Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)

Just perfect...

Admirable film.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is a good film, but it's not a great one. It's not as great as everyone says it is. Oh, it's definitely beautiful in every sense of the word. It's wonderfully choreographed. It's skillfully directed, and all of the acting talents ARE talented, and they depict their characters with depth, grace, and sometimes when necessary, wit.But its handsome qualities can't hide its meandering, sometimes tedious storyline, although the storyline itself isn't the problem. Take into account the execution. Take out the dance-number action sequences, and what have you got? A bratty girl who wants to rebel and gets people killed as a result of her reckless actions and poor judge of character. Her motivations are indeed valid, but her actions are childish and grating, and not always justifiable as a 'means to an end' sort of thing. I'm glad Ang Lee didn't depict her actions as such, but she was still an obnoxious character whose lack of responsibility is almost rewarded with secrecy by people who are trying to help her despite how often she backhands them with her attitude.I found the story underwhelming, to put it simply. The only other flaw I can think of is the dialogue, at least in the English-subtitled version (I haven't seen the dub, and don't plan to), where character traits and motivations are often explained to us in dull exposition sequences that could have been shortened or even cut out completely in favour of showing us their motivations through their actions. A skilled director can show his audience what his characters are thinking and feeling without telling them through stinted lines of dialogue, and I think Ang Lee is skilled enough to do it--he just didn't want to, I guess.Anyway, despite my gripes, I think Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is still a well-told film with a kind of beauty and grace that few others can match, visually and aesthetically. Wuxia isn't a genre I'm big on, but I can't say I've any feelings against it outright. I appreciate its capacity for amazing visuals and thematic symbolism, but it's a fickle style. Lee did an amazing job, and despite the hype surrounding this film, and the underwhelming execution of the story, I was not disappointed.

Whenever critics seem to rave about a film, I don't. This is a typical example. The use of obvious wire effects is a bit too much, and there is too much sword-wielding just for the sake of sword-wielding. Later, even the story did not interest me anymore and the action sequences seemed too comedic.Yawn.

I consider myself open-minded, I'm curious about any movie that stirs interest among other people.I've no problems with foreign movies, as long as I can understand them (or can find a decently subtitled edit) I watch them eagerly.So when I say I'm very disappointed by 'Crouching tiger,hidden Dragon' it's not out of prejudice, or for it being unfamiliar with my usual choices.It really is mediocre, considering the budget and the target genre.Cinematography is good (and that's why is 3/10), the rest of it is null or minus.Story is void. The beginning hints some good backstory, which soon turns out absurd and very weak. Scenes follow each other without a real plot.The timing is really bad (seriously, a 20' flashback with nearly NO connection to the main action?).Fights are good, but as many say, nothing special considering other movies of the same era (or older).Character development also is absent. Characters act as some stereotypes out of some ancient romantic poem. Pretty bad idea in an action martial arts flick. It simply does not work, and looks stupid. The only character I found believable and worth of sympathy was Shu Lien, and she was underdeveloped and often left out.To conclusions: many ideas definitely could work, the execution is poor. Bad timing, weak plot, poetry above narration. Mind that if the latter is done properly, it can yield great results. Here its not done properly. Decide: kung fu movie, or poetry. If you wander between, you risk to result ridiculous.

Sorry, I know it's an Ang Lee film (one of my favorite directors), and perhaps I am not a fan of martial arts movies, but the movie just lost me when it became a Western. The plot changed direction, started to not make sense to me because the locations literally looked like the American Southwest (compared to the Orient). I know it won 4 Oscars but the movie just doesn't work for me.