by Ang Lee, 2001.
Starring: Cheng Pei Pei, Chow Yun-Fat, Michelle Yeoh, Zhang Ziyi.
Rating: 9/10, 8/10.
OK, by now everyone knows how absolutely fantabulous Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is, or at least how absolutely fantabulous everyone says it is. And it is. It’s one of the most visually stunning films I’ve ever seen—I particularly like one scene where Li Mu Bai (Chow Yun-Fat) and Shu Lien (Michelle Yeoh) are talking in some sort of cabin in the woods, and Mu Bai stands in front of the window—past the drab grays of Mu Bai’s clothing and the walls of the building we see the shocking green of the waving branches through the straight lines of the window frame. Every little thing like that is beautiful.
The fight scenes are inspired and gorgeous. When you see people flying through the air effortlessly like that, it does something nice to your heart. And I don’t know about anyone else, but until I saw this film I never realised the incredible beauty of the spoken Chinese language.
I dunno. If I go on, I’ll just start saying yadda yadda yadda, beautiful beautiful, yadda. So what’s the point? Just see the goddamned movie.