Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
2000 · Ang Lee · 120 min · Martial Arts / Drama
Ang Lee took the wuxia genre and gave it the emotional depth of a period romance, creating something that works equally well as a martial arts spectacle and as a story about repressed desire and the cost of duty. Yuen Wo-Ping's fight choreography is breathtaking, particularly the bamboo forest duel, and the performances carry real weight beneath the acrobatics. The wire work that enchanted Western audiences has always divided purists of the genre, and the film's meditative pacing between action sequences won't satisfy everyone looking for constant combat. But as a bridge between Eastern and Western cinema traditions, this remains one of the most successful crossover films ever made, beautiful to look at and deeply moving beneath its surface.