A Mythical Epic Brought To Life

Rating: 9/10 (30 April 2001)

Jaw-dropping martial arts combined with a genuinely good story  `Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon' delivers this nice blend, making for one of the best action movies  indeed, one of the best movies, period  made in the past few years. Forget any possible negative preconceived notions that you might have about subtitled films, or about martial arts films, because `Crouching Tiger' is a flat-out great movie.
`Crouching Tiger' is told in a fable-like manner, or a tale about the Knights of the Round Table  it's fairly simple, but very engaging. The warrior Li Mu Bai (Chow Yun-Fat), a near-legendary hero, abruptly retires, giving his sword  the Green Destiny  over to the wise Sir Te (Pei-pei Cheng) for safekeeping. Li Mu Bai has tired of the warrior's life, and wishes to begin pursing a future with the unrequited love of his life, Yu Shu Lien (Michelle Yeoh). Before he can confess his love to Yu Shu Lien, though, the Green Destiny is stolen  at first, it is thought that Li Mu Bai's sworn enemy, the Jade Fox (Li Fazeng) has stolen the weapon, but it becomes readily apparent that a new, impetuous young warrior has stolen the weapon instead . . . the troubled daughter of a powerful, noble family, a girl named Jen (Zhang Ziyi.) Woven in and out of the pursuit of the Green Destiny is romance, comedy, and some of the best wire-assisted martial arts work ever caught on film. For the most part, the wire-work martial arts is used in much the same way as digital effects were used in `Forrest Gump'  to enhance the story, not to be the story. It adds nicely to the mythical, fairy-tale tone of the film  only towards the end of the movie does the effect start becoming unbelievable and obtrusive. The choreographed fights are like Fred Astaire dance numbers, fluid, fast, and unbelievable to watch. Both Michelle Yeoh and newcomer Zhang Ziyi are poetry in motion. The look of the film is fantastic as well  with sweeping desert plains, the forests, the cities, director Ang Lee created an epic backdrop for `Crouching Tiger' that helps make the film an event as well as a story.
Speaking of story, `Crouching Tiger' is a well-told tale, albeit a simple one. Part of its charm is the simple backstory, which is hinted at but never explored. It's casually mentioned, for example, that the old and wise Sir Te was once one of the greatest warriors in the kingdom  but it's left at that; it's enough to add depth to the story without beating the audience over the head with it. The story moves along at a quick, exciting pace, except for one sequence regarding Jen that's awkwardly dropped into the middle of the film. Well-paced and well thought out, `Crouching Tiger' is one of the best-told tales to be caught on film in quite a while.
Michelle Yeoh and Chow Yun-Fat are excellent in this film (although I kept expecting Chow Yun-Fat to pull out a pair of nine-millimeter handguns and start blasting away at villains.) Without question, though, Zhang Ziyi steals the movie as Jen  not only is she an astonishingly good martial artist, but she is undeniably a terrific actress as well. She runs a gamut of emotions throughout `Crouching Tiger', flying between joyful elation to quiet sadness to screaming rage  her performance is nothing short of outstanding. With any luck, Zhang Ziyi should someday become a top marquee name; she's that good.
`Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon' isn't a perfect film . . . but it comes darn close. Grade: A