Crouching Kitty, Hidden Lizard

Rating: 6/10 (3 December 2004)

Yeah, it looks great. Yeah, I know it references Rashomon. But, otherwise, a pretty pedestrian and utterly confusing story that is merely an excuse to set up a number of jaw-dropping martial arts sequences. Marital arts films are known for not having an entirely intelligible plot, but most of them also don't take themselves this seriously or set up three or four different endings that more or less resolve themselves in the same way.
Consider this one Crouching Kitty, Hidden Lizard. A half-hour into this and you'll be suffering from a headache trying to keep everything straight, and, eventually, utter ennui at the spellbinding images on screen. This is not a Top 250 film. This is merely passable.