Rating: 
Summary: Overrated...
Review: based on an epic novel with the same name, crouching tiger, hidden dragon gets its name from a chinese proverb that refers to hidden heroes that emerge from the fact that nothing is in fact what it seems. as a mythological fantasy, it tells the story of a legendary warrior, li (chow yun-fat) and another female warrior, yu (michelle yeoh). on a mission to deliver li's sword, the green destiny to beijing, it was stolen and was finally traced to a young aristocrat (zi-yi zhang) with a lust for independence.with an ensemble cast of all-star chinese actors and internationally-acclaimed director ang lee (sense and sensibility, the ice storm), it easily becomes one of the most anticipated motion pictures in 2000 and one of the major contenders in oscar next year. unfortunately, crouching tiger, hidden dragon is not able to deliver what i expected. in fact, it is a huge disappointement for me mainly due to the poor script and surprisingly bad acting from the protagonists. ang lee made a very disastrous decision, trying his best to make this chinese legend, which supposes to be serious, to become a comedy. in fact, it would not be a problem if it is really funny and the viewers do feel good. but it is not. what the people would like to see is not some stupid fight scenes but some brilliant and exciting actions from the same man responsible for the matrix sequences. the acting is below par overall, especially chang chen and michelle yeoh. you can hardly say if they are acting or if they are just reading word by word from the script. zi-yi zhang, who recently starred in zhang yi mou's the road home, gives the best performance among all the protagonists. the cinematography is good comparatively. it'd particularly appeal to foreigners as the film captures the landscapes in north-western china and the spectacular architecture of the qing dynasty. music by tan dun is good but not outstanding. theme song by coco lee is worth-listening, though.
Rating: 
Summary: Superbit definitely worth the extra two dollars
Review: When Laserdiscs came out, we finally had a format that was dedicated to high quality presentation of movies and other programs. When DVD was introduced, it was hyped as being as far above LD in quality as LD had been above videotape. I wouldn't say the difference was that dramatic but the form factor certainly was better. Then DVDs were coopted by the "Extras" crowd and quality began to suffer badly. By quality, I mean the quality of the only two important features of DVD - video and audio. For each extra added to a title, some amount of space must be subtracted from that left for the video stream. The more extras, the less space you have to encode in. Now, it's pretty common to see even high profile titles with mediocre bit rates. Many former LD people have lamented this shift and have frequently petitioned studios to provide DVDs without extras and WITH high bitrate video (as well as DTS). At least Sony was listening. Even without a "giant screen TV" the enhanced quality of the new Superbit CTHD is evident (I own both versions). By dropping the materials that few viewers watch or use (multiple foreign language tracks, script materials, etc.) Sony has raised the bar on what can be done with DVD. As a longtime LD user who has suffered the DVD format for several years, I can now see some light at the end of the tunnel. Hopefully, other studios will respond with similar releases. If you are planning on purchasing CTHD, the Superbit edition is the way to go.
Rating: 
Summary: Beautiful
Review: Lushly filmed. Strong characters. Fighting would be way over the top, except you need to understand that the film is about mythological warriors who had special fighting powers. Unfortunately, it's established the new standard for fight scenes so that now all martial arts have to be equally unbelievable.
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful love story- impressive turn by Michelle Yeoh
Review: Take 2 warriors, 1 aristocrat, throw in a stolen sword called the "Green Destiny" , add plenty of action, a dash of hidden love and a bit of forbidden love, and you've got yourself an Oscar-winning film by director Ang Lee. This film has it all! Master Li Wu Bai (Chow Yun-Fat) has asked fellow warrior Shu Lien (the amazing Michelle Yeoh) to deliver is beloved sword (the "Green Destiny") to a friend as a present, signifying that his fighting days are over- much to Shu Lien's approval. Perhaps now he'll finally confess his love for her and the two can settle down. But someone else interrupts their plans. After the sword is delivered, a thief steals the sword (it is the fight scenes between Shu Lien and the thief that are among the best). Enter the Governor and his daughter (Zhang Ziyi), who dreams of escaping her arranged marriage and prefers to become a warrior instead. She, too, has a few secrets up her elegant sleeves, as does her governess (Pei-Pei Cheng). The best thing about this movie is the way Ang Lee pulls so many stories together, yet they all intertwine perfectly without disruption or confusion. The cinematography is breathtaking. I've read many people who had a hard time buying the fact that these warriors can fly. I'm not sure if it's meant to be a "mind over matter" thing- personally, I think it's more for cinematic drama than anything else. I didn't give it a second thought- I was too busy getting wrapped up in this wonderful tale. If you're into hard-core martial arts, this movie probably has too much storyline and dialogue for you. If, however, you're looking for a foreign film that well earned it's 4 Oscar awards, you've found it!
Rating:
Summary: Master of the martial arts movies!
Review: This is a spectacular martial art movie, even it slows downs sometimes, but you get what you wait for:Beautyful landscapes and breathtaking battles!
Rating: 
Summary: Horrible and Boring!!!
Review: I agree with John Harris. This movie production film is the worst I have ever seen! Jackie Chan has done much better and from my perspective he could kick their butts anyday of the year!!! All they do is talk and the flying doesn't look real at all. You can also see the cables they use to do their stunts. This movie was unrealistic and you can't picture anything in real life with that! I thought it would be so much better if they did more realistic stunts and did not talk as much. I hope that Ang Lee can do a lot better if she works on a new movie.
Rating:
Summary: Simply: WOW!
Review: It's so exciting to see a foreign film hit the American market with so much power. Hollywood's themes become old and tiresome with time and something new, something inspiring is needed to break the molds.
In this action-packed film, men are not the best fighters, the man and woman do not live happily ever after and the Christian ethic does not support the themes. Instead the ethic of the Buddhist monk provides the subtle webbing that holds the ideas together. Exciting new concepts of spiritual enlightenment make the gravity-defying flying (like Matrix) somehow nearly believable. The sense of honor and the sense of a person's place within the greater universal expectations make this movie unique, refreshing and much-needed break in the Hollywood monotony and monopoly of the movie industry. Excellent work. Exciting, inspiring, powerful. I wish this group of actors and director would do more.
Rating:
Summary: The First Two Times, I Really Liked It...
Review: but then it happened AGAIN to me, Incredible Shrinking Movie! Which is to say, some movies need to be seen on the big screen because when you rent them, they seem a lot less significant than in the theatre (see my review of Kate Winslet's "Titanic" for another entry in this category). So that's part of the reason I cannot give it 5 stars. The other reason is that the film goes off on a major tangent when we learn about the Young People's love affair. Time to get out your scissors and edit it yourself to keep the momentum going. All that being said, I enjoyed "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" much more than I ever thought I would. I was curious to see it solely because it was directed by Ang Lee, who did such admirable work with "Sense and Sensibility", a great favorite of mine. When I tried to organize an outing among my friends, I was met with great resistance because they wouldn't see an Asian movie or a martial arts film starring nobody they ever heard of. The two people most inclined to go declined as they had actually seen it already, but applauded my wishing to see it, as they enjoyed it. So in the end, I went with three people who were more interested in the promised Mexican dinner afterwards. EVERYONE WAS SURPRISED to FIND THEY LOVED IT! Yes, it was effectively acted and superbly filmed in breathtaking outdoor locations. Art direction first rate. And the fighting was choreographed in a balletic style which was utterly graceful. The much-talked about flying sequences gave the movie a fairy-tale feeling, like something out of the Arabian nights. And, except for that trip to the Young People's Love Affair, the story line was very good. I was surprised to see that it was really a Women's Picture, with most of the fighting concerning them and the storyline featuring them almost to the exclusion of the male characters. So, I would recommend "Crouching Tiger" heartily to folks who think they never could, ever would like a martial arts movie. There's a lot more hidden than just the dragon!
Rating:
Summary: Well Done
Review: It's hard to add to the many positive reviews for this DVD, but it definately deserves recommendation. The movie itself is fantastic. The story is intriguing, the acting is top-notch, and the effects and camerawork create a surreal and beutiful world. I was very pleased with the DVD, especially the fact that the movie's default language is Mandarin. I don't understand a word of Mandarin, but I feel that this movie is best experienced in Mandarin with subtitles for those who don't speak Mandarin. The extra features are an excellent addition as well.
Rating:
Summary: WHAT IS THIS SUPERBIT THING?
Review: I already have the non-superbit edition. Come one, this really is a gimmick. Unless you have a giant digital TV are you really gonna see the difference? This is an elegant and beautiful martial arts movie, with a dignified performance by Chow Yun-Fat, and an awesome performance by Michelle Yeoh. I want to marry her. If you have this version, keep it, and forget the silly marketing tool of the "Superbit."
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