Just fabulous - a magic tale!

Rating: 10/10 (13 July 2003)

"Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" (CTHD) introduced to martial arts film what "Matrix" did for the action genre. You'll find a lot of those techniques and either you love them or you don't. (...and if you don't - better forget the film) But contrary to CTHD, who couldn't deny its Hollywood origins, this film has the sense of authenticity, solidly ancored in original myths and history.
Whether the plot seems philosophical to you or rather empty of meaning ... for me it was an incarnation of how I experience reactions and facial expressions of chinese people I deal with. The idea of the greater good - a lasting theme, exploited up till today.
And all this teamed up with absolutely phantastic scenery, colors, music and sound. A film like this just makes you dream of learning how to manipulate reality through the magics of the 7th art .... and as most of us will never get to learn that: go out and see at least this film.