lines and given us a very rare creature: A film that is about the adventure and danger of the world AND about the inner secrets we all guard in our hearts. It is beautiful, funny, exciting, tragic, high flying and bloody all at one *incredible* time. There will only be a few truly landmark films in our lifetimes. This is one. Don't miss seeing it the way it was intended--in a darkened theatre with popcorn and your closest friends.