Perhaps a bit overrated when it come out, still it is a very nice movie.

Rating: Null/10 (13 July 2001)

As I write this review, "Crouching Tiger" is at spot #18. As I look through the whole "top 250", I think it belongs somewhere below #150. I own the DVD and it is a very nice one. The sound, the print, all beautiful. But the story is a very ordinary one. After a life of crime-fighting, the master wants to retire and set his sights upon the woman he never had time for before. A new warrior and an old nemesis show up, complicating things. Chases and fights, and a couple of plot twists later and you have this story. It has been told many times, in slightly different ways, in any number of films and books.
What is unique here, is the setting in old China. The fighters reach a non-human plane which allows them to float in the air, or run up walls, and fight among the bamboo tops. Although done differently, it is not substantially removed from the fighting we see in such recent films as "The Matrix", "Charlie's Angels", or even "The Mask of Zorro." Not to say that any of these films are intentionally similar, but upon closer examination really are very similar, both in story elements and in fighting style. So, I give this one a rating of "8" of 10. It is one I will enjoy viewing many times, but it is not the "greatest film ever" as so many reviewers feel.
This is a movie, and I have no trouble with the "gravity-defying" scenes. However, my biggest complaint is that the feet movements are not consistent with the rate of body movement and that makes it look fake. It seems that with all the trouble they went to for the special effects, they could have attended more to this issue.
A word about the languages. The DVD allows a selecting of English dubbing, and I watched it that way the first time. Although it is very well done, the speech pattern is very consistent with the actors' mouth movements, it doesn't sound "real." It sounds like "dubbing done in a studio", and detracted from the realism. The second time, I watched it in the native language, with English subtitles, and I found it much better that way.