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.

I've seen this move over five times and each time I feel the same. Its biggest flaw (in fact, in fact) is that it has no beginning. It is assumed that a story must have a beginning, a development and a result. Well, here is the beginning. At first, the film has the feeling that something is missing. After seeing it, he discovered that the film one is adapted to the fourth book of a pentalogy, so we do not have the information of the first textbooks. While it is compensated with the part that gives information in the dialogues that leads us to imagine what has happened between the characters before, it is still partly with that feeling that something is missing.Otherwise, wonderful. Great performances by the entire cast; beautiful photography; big fights, both with weapons and without them; a dream recreation of ancient China; an adequate and versatile soundtrack, which works perfectly in both action and dramatic scenes; a couple of love stories not very original but very worn; and an agile direction of Ang Lee, which takes us from one place to another without giving us a break.

I first saw this movie at the cinema when I was about 12 years old. It was the first time I witnessed this type of movie. I instantly loved it; it captured my attention even before the first fighting scene. At that age I was pretty naive, but it's interesting the fact that I was not very surprised when I saw people flying around. My subconscious dictated me that it's something natural in those type of movies, with a certain type of philosophy, and in certain parts of the globe. I loved the introspective ending too. Everything in this movie is perfectly balanced - the fighting scenes, the relationship between characters, the plot, the drama, the romance. Already a classical modern martial arts movie. Great fighting synchronization, great atmosphere, great storyline; it's perfect!

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