Review of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) by Alexander D — 21 Feb 2012

The main problem I have with CROUCHING TIGER is the dubbing. As usual when dubbing between languages, the voice actors' words don't at all match up with the actors' lip movements. But there's an even bigger issue here that I have never seen in a foreign film before: the voice acting is terrible! Some characters such as Yu Shu Lien are utterly boring to watch because the English dubbing voice was most likely computer-generated; and other warriors make you wonder why the film is so praised because their dialogue is so frivolously delivered.

What brought CROUCHING TIGER out of its hole were the combat sequences. Unlike in other martial arts flicks, the slow-mo shots aren't put to an aggravating overuse, but rather used sparingly and just when we least expect. Not to mention Tan Dun's music, which works well just as well for dramatic scenes (ocarina music) as it does with such intense scenes (full orchestral music).