Prepare yourself for the movie event of the new Millennium. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is the kind of film that reminds you about the magic of cinema and our society's ever growing fascination with the moving image.
Not since Titanic have I seen a film that works an audience on so many levels. Titanic was the masterpiece of a great action director, James (Aliens, The Abyss, True Lies) Cameron, taking a stab at an art house film. In the case of Crouching Tiger, you have an accomplished art house director, Ang (Sense and Sensibility, The Ice Storm, The Wedding Banquet) Lee, taking a stab at a kung fu action epic. In both cases, the films are clearly a labor of love for the director. Also, both Crouching Tiger and Titanic transcend their respective genres. You can no more write off Crouching as a meaningless fight film as you could dismiss Titanic as a silly disaster fable. These movies take genres that are familiar to us all and turn them on their heads, using the action and special effects as a medium for telling a fantastic story. These are not mere excuses to film some expensive action sequences in a Hollywood formula film and make millions of dollars for a studio. They are epics that will stand the test of time and become classics upon which lesser films are compared.
In fact, the first fifteen minutes of Crouching Tiger are virtually action-less. Ang Lee takes the time to set up his gorgeous landscape and cast of characters before hitting the audience over the head with fighting. This is not to say, though, that the action is not fantastic. Many comparisons have been made to The Matrix as the same choreographer was used. However, the action sequences here go so far beyond that film that comparisons are pointless. The battles are intricate and even beautiful in their detail. Characters gracefully defy gravity running up walls and city rooftops and even battling atop trees and bamboo. When Chow (Anna and The King) Yun-Fat majestically soars through the air, you will believe a man can fly.
The fight scenes between former Bond girl, Michelle Yeoh, and Zhang Ziyi are breathtaking and exhausting. I can't ever remember seeing a film in which so much is revealed about characters through combat scenes.
The heart of the story, though, comes from a pair of tragic love stories. I told you this movie has everything! Yun-Fat's Li Mu Bai and Yeoh's Yu Shu Lien have a matured unspoken love of missed opportunities and unrequited emotion. Zang's Jen Yu and Chang (Happy Together) Chen's Lo have the youthful and passionate affair of lovers kept apart by social constriction.
Add to the mix a terrific villainess, The Jade Fox played by Cheng Pei-pei, and subplots about honor, duty and family, and you have what is clearly the most entertaining film in years. Don't be daunted by the subtitles. Within minutes, the fine acting will have you forgetting that you're reading the dialogue and not actually understanding the words spoken by the actors. This is a universally awe-inspiring tale that should not be missed on the large screen.
Rating: 
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon - Official Site
