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Don't believe the hype. A bit of an ominous beginning to a review of a movie that has gotten nothing but great reviews. I did like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, but was a bit disappointed after viewing the picture since the film didn't quite live up to the expectations that the promoters had built for it. The film stars Chow Yun-Fat (from Anna and the King and The Replacement Killers) as Li Mu Bai, a very skilled warrior who is looking to give up his life as a warrior so that he can settle down and marry his longtime love, Shu Lien (Michelle Yeoh, Tomorrow Never Dies). Shu Lien is also a master in the martial arts, but uses her skills to protect cargo from theft in ancient China. The story begins with Lien headed for the capital Peking (now Beijing) with standard cargo (not FedEx as in Cast Away) and the Green Destiny Sword to deliver to a longtime protector in Sir Te (Sihung Lung). Upon arriving she meets another guest at Sir Te's residence, a young noblewoman in Jiao Long Yu (Ziyi Zhang) or Jen for short. Jen is the daughter of Governor Yu (Fazeng Li) and is set to be married off in a short span of time. However the young lady is intrigued by the warrior lifestyle of Shu Lien which is fueled by the stories she has read about the warrior life, and would prefer that life to marriage. Soon after the arrival of the sword, it is stolen by Jen, and we discover that she has great martial arts abilities. So now Shu Lien and Li Mu Bai must recover the sword. At the same time Li Mu Bai has a desire to revenge the death of his master by Jade Fox (Pei-pei Cheng), who has since trained Jen. Then to add even more depth to the plot, we also find out that Jen is in love with a bandit named Lo (Chen Chang). So basically we have the love story between Li Mu Bai and Shu Lien, the love story between Jen and Lo, the quest to regain the sword, and various revenge plots all intermingling in this film directed by Ang Lee. Others in the cast are Xian Gao, Yan Hai, Deming Wang, Su Ying Huang, and Li Li to name a few. Chow Yun-Fat, Michelle Yeoh, Ziyi Zhang, and Pei-pei Cheng put on great displays of the martial arts. The action sequences are wonderful, the acting was good, the story was good, and the scenery was spectacular. The one bad thing about Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is that the action sequences with the lead characters are a bit unbelievable with the actors flying and hopping around like bunnies on steroids and speed. This is typical of the martial arts films I have seen from Asia, and though Hollywood does some pretty unbelievable stunts, it still bugged the hell out of me that they had the actors flying around all over the place. This in mind, I still give the film nine couches out of ten for the About-Movies.com rating. By the way there was no nudity in the film, but we do get to see Ziyi Zhang in a white, wet top.
Last updated: Thursday, March 20, 2008 02:49:30 AM |
