Ebert is reminded of Jackie Chan, The New Yorker 's reviewer talks of Bruce Lee, the LA Times critic mentions Jet Li. Online reviewers have perhaps gotten closer to the mark, comparing the film's combination of martial arts, Asian culture, and epic landscape to the cutscenes from a Final Fantasy game. Regardless, it seems that Crouching Tiger will supply critics and film-school students with material for some time. I'll instead note just a few things of importance. It is a tragic and compelling tale, one that has the time-tested, burnished feel of the stories that are told again and again to children.
Every parry is a part of the ballet, the flash of cold steel an element of a deadly pas de deaux .
Regardless of gender, when these heroes scale the heights of mountains, walls, and treetops, you can't help but be drawn into their quest. Ang Lee has presented us with a gorgeous work of art, one that reverently follows the conventions of its genre without being hemmed in by them. This film is, in a word, terrific.