Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

A rich, romantic take on the wuxia, China’s heroic swordsman genre. After ten minutes of dense exposition introducing the legendary Li Mu Bai (Chow Yun Fat), his esteemed partner Yu Shu Lien (Michelle Yeoh) and the willful young aristocrat Jen (Zhang Ziyi), who enjoys a double life as a thief under the tutelage of her governess (Chang Pei-pei). They clash over the the Green Destiny, a priceless sword Jen steals as a mark of defiance. Yu gives chase in a brilliant set-piece across the rooftops, and now that it’s taken flight the movie never touches the ground, spinning myriad duels of the body and the spirit in exhilarating fashion. A feast for the senses, this remains a breathtaking spectacle more than 20 years after it crushed it at the North American box office.

Crouching Tiger’s blend of the magical, the mythical and the romantic fills a need in us we might not even realize we had.

Kenneth Turan, LA Times

Soaring and romantic, wild and serene, feminist and gutsy.

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly