I'm afraid to write about this movie. I'm afraid to do it a disservice. That said, I can only try to convey something of what this film evokes when you are enveloped in it. Of course, now that I have allowed myself to be lured out into the extremes of the desert of opinion, as I have been here by making the rather absurd claim of 5 out of 5 stars, I will have to hope that I can stand behind such a statement.
Perfection is more of a ideal than a reality, philosophically speaking.
But, I can say with some surety that Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon comes damned close to that ideal. The story that ensues follows the path of his sword, the Green Destiny, which he gives up as a symbol of his choice to seek peace. It is not enlightenment that has driven him to make this decision, he declares, but sorrow. It is a stated theme, of sorts. One among many, but perhaps the strongest of them.