Rating: Summary: This movie is a MUST BUY! Review: ONE OF THE BEST MOVIES EVER, DEFINITELY ON MY TOP 5 LIST!Theonly flaw in the movie was the flying, they should of made it morerealistic, other than that its PERFECT!
Rating: Summary: Why do I love this movie so much? Review: CTHD is probably the best movie I've ever seen. This is one of those movies that truly grabs you're heart. After walking out of that theater, I already committed myself on seeing it again. This movie contains so much symbolism and I believe it takes more than viewing it once to appreciate the beauty of this masterpiece. I must admit I never felt this way about a movie before. To me, it feels like any other movie that I will watch in the future after seeing CTHD will totally ... (hehe). Everything in the movie was just perfect; superb cinematography, magnificent choreography, well casted, awesome soundtrack (I wanted to cry after hearing the song played at the end), breathtaking scenery, a great director (Ang Lee), and a well-written plot. Basically a wonderful love/romance/trust/betrayal/justice/revenge foreign film. I overheard some of my classmate's comments on CTHD. Some believe that the subtitles were boring, hard to watch, a hassle to read and made the movie stupid. Well this is what I had to say for them. "First of all, how slow do you read? I mean they tried to keep the sentences to 1 or 2 so it's easy for people to read, and they also show the subtitle ahead of time. If CTHD was dubbed in English, well that would just ruin the movie. I really think it was a good idea to keep the movie in Mandarin to keep its uniqueness. Wouldn't the movie look like one of those old Chinese movies where they talk and the words come out a minute later? If the movie was also dubbed, the actor's tone of voice and expressions of the words will change, and will lose their significance in the movie. The subtitles were poetry themselves, and some words in Mandarin can't be accurately translated in English. For example, a word in Mandarin can sound so engaging, while in English it's just like an ordinary word". Many may also believe that the "flying" was so unrealistic and the fighting scenes were so stupid that people laughed. Well how about X-Men, Superman, Batman, Matrix, they didn't complain about the flying on those movie did they? All of these Hollywood movies are fantasies and we accept that. But why is it when Chinese makes their version of a fantasy movie (that includes flying) people criticize it? I believe these people should open up their selves to seeing idea from different culture. Because this movie is not from "Hollywood", you can't assume that it's stupid. I've read that audience from some theater laughed at the fighting scenes. I have no idea why, but my only conclusion is that they probably haven't been exposed to any sort of martial arts, and they probably think that those fighting scenes were a chicken dance. The fighting choreography in this movie is superb. I've seen so many martial arts movie, but not as superior as this one. This movie is so good and was definitely worth every bit of the 7 bucks that I paid, and perhaps another 7 bucks for another viewing. It only happens once in a great while, where a movie can just grab you and just wont let you go, and CTHD can absolutely do that. Anyways, if you haven't seen this movie go see it, and if you had, go see it again!
Rating: Summary: Classic, Epic, and Cool but I'd rather say 4.5 stars... Review: An excellent introduction for people to the world of subtitled martial arts film. A high budget martial arts film playing in theaters actually in Mandarian sounded amazing to me, and it actually greatly surpassed my expectations. First off, CTHD is a very good film in itself. The look of the battles, background, and the plot aren't revolutionary in comparison to older martial arts Hong Kong cinema, but the fact that the production value was extremely high and that this film was being shown subtitled in the cinema really got me. Add in my bias for Chow Yun-Fat (I have never seen a good film with him speaking English, this was good and it was neither English or Cantonese so I'm seeing for the first time in a good film that's not in Cantonese), and I have a very good experience seeing this movie in the theater. I've had a terrible run of films for the past year. Theaters have been so dry, I've been watched terrible films like Valentine, the Watcher, etc, but this film tops Hannibal as the best film I've seen in the theater for quite a while. If you haven't seen a lot of martial arts films, I truthfully urge you to go see this in the theater quickly, if you don't enjoy it I don't like you anyway. If you've been there done that with M.Arts movies and this movie doesn't look appealing you might want to skip it. Regardless, I really hope the film has an extrodinary impact on American movie goers (but not too much). If the right balance is acheived with its popularity we may be able to look forward to some high quality DVD and theatrical releases. The fact that its a theatrical subtitle release that's 100% class blows my mind. I personally think its a epic-classic-type martial arts film with beautiful things to look at throughout the majority of the picture (beginning is sort of slow). I really enjoyed the duration of the entire film and will definetely add it to my collection when the DVD is released. If you do not really like this film you are not my friend.
Rating: Summary: Crouching tiger, hidden drama.. Review: I was so hyped going into this movie, that probably no movie could stand up to my expectations, however I managed to judge this movie fairly. While it does have great cinematography and fight scenes, something big is missing from this movie, and I beleive its drama and suspense. Like alot of foreign movies I have seen, you can tell what is gonna happen in every scene. I preordered this DVD cause im a big action buff, and this movie packs a huge action punch. Just dont expect much in the way of emotion and good acting, cause all the characters are hollow at best. In the end, take a story that has been played out in the past, shallow characters, and great fighting and you have a movie that doesnt even come close to true classics like Seven Samurai and Yojimbo.
Rating: Summary: Boring Tiger, Stupid Dragon Review: One of the stupidest movies of the year. Trust wait for video on this one. I spent more time reading the stupid subtitles than watching the movie. The guy next could never shut the heck up! There is no really "Matrix" type fighting in this movie. However this movie is too violent for children under 9. Ang Lee is one of my favorite directors but, he made this movie to boring. This film stars Chow Yun-Fat (Anna and the King, The Corrupter).Directed by: Ang Lee (The Ice Storm, Ride with the Devil) 140 min.
Rating: Summary: Good production - average story Review: Just to be the devil's advocate, obviously this is a good movie but.... If you have watched a good share of movies from Hong Kong and over sees this story is pretty standard. The only difference between this movie and half of the good movies from Hong Kong is the cinematography and production size(ie money). Also the English translation is quite a bit off from the actual meaning in several scenes, but in all fairness it was too difficult to translate everything exactly. The movie is definitely over hyped, it is just that the American market is not used to movies like this and trust me after this movie makes 10times more money that any other hong kong release before it you will see all the other movies like it they decided wouldn't do well in the States get released in the next few months.
Rating: Summary: Too Much Hype Review: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon seems to be one of the most overly hyped up movies I have ever encountered. Unfortunately that is only because the majority of people have never seen a Hong Kong Kung Fu movie in their lives. They have never seen this style of choreography before, they are all used to Chuck Norris or Van Dam (or however you spell it). The Chinese culture has always valued the martial arts and always glorified it in their movies. Now the movie wasn't bad, the story was a wonderful integration of romance and action. However two things bothered me immensly. 1) Wire control. The fight scenes were great... until they got to flying. The wire control in this movie was horrible, the roof chase scenes are the best example of this (as well as the bamboo forrest scene), the actors are shown flying across the roofs with almost no control at all. You see them tripping and pumping their legs frantically trying to get a hold of a surface. And then Michelle Yeoh even runs into a wall out of control but they quickly cut it to a scene where she's scales the wall to make up for it. It took the excitement straight out of the movies. 2) Fight sounds... Where were they? You hardly hear the ruffle of clothes in the wind let alone the sound of a hard hit or a solid block. All I could hear is them breathing while they fight, we want our fight sounds! Over all I liked the movie but its not something I watch over an over again like Iron Monkey or Twin Warrior. If you like romance, get this, if you like fight scenes get Iron Monkey or Twin Warrior or Once Upon a Time in China.
Rating: Summary: Brandon Mason Review: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is one of the most amazing films I have seen in a long time. Not since The Matrix have I been knocked off my feet by a film. Ang Lee is a powerful director and combines the worlds of drama and martial arts gracefully.
As for the DVD, I own the Region 3 DVD and most likely the Region 1 DVD will have all, if not more, of the features from the Region 3 DVDs. The Region 3 DVD includes:
Commentary by director Ang Lee and writer James Schamus (in English) English (5.1), Mandarin (5.1), Thai (surround), and Cantonese (surround) audio tracks English, Chinese, Korean, and Thai subtitles Theatrical Trailer Featurette: A conversation w/ Michelle Yeoh Costumes Gallery, Behind the Scenes photos Coco Lee "A Love Before Time" music video in mandarin and english Talent files for Ang Lee, Chow Yun Fat, Michelle Yeoh, James Schamus, and Woo-Ping Yuen
The video quality on the region 3 DVD is very good. It's anamorphic widescreen (2.35:1 aspect ratio) and is superb looking. The print could use some cleaning and mastering, but that will probably be done for the region 1 release.
Rating: Summary: One of the greatest films in years. Review: It is refreshing to see that great movies can still be made in this time of mindless action flicks (even if it has to be made in Hong Kong). "Crouching Tiger..." is, in a way, a story of feminine empowerment and the constrictions of Chinese culture. It is a story of love, revenge, rejection, desire and all the other things that make life interesting. "Crouching Tiger..." is a great film that just happens to have some great fight scenes in it as opposed to Hollywood action movies that just happen to have a few lines of horrible dialogue in them. So if you are a person who in not afraid to bo enriched by a film, a film that delves into the feelings and desires of the characters, then see "Crouching Tiger..." P.S. Ignore the people that say that they cannot follow the plot. They just have mind rot from too many Hollywood gore-fests.
Rating: Summary: A big surprise Review: I went to this movie because my husband wanted to see it. I am not a martial arts fan and expected to hate the movie. It was wonderful. The movie combines very strong female characters with a fabulous love story, clever humor is sprinkled throughout, and the battle scenes are fascinating. Not only did I love the movie, I plan to buy it as soon as it is released. Keep an open mind and you won't be disappointed.
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