More Than Just the Story of a Boy and His Tiger

Rating: 8/10 (8 December 2012)

Castaway meets Planet Earth with a few pointed spiritual overtones thrown in for good measure. As the plot slowly develops, it takes the slant of a classical fantasy adventure, akin to the serial novels and comic strips of the early 20th century, granting the screen an entrancing, otherworldly sensibility. As is, that would've been a perfectly acceptable stylistic decision - after all, director Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon made no apologies for its less-grounded moments - but such stylish exaggerations actually become an essential part of the telling when an admission in the final act changes everything we'd just seen. Magnificently composed and spectacularly beautiful, it would be worth watching for the eye candy alone. Lee's restraint in this regard is especially impressive; he knows precisely when his audience will want to linger in a moment and indulges them with one breath-catching vista after another. Kudos to the enormous team of effects artists; their combined efforts have produced a cinematic masterpiece. A bit sluggish at times, with a few moments that tease the boundaries of plausibility, its visuals are a revelation and I'm still considering some of the story's underlying meanings a day later. Worth experiencing.