Rating: 
Summary: Elegant Fantasy!!!
Review: With 10 Oscar nominations, that would certainly be enough to intrigue the average viewer, but it could be argued that this should have been the first film in history to win both Best Foreign Film and Best Picture. Everyone I know who has seen this sparkling film and the film "Gladiator," which took home the Best Picture award, give a unanimous gasp at how that could have possibly happened. The cinematography in this film is lush and just plain gorgeous! The costumes are intricate and beautiful! While the story is great fantasy laced with fantastic fight-choreography with many different weapons, not to mention hand-to-hand combat, and has an emotional depth not seen in most foreign films. This is simply a great film! Many are turned off by the "Peter Pan" fantasy elements of this extraodinary folk-tale, but I loved every moment, feeling like "if that's going to be possible in this movie, then anything could be." What a delightful idea!
Rating:
Summary: A beautiful homge & just plain fun
Review: In the early 70s, many TV stations carried "Kung Fu Theater" by one name or another. Because of the fascination with Bruce Lee and TV series, "Kung Fu," movies were being ground out by the dozens, much as the Hercules movies were in the 1950s. Some of the martial arts movies were interesting or downright silly. But they were almost always fun."Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" is a delightful homage to those earlier movies. Beautifully filmed, it presents some of the most fantastic (in every sense) fight scenes ever filmed. In addition, the plot includes two love affairs, one young and consummated, the other older and platonic. The action begins when Li Mu Bai returns from meditating in the mountains with his sword, the Green Destiny, whose blade has ended many lives. Mu Bai wishes to give up the life of a warrior for a more contemplative existence. He gives the sword to the woman he loves, Yui Shu Lien, fiance of his best friend who died many years earlier. Shu Lien, a warrior in her own right, delivers the sword to Sir Te, a powerful friend in the capital, for its safe keeping. That very night the magical sword is stolen. Enter Jen, the daughter of the new governor Yu, a passionate young woman on the verge of marriage, dissatisfied with the path set for her by her father. She longs for the bandit Lo, with whom she spent many days and nights in the Gobi Desert. And lurking somewhere behind them all is Jade Fox, the woman who taught herself the skills of a warrior usually denied to women. It was she who murdered Mu Bai's master and for whom he has searched in vain for many years. All of these characters come together in tragedy and longing and hate. Yet, at the center of much of the story lurks the sense of humor one usually finds in Kung Fu movies. The impossible flying, running from roof to roof, walking up and down bamboo trees and walls, all part of the flights of fancy. The skills of the actors are serious. For those of us who remember the old movies, "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" is great fun and might bring fond memories. For those too young to remember, this is a fun introduction to the genre of movies.
Rating: 
Summary: this deserves minus stars, and i'll explain why.....
Review: well i heard that this got loads of academy awards so i thought, wow this must be great. i rented it the next day only to press stop half way through, take out the dvd and return it. seriously, i couldn't watch this garbage anymore. i thought i would be gettin hard hitting action. instead i got people flying around on strings, jumpin onto roofs and running across the tops of trees. i mean what is this?? who actually enjoys watching this? people watch movies because they are believable and people can relate to what is happening. people can relate to whats happening in most action films because we've all been in a fight. but can we relate to jumping across 20 feet. NO. this movie is so bad. it makes me wonder are the oscars just a fix.....
Rating:
Summary: 'To be strong and supple, that is the secret'
Review: Anyone in the U.S. who has heard of this movie but hasn't seen it yet probably knows of it for one of two reasons: Ang Lee and Yuen Wo Ping. Those are two very good reasons. Director Lee, of course, has gotten some attention lately for his work on the film version of Marvel's _The Hulk_ (which I think is an excellent, excellent film as well as a true-to-spirit screen adaptation of the original Stan Lee/Jack Kirby comic-book series). And Yuen, of martial-arts-choreography fame, is especially well known for his brilliant work on the Wachowski brothers' _Matrix_ series (which are among my personal favorite movies ever). If you like their work on those other films, you'll love seeing what they can do together. _Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon_ is a triumph in every respect. The cinematography is, in the literal sense of the word, spectacular. This is one of those movies that you can pause at _any_ frame and see an artfully constructed composition -- the lights and shadows, the colors, the placement of the human figures. And of course the Chinese scenery is magnificent. (Lee, who is from Taiwan and resides in New York, got special permission from the government of China to film his movie there.) The martial-arts scenes, choreographed by Yuen, are more real than reality. If you haven't moved like this in your dreams, I don't envy you your dreams. Physical bodies may not move like this, but minds do. And actually, 'choreographed' is a good description of _all_ the movement in the film, both physical and dramatic. The film (based on the novel of the same name) incorporates elements of Hong Kong wuxia films but takes up these elements into a higher and deeper synthesis. The plot ostensibly centers on the theft of a sword called the 'Green Destiny' by the mysterious outlaw known as Jade Fox (sort of a Chinese Zorro). But in addition to the intrigue and the undeniably cool martial-arts stuff, there are two romances, a whole lot of philosophical/spiritual tug-of-war in the subtext, and some sly, subtle, and subversive questioning of tradition, all of it rolled up into one big thematic package. And -- I'm not exaggerating here -- _every_ 'movement' in the film participates in its Taoist-spirited thematic development. I could comment at length on the actors, but I'll restrict myself here to admiring the work of actress/martial artist Michelle Yeoh. I'm sure people in other parts of the world have known of her for some years, but (like many others here in the U.S.) I first saw her in _Tomorrow Never Dies_ and she was easily my favorite part of the movie. (For this film, incidentally, she had to learn to speak Mandarin. I'm certainly not the person to judge her performance in that respect, but people who know the language have said that she did her job well.) She's well paired with Chow Yun Fat (who here sports a funky Manchu hairdo). I'll also mention Tan Dun's captivating soundtrack. The DVD has some nifty special features (including a commentary by Ang Lee and James Schamus, a making-of documentary, and a conversation with Yeoh), but the best part is the set of options on the audio portion of the movie itself. If you want to listen to it in Mandarin and hear the actors' original voices, you'll find the English subtitles quite sufficient. And if you want to listen to it in English, you'll find that the vocal overdubs are _so_ well done that you may not even notice that they're overdubs. Somebody took extra-special care with this stuff. This is a nice package all around, with something for everybody who appreciates fine filmmaking. Don't miss it.
Rating:
Summary: Haiku Review
Review: Flying sword fights and
Journies in ancient China.
Gender roles questioned.
Rating:
Summary: It's about forbidden love
Review: Many people lose the underlying theme of the plot because of the brilliance of the special effects. But this movie is as much a forbidden love tragedy as is Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet".
But in the case of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" we have two such love tragedies wound together in a single plot. It is very well acted and is a movie that I will watch again.
Rating: 
Summary: Smartial Arts
Review: Ang Lee takes the outrageous and often campy antics of Hong Kong cinema and fashions them into lush and flamboyant martial arts tale with likable characters caught up in compelling situations. The plot isn't much, but the mutual affection between Michelle Yeoh and Chow Yun Fat conceals a certain poignancy, and some of the fights--especially the last one in the bamboo grove--have an enchanting and dreamy quality missing in most HK films that inspired Crouching Tiger.
Rating:
Summary: Everything about this movie is great.....
Review: With this movie having around a thousand reviews, (some ignorant reviews from people that shouldn't be watching this, now there's a four star rating... Are you people very hairy? Do you drag your hands around when you walk?) I'm only going to say that the action, story, acting, direction, cinematogrophy, sets, costumes, comedy and drama is brilliant enough to produce a feeling of sheer joy. This is the movie that started my kung fu craze. I wish this movie came out years ago, for I would have liked to have been introduced to one of the best genres of cinema history a long time ago. So, watch it if you haven't, you will be introduced to some real action in a gorgeous way.
Rating:
Summary: DVD Review
Review: Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon is a rare example of a film that attempts and successfully transcends its genre. The picture is filled with the conventions of the martial arts picture, but it adds visual poetry and effective drama to the mix. All the standard scenes of a martial arts pictures are there from the avenging the death of the master to the big brawl in the two level tavern. Lee's drama sometimes passes into heavy melodrama, but is mostly very effective. It is important to note that the film was made as a fantasy and Lee points out on the supplements. A lot happens in Crouching Tiger's two hours and there are many moments that are memorable. Lee's drama doesn't push the action scenes out of the way, there is a brutal multi weapon showdown between Ziyi and Yeoh and a rousing wire-fu hand to hand sequence. Tan Dun's score drives the action and intensifying the emotions appropriately. The on location footage and stunning sets make for gorious images. The only problem with the structure of the film is an awkward transition in the middle of the narrative that suddenly shifts to an extended flashback scene in the desert. This shift is bad but the scene is one of the film's highlights as Ziyi pursues the charming desert bandit Chen. Chen's Lo character looks a lot like the prototype for Johnny Depp's Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribean. All in all the film succeeds on many levels and holds up after several viewings.
Film 5 out of 5. The Sony Dvd of Crouching Tiger offers a few worthwhile extras, but presents a slighly flawed video. The images is suprisingly shimmer free in the tree scenes, but seemed soft especially in the first half of the film. White specks were quite noticable in dark scenes, for such a recent movie I was surprised the print was not cleaned more carefully. Presented in 2:35:1 ratio the subs are low into the black, so 16X9 tvs beware. The audio is excellent with strong voice and effects. Music and bass come out on good levels making an excellent audio experience. Extras have an audio commentary with Lee and co-writer Schamus. The talk is relaxed because they are long time collaborators and Schamus helps to drive the talk along by questioning Lee. Unfortunately Schamus's smug comments on the film drag down interest in the commentary. Eventually he becomes tiresome and annoying and it probably isn't worth listening to the whole thing. There is a long interview with Yeoh, but she talks solely about the project from her perspective and her own career. Fans of hers will like it, but others may find it rather one track. Surprisingly she speaks very little Manadarin and was really challenged to perform the dialogue. The Bravo special is much better because it provides her comments with Lee's to give a full picture to the ideas surrounding the film. It is advised to watch this after viewing the film, because it doesn't discuss production so much as and concept and characters. It tells a lot of the plot before hand. There is a cool slide show gallery of on set images from the film with the movie score.
Be aware there is a Sony Superbit version of the film. This release is supposed to have better picture and sound, but the extras are removed. This edition costs a few more dollars. I haven't seen the Superbit edition, but an online compairson (check dvd-basen) showed slightly sharper picture.
DVD 4 out of 5.
Rating:
Summary: A Witless Waste of Time
Review: Crouching Dragon, Whizzing Tiger is one of the most asinine movies I have ever seen. Full of itself and the overwrought, throwaway "wisdom" of the characters' cherished Wudan art, the film grates without relent. The melodramatic fools portrayed in the film spend more time running their fatuous mouths than they do at any actual attempts at "fighting," to use the term very loosely. Particularly annoying is the silly galumphing about in the air that some of the characters do when they aren't flipping around in the dirt missing each other repeatedly with flailing, ineffective blows. Further, their weapons are practically useless in most combats, due to their vast inability to even touch flesh with them, much less pierce it. With all this supposed training, couldn't their "warriors" be taught to use a damn firearm? A few well-directed shotgun blasts would dispatch the wallowers in short order. Ang Lee needs to take a cue from Tarantino. Other terribly improbable inanities of the plot include a paralyzation technique performed by some jabs in the ribs, a young girl falling in love with her robber and rapist, a governess who moonlights as a murdering martial arts master and who has wanted posters of her image in many local hands but whom no one can recognize when at her day job, and a poison that supposedly makes the heart pump blood backwards. (What? It makes the heart valves turn around in the vessels? Yeah, right.) Perhaps the most disturbing delusion is the ornate wardrobe and lavish residences in which these creatures of utter fantasy exist. Were the film to show the slightest resemblance to reality, the dire poverty of hundreds of millions of Chinese peasants, the utter filth and disease and death in which they live every day, would be shown. The one positive thing I can say about the film is that the writers for the English overdub were skilled at creating a phonemic pattern of English dialogue that matches somewhat closely the mouth movements of the actors speaking in Mandarin. The English is a creative expression of most of the concepts in the original tongue.
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