This Chinese language film is the first in many years to have gained a wide,
mainstream release, and has attracted huge recommendations as to its worthiness.
Despite its two hours length, and subtitled dialogue, Crouching Tiger, Hidden
Dragon, is captivating and impressive.
Providing you aren't completely put off by the ludicrous jumping around on the
end of a bit of string special effects.
With the special effects from the same team which brought us
The Matrix, some are absolutely stunning. The fight
scenes are incredibly well put together, dynamic and at times absolutely jaw
dropping. The prancing around, high-jump effects are not.
Had these been cut, it would have benefitted the film in a positive
way. As they weren't, it's got a much lower rating than it would have
otherwise. Other members of the audience didn't seem to mind them so much, and
would probably rated it higher than I have. It just goes to show that you can't
please all the people all the time.
Many have claimed that the, much talked about, tree-top fight scene is one of
the best ever seen. Only if you like that sort of thing and can ignore
the sheer stupidity of it all.
Putting the high-wire acts to one side; we have an excellent film, even if the
plot was a bit thin. What was lacking in substance was more than made up for
in the beauty of its cinematography, its almost incidental soundtrack, some
superb acting and a good marraige of martial arts and love story.
This can best be described as an 'ambiant action film'; it is easy to be taken
along on the ride, it is pleasing on the eye and mixes the balance of action
and narrative well.
Because of the special effects, it does have a feel of a comedy about it, which
doesn't sit well with the diginity it carries elsewhere. The odd splatter of
blood is thrown in to give it a bit of credibility, and seriousness, but it's
not a perfect balance.
It's contrasting imagery does however seem to have satisfied most of the
audience, those who are hanging on every word of the narrative and plot, and
those who are looking for some seriously impressive Kung Fu style
action.
Whatever you see as 'padding' depends on which side of the fence you want to
sit. If you can handle both, then this is going to be a film which will
astound you.
