Wonderful film!

Rating: 10/10 (16 October 2001)

Spoiler alert! Plot details revealed ahead!
I thought that this film was absolutely wonderful on many levels. Aside from the obvious "WOW" factor from the brilliantly choreographed martial arts sequences, the plot is also rich and engaging.
This is ultimately a movie about the human struggle against destiny. The lead character Jen is a noble daughter whom the standards of the day would have condemned to a banal life as a subservient wife to a pudgy aristocrat in a politically arranged marriage. She tastes freedom when she is secretly trained in the martial arts by the dangerous fugitive Jade Fox and is captured by (or perhaps escapes into the arms of) the desert bandit Lo. When the ancient Green Destiny sword is shown to her, she takes her chance to at last break her shackles by stealing the sword and fighting friend or foe who would take her freedom from her again. She turns away the man that she loves, the mentor who trained her, the hero who would redeem her, and takes on the whole world in her struggle to be free. However, in the end, only after her actions bring about tragedy does she realize that even more important than her freedom is her responsibility to those who really care for her. Brilliant!
The other main characters also struggle in their own ways. The hero Li Mu Bai and the heroine Yu Shu Lien love each other deeply, but cannot express their love for each other because of an old taboo. Their agonized awkwardness in each other's presence, which eventually dissolves into tenderness when Li is close to death, is acting at its best. This is not Hollywood romance, but something far deeper. Li is also haunted by the blood he has shed in the name of duty and wants to give up his sword and be at peace, while Yu also wants to place warfare behind her and lead a simpler life (Li's giving up the Green Destiny sword sets the movie's events in motion), but this is eventually denied both of them.
The film is also full of clever moments and beautiful visuals. The cinematography is elegant, unobtrusive and simply wonderful. On a technical level, the film is nearly perfect. There is very little I can find fault with.
However, the movie suffers from several weaknesses, none the fault of Ang Lee of any of the actors. Since it is a movie in the "Wu Shu" genre, it requires a decent grounding in Chinese culture to interpret correctly, particularly the concept of "Jiang Hu" and Confucian social organization. Most Western viewers don't realize that in this genre, people walking on walls or flying through the air is completely mundane (in fact, most Wu Shu movies are far, far more outrageous: aerial kung-fu sex, anyone?), while a noblewoman having the audacity to fall in love with a barbarian and to practice anything more strenuous than calligraphy, let alone martial arts, is what is unbelievable. This is a movie which looks completely different through Eastern and Western eyes.
Also, the movie suffers from a language problem. It is in Mandarin, which Chow Yun Fat, and I think Michelle Yeoh, don't speak (they're Cantonese). Their pronunciation and line delivery sometimes sound a bit wonky as a result of their having to learn a new language. However, I don't think this movie would have been quite the same in Cantonese, which is "sharper" and less lyrical than Mandarin.
In summary, I think this movie is one of the greatest I have ever seen. It has everything, if one only has the eyes to see it. I recommend everyone, especially Wu Shu movie lovers, go watch it if they haven't already. 10/10