Review of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) by Alastair H — 29 Dec 2012

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is an extremely moving movie. Through action and dialogue this movie takes itself out of the abstract and into the tangible. Slowly but surely the plot reveals itself as martial arts master Li Mu Bai (Chow Yun-Fat) chases down Jade Fox (Cheng Pei-pei) who had poisoned his master Southern Crane, and stolen his secrets years before. Meanwhile, his friend and secret love Lu Shu Lien (Michelle Leoh) has caught the scent of Jen (Zhang Ziyi), a young girl who has stolen Li Mu Bai's fabled sword Green Dynasty and is hiding with Jade Fox, her master.

However Jade Fox soon realizes that she is no longer Jen's master, that in fact Jen surpassed her long ago. Knowing this, she flees. we also meet Lo around this time, and learn the past between he and Jen. When her father had been moved out to the desert for work, they were ambushed by "Dark Cloud" who we know as Lo. During the ambush he takes a Jade Comb from Jen, and in a pursuit to get it back she chases him. During their time together they become lovers and she gives Lo the comb, telling him only to return it when they are together again.

Also during their time together Lo tells Jen a story about the mountain. According to the story, long ago a boy climbed to the top of the mountain and wished that his sick parents would be healthy again and threw himself from the mountain. But he did not die, in fact he wasn't even hurt, he simply floated away. The legend is "A faithful heart grants a wish.".

However, it is not until the end that the movie truly captures your emotion. When Li dies and Shu Lien sends Jen to join Lo at the place Li was trained. Once she is there she spends one more night with Lo, but when he awakes, she is gone.

He finds her standing at the edge of the mountain, she looks at him and tells him to make a wish, then throws herself from the mountain.

I personally was truly moved with this ending, and at the end of the movie found myself moved to tears. Though it may not be for everyone this movie is definitely good for anyone willing to let their mind out of the box and take in all the aspects of this movie. So to this I say, Bravo!