Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

2000

Starring: Chang Chen, Chow Yun-Fat, Michelle Yeoh

This Ang Lee film is scripted in Cantonese and Mandarin and set in the China of the early nineteenth century, although we could be watching a fable from any time in the last millennium, or from no time at all. Yu Shu Lien (Michelle Yeoh), is given a sword by Li Mu Bai (Chow Yun Fat), for safekeeping.

Needless to say, it is soon stolen, and the hunt is on. When pursuing a likely suspect, Mu Bai and Shu Lien tend to take the quickest route, whether it’s up a wall, over a roof, across a lake, or, best of all, from tree to tree. They don’t fly so much as dance through the air, taking fairy-tale strides. The film is alive with fighting, yet it does not feel violent.

Athletic honors are shared between Yeoh and Zhang Ziyi, who plays a rebellious young noblewoman with a fiery past. The outright winner is Ang Lee, who is at once dependably stylish and smartly unpredictable.