Review of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) by Mark M — 23 Jan 2013

A legendary martial artist decides to pass on his sword to a friend. But when that sword is stolen by a masked female, a series of events revolving around sisterhood, family, love and duty develop. The story initially begins as a standard revenge film, but becomes much more than most martial arts movies could ever wish to be.

Under Ang Lee's masterful direction, this film is memorable in both style and content, with its dash on post-modernism with a self referential use of cinema heroines from three generations whom the story revolves around, Yeoh, Chang and Zhang, and spectacular fight sequences that truly become breathtaking with the director's visual use of landscape and photography.

Undoubtedly an influential masterpiece, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon was the perfect film to set the martial arts genre into a new and credible direction.