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Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

List Price: $14.95
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Two Thumbs Down
Review: Not for the movie, but for all those small-minded critics who actually admitted disliking CTHD because it was in Chinese!? (THAT'S CHINESE, NOT JAPANESE -- I actually read a review that claimed the latter). Anyway, I share the feelings of the majority who recognized that this movie was an elegant,woman-affirming triumph! Beautifully shot, well acted,and THANK GOD for the subtitles! Kudos Ang Lee for allowing us to experience the language of the characters. It added another layer of depth that would have been sorely missed had it been dubbed.

Come on guys, ease up on the 'English only' bias. Contrary to what many Americans seem to think, SPEAKING ENGLISH IS NOT A MORAL VALUE. Besides nobody ever died from a little reading you know!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: rebirth
Review: we haven't seen a movie like this in awhile.this film had a real plot and some action i haven't seen in a long time.chow-yun fat as lee-bo-bi plays a very good role as the owner of the green destiny sword. the fight scenes are intense and hearing it in mandarin chinese really enhances the culture wear the movie comes from.if you are an old school kung-fu movie fan i think you will be blown away by this movie.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Cool movie....
Review: I'm not into Kung Foo flicks at all and thought this movie would be bad, but boy was I wrong!

This movie is great, it's very entertaining and the story just drags you in...also it just looks all beautiful, espeical the scenes in the bamboo trees. Breathtaking!

Also the DVD has a lot of special features.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: I found it!
Review: It's out on DVD? Happy, happy, happy! Quick, where do you buy a DVD thingie to play it? Oh, right. My computer has one. I'm saved! J. R. Lankford, author The Crowning Circle (a mystery/thriller)

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Waiting, waiting, waiting ...
Review: October? Oh no! It's just July! How do they expect me to survive the summer? I saw Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon in the theater. I am waiting, waiting, waiting for it to come out on VHS, DVD, on one of those little wheels you used to have spin around before a lamp ... on ANYthing. I adored it, couldn't believe it's beauty. October???? Gasp! Chortle! Okay, I'll wait. J. R. Lankford, author of The Crowning Circle (a mystery/thriller).

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Worst movie ever made next to plan 9 from outer space!
Review: What were the makers of this film smoking when they made this, this is just another kung-fu style fighting movie , nothing is different from this film and the ones I watched 10 years ago,except this has a dumb story. The only thing is the people can fly higher. Who can't make a movie like this. Make people fly and fight each other and lets say they have to find some jewls, there you got yourself another award winner. How can anyone like this. If I wanted to watch people fly i'd watch Peter Pan!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great psychological drama
Review: While this film may on the surface appear to be a martial arts film, it is not really part of that genre. This is why East Asians frequently pan this film. It is not a martial arts film despite what the trailers may lead one to believe. Rather, it is a multi-layer psychological love story involving several different people. It is also highly atmospheric. In this manner it combines some of the best features of European character oriented films and Japanese films concerning either atmosphere or emotion with plot elements sufficiently strong for North American markets.

Regardless, this is a fine film. However, do not be surprised if your Asian friends are not taken with it in terms of the martial arts genre. In those terms, the film is a bit shop worn and even a bit hokey. The fact that, unlike a Jackie Chan film, this film takes itself very seriously, makes its deficiencies as a martial arts film more pronounced.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Ambivalent . . .
Review: . . . perfectly describes my reaction to this movie. I don't usually come away from a film without a clear-cut sense, but I just couldn't get a handle on CTHD. There were many things I admired about it. Despite what many reviewers have described as cheesy action scenes, especially the air walking/running, I found these sequences to be very convincing. Ok, maybe all the technical aspects such as the lighting weren't perfect, but Ang Lee managed to evoke the perfect sensibility with them. In fact, my strongest impression coming away from this film was that cinematically it depicted an authentic, deeply realized cultural sensibility. What that sensibility was, I really don't know. It remains a mystery to me. If I watched it a lot more times, I think I could begin to tease out exactly what it is. However, the movie didn't engage me thoroughly enough to want to watch it over and over.

I also admired the performances of Chow Yun-Fat, Michelle Yeoh, and Zhang Ziyi, and I thought the pacing was brilliant.

That's about it for the positive elements. On the minus side, I found certain aspects of the story quite difficult to follow. Character motivations often seemed opaque or murky. I'm willing to concede that this may be because as a westerner I had trouble getting on board with what to an easterner may be perfectly clear. On the other hand, maybe the movie just isn't very well done here. I've seen lots of other films by oriental film makers and generally haven't had this problem. I thought the ending was gratuitously open-ended. Here again, it just may be that I didn't fully discern what was going on. But I doubt it. And althought the desert scene was quite remarkable cinematically, as well as providing important character motivation/information, there seemed a faint whiff of exploitation about it.

All in all, my heart would probably want to rate CHTD four and a half or five stars and my head one and a half or two stars. Unfortunately, I can't get my head and heart together on this one, hence the three star rating.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: I thoroughly enjoyed this movie!
Review: Every once in a while, I find it entertaining to watch a picture (or read a book) which falls outside the genres I usually enjoy. Last weekend, my wife and I watched this movie, and enjoyed it thoroughly.

While I am not an expert on the genre of Asian film (by ANY strecth of the imagination) nor an expert on martial arts, I could not help but be impressed by the deftness of the acting, the expertise of the fighting scenes, and was overwhelmed by the stunning cinematography.

It was certainly an enjoyable evening spent.

(I have to confess -- I watched this movie on DVD with the English-language track, rather than in Mandarian with subtitles. Some of the English-language voiceovers were really bad. Next time I watch the picture, perhaps I'll go with the subtitles.)

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Extras on DVD
Review: I reallly liked this film especially with the extra features that you get to expect on the DVDs. English language soundtrack --- nice. I do have to say that the commentaries on the DVD by the Director and the Screenwriter/Producer were disapointing. I would have preferred just hearing from Ang Lee - who sounds to me as a very intelligent person - but James Schamus's commentaries were excessive, cynical and just plain stupid. Avoid hearing this stuff if you actually like the film.


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