cinemajesty Movie Review: "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" (2000)This exceptional elegant "Kung-Fu" action movie, firstly received to the public as special screening out-of-competition at the Cannes Film Festival 2000 in its 53rd edition, lets director Ang Lee, soon after to be awarded with the Oscar for "Best Directing" in 2006 for "Brokeback Mountain" starring Heath Ledger (1979-2008) and Jack Gyllenhaal and again in 2013 for "Life of Pi", creates here a magical world of ancient-to-medieval China including fine-researched "Martial Arts" technique-ruling characters called "Wuxia", quickly translated as "Armed Heroes" and a sword of mystical powers to be shifting the owner frequently, which needs to be put to safety in a rural monestary; a story based on a four-part book-series by writer Du Lu Wang (1909-1977), writing somewhere between the "World-War-2" (1939-1945).Cast and crew porduction efforts, under a considered low-budget production by "Hollywood" standards with under 20-Million-Dollar in production value ruled by also-into-writing involved executive producer James Schamus are nevertheless sublime; thanks to highly-trained as motivated acting members, going out from Chow Yun-Fat and Michelle Yoeh, performing as gentle romance-indulging characters Master Li Bu Bai and Yu Shu Lien to furious playing "Wuxia" shaolin fighters, when nemesis characters given face by 20-year-old scene-ruling actress Ziyi Zhang and servant-playing 53-year-old Pei-Pei Cheng, who together "Kung Fu" fight towards magical-realism visuals-pushing hand-to-hand, as sword-to-spear choreographies by Yuen Woo-ping, using amazing "Hong-Kong" cinema of the 1970s / 1980s invented action wire-techniques, which leads to beautifully-swaying fighting characters exterior-as-interior, in an highlighted rural guest house brawl, when director Ang Lee finds constant beat work for his actors to transcend emotions of realism in hint of slightly-fantastic world creations in formidable porduction design by Tim Yip and atmospheric-to-exciting cinematography by Peter Pau."Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" having great reviews and less to no criticism in a flawless 115-Minutes motion picture edited by Tim Squyres that after 18 years since first movie house exhibitions has lost nothing of its striking visual as audible power with a further soundtrack of great beauty and melancholy by composer Dun Ta, when director Ang Lee delivers his first fully round-up out-of-the-ordinary cinematic masterpiece in order to get his followed-up "Universal Studios" major-budget filmmaking shot two years later with pre-productions to inceptional Marvel comic-book adaptation of "Hulk" (2003) starring Eric Bana; Jennifer Connelly and Nick Nolte to even further visceral as adaptable directing techniques by director Ang Lee.Copyright 2018 Cinemajesty Entertainments LLC

silverhaireddemon The action, the sets (scenery) are beautiful and pleasant for the eyes, despite this I think this movie is overrated. There were so many plots and characters that were either missed or abandoned. Jen-Yu got the most spot lights and scenes here, perhaps she is supposed to be the main character but I found that her story wasn't really interesting and her character was very annoying, I get it that she was very talented and brilliant fighter but her personality is such spoiled that she caused many problems to the others. What's the point with sword getting constantly stolen, returned and stolen again. In the beginning, I felt sympathy to her for her arranged marriage when she already had the man she loved (Lo) and wanted to live a free woman, but her immaturity, arrogance in her skills, and throwing tantrum when Shu-Lien only tried to give her wise advice were beyond my nerves. It is fair if she started as annoying character, but I expected character development in her which didn't exist. The flashback sequence showing her love interest (Lo) was too long, I enjoyed the fight on the horse in desert but still, it could've been cut. She desperately wanted to retrieve her supposed precious comb yet it never explained why it was precious, the comb actually was just a plot device for her romance with Lo. Jen's fight with Shu-Lien was quite pleasant in my eyes but I hated how it went though, surely I saw that both had comparable skills, but Jen had more advantage with that legendary sword (wtf when it could sliced the heavy weapons Shu-Lien used), Jen said to her when she blamed the weapon for her lost (indicated that Jen was superior than Shu-Lien) yet their very first fight when Jen stole the sword (both unarmed) told the otherwise. I half-expected that Jen would accidentally killed Shu-Lien with that sword to the horror, I'm so glad when Mu-Bai knocked that sword out and threw it, as skillful as Jen was, she wasn't worthy yet to wield that sword. So many random fight scenes for Jen being awesome with no relation to the plot, only to show how spoiled and arrogant she was. None of the characters got proper development, Shu-Lien and Mu-Bai got lesser scenes than Jen, their past love story was barely mentioned. Almost forgot about Jade Fox, the supposedly main villain here became only an extra character, her lost and demise felt like a joke. Only appeared briefly in many unimportant scenes, her fight with the Police Inspector Tsai and his daughter May (since both father and daughter held revenge against her for killing his wife) resulted in May lost both her parents in the hand of Jade Fox, this had promising premise to further the plot but got abandoned for the sake of beautiful Jen. Mu-Bai's revenge on Jade Fox for murdered his master, got ditched for the sake of paying attention to Jen. I wished May and Mu-Bai would unite to defeat Jade Fox (as they had similar motives) and May became Mu-Bai's disciple instead of Jen but everything was about Jen here, I would be okay if the story itself nice and Jen's character got proper development, but not. Also, a flashback of Jade Fox killing Mu-Bai's master with Mu-Bai mourned for his master would be much more worthy than Jen-Lo's lovey dovey flashback. Mu-Bai's death too, should be very sad and moving, but his lack of scenes, importance and development hardly made me feel it, though I feel sorry for Shu-Lien, losing her loved one (after losing her fiancee years ago). I'm happy when Shu-Lien pointed the sword at Jen's neck, it seems like she wanted to blame Jen for it (and so do I) but in the end she forgave her because despite everything, Jen was her beloved "sister." I expected Shu-Lien to commit suicide, to follow Mu-Bai and to be reunited with him as she already lost everything, only facepalmed so hard when Jen was the one who choose to commit suicide despite she already reunited and could be live happily together with Lo.As beautiful as the fights and the sceneries were, storyline/plot is still the most important and core element in every movies, and since the plot here is weak and failed miserably, I think that it's enough to watch this once, this movie is the kind that I hardly want to watch for second time, though I would like to give it a try for the sequel later.

b-18258 Lee's famous film, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, is being marketed as both a loving homage and a redemption of the alleged excesses of the HK martial arts movie, a questionable approach since excess — in the larger- than-life characters, stylized violence, and dazzling shifts of tone — is a primary lure of these films. In Lee's words, "People tend to look down on the genre. Some may have thought it strange that I could just drop what I normally do and make something like a B-movie. And as I was doing it, there was no escape. I had to bring in drama, I had to bring in women, I had to bring in beauty and whatever I feel added quality to it. It became an Ang Lee movie."The film has a muted, elegant look that works in its favor to transport the viewer to its setting of ancient China, meticulously recreated.

Daniel This is a typical Ang Lee movie, complete with slow pacing, melodrama, a random, rambling plot, and good visuals and fight scenes. Also very Ang Lee, the characters act in strange and illogical ways. For example, in the scene when the bandits attack Jen Yu's caravan, they kill a few unfortunate guards and run away for no apparent reason. After chasing the bandit leader for days (I guess?) in order to retrieve her comb, Jen Yu then jumps in the sack with him way, way too quickly. And the melodramatic ending when Jen presumably commits suicide-- why is she even doing this? Is she so regretful of Li Mu Bai's death? Does she miss her assassin governess? 我受不了。