Li Mu Bai: Yun-Fat Chow	Yu Shu Lien: Michelle Yeoh
Jen: Ziyi Zhang	Lo: Chen Chang
Jade Fox: Pei-pei Cheng	Sir Te: Sihung Lung
Director: Ang Lee	Martial Arts Direction: Yuen Wo-Ping

30 Second Bottom Line: A breathtakingly wonderful film, which combines love story, period piece and kung fu action like you've never seen before.

Story Line: Li Mu Bai (Yun-Fat Chow), like the ruler in Ran, wants to retire to a quiet life, after doing much damage on the battlefield as a young man. He is a master Wudan Fighter, who asks a close friend, Yu Shu Lien (Michelle Yeoh), to deliver a gift to an associate in Beijing. Yu Shu was engaged to a confidant of Li Mu's, who was killed by Jade Fox (Pei-pei Cheng) some years earlier. Although Li Mu and Yu Shu have feelings for each other, they have remained distant because they don't wish to dishonor the deceased friend and fiancee.

Yu Shu is to take Li Mu's beloved 400-year-old sword to Sir Te (Sihung Lung), a close friend of Li Mu. He reluctantly accepts the gift and advises Yu Shu that she and Li Mu not waste more precious time being apart. Sir Te has other house guests as well; an unknown political enemy, Governor Yu (Fazeng Li), there with his daughter Jen (Ziyi Zhang), who will soon be married.

Jen and Yu Shu become both friends and enemies, as Jen wants the freedom of Yu Shu (she is not married) to be a martial arts warrior. The sword is stolen about 20 minutes into the film and the action scenes begin.

Dual love stories evolve; one between Li Mu and Yu Shu, and the other between Jen and Lo (Chen Chang), a warrior, who is a gypsy living in the desert. The hidden dragon is Jade Fox, the martial arts expert who killed Yu Shu's fiance`. He is also the personal aide to Jen. This brings into proximity Jade Fox and Li Mu, who wants to avenge the death of his friend.

Tell Me More About It: As with The Matrix and Star Wars, it's best that not too much detail on the fight scenes is discussed in the review. They thrilled me and you deserve to be surprised as well.

After all the extremely positive buzz about this film from it's showing at the Cannes and Toronto Film Festivals, along with a glimpse of it on Ebert & Roeper's TV show, I expected that while I would like the movie, my expectations would come up a little short. Such is not the case.

Filmed in Southern China, Beijing, and the Gobi Desert, over a period of five months, this $15 million production puts the $100M action pictures to shame. Tom Cruise is awesome in Mission Impossible 2 with his fight scenes at the end, but they don't come close to comparing to what's done here. Think of the fight scenes in The Matrix, done by people with the skills of a young Jackie Chan and you start to get the picture.

In addition to the action, the plot is substantial and the love stories are heartfelt. Women are not only the objects of love, but they are masters in the martial arts.

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon may not have the box office appeal of another sub titled film, Life is Beautiful; but like that film, I expect it to set a new standard in foreign films that combine action, which supports a plot, rather than the reverse. The wide spread appeal of Life Is Beautiful is that it found a unique and humorous way to look at the holocaust. Here the story is compelling and easy to follow, plus those "you must see it to believe it kung fu scenes." This may be the first sub titled film to cross over to the teen age boy and the young adult set in a large way at the box office.

This is indeed a cross cultural film, with many elements that blend rather than confuse. It has the action of a Hong Kong film, the history of a Japanese movie and the action of an American Western.

As Michael Wilmington of the Chicago Tribune said at a prescreening of Crouching Tiger…, during Talk Cinema a month before its release, good films like this should have a dubbed version. When you have bilingual actors like Yun-Fat Chow and Michelle Yeoh, the quality of such a film would be quite high. Europeans dub American films and they lead the box office. Wilmington might be onto something…especially if the dubbing quality is excellent. He feels that if this film is only shown at art house theaters it will be "ghettoized"…that's strong language and says a lot regarding our ability to accept foreign films on a wide scale basis. But don't wait…after 15 minutes you won't even notice it.

Yun-Fat Chow: Anna and the King	Michelle Yeoh: Tomorrow Never Dies
Ziyi Zhang: The Road Home	Chen Chang: Happy
Pei-pei Cheng: The Spirit of the Dragon	Sihung Lung: Eat Drink Man Woman
Ang Lee: The Ice Storm	Yuen Wo-Ping: The Matrix