Review of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon

Introduction

"Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon" was a surprise world-wide hit last year and picked up numerous awards, although despite being tipped for numerous Oscars ended up with "only" four – with Director Ang Lee missing out on Best Director to Steven Soderbergh and Gladiator sweeping up the other big prizes.

Chow Yun Fat is, in global terms, the most biggest film star in the world – having proved that not only is he the king of Hong Kong action movies, but can also turn his hand to numerous different types of roll. Almost unbelievably, "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon" is his first foray into martial arts.

Video

There has been considerable debate about the quality of the video on the DVD release of "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon" – a quick glance through our visitor`s reviews shows the diversity of the comments!

There are two ways of looking at the picture quality. First of all, for anyone who has seen other Asian films, the quality is a great deal better than the usual standard. The other side of the coin is that the video quality falls short of the latest Hollywood releases.

The picture isn`t as sharp and crisp as other recent DVDs, and some scenes have a little dirt on the print, but make no mistake, there`s nothing wrong with the picture quality – it is way ahead of VHS, perfectly watchable and any fan of "eastern" cinema surely can`t complain!

Visually, the film is superb, with the sets, locations and costumes all beautifully recreated, providing a spectacular backdrop for the film. Special effects mainly concentrate on the numerous fight scenes, some of which have some of the best choreography I`ve ever seen. On the whole these look excellent, with the only let down being a scene in a forest which looks a little ropey in places.

Audio

The soundtrack is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1, and comes in original Mandarin or dubbed English.

I detest dubbed movies, and listening to the dubbed soundtrack on this disc reinforced my opinion of them! – if you leave the subtitles on you will see that the dubbed voices say totally different things from the subtitles, and the dialogue is severely "dumbed down" in places.

I therefore watched the movie with the Mandarin soundtrack and English subtitles. The dialogue is clear, and I`ve no doubt is would be understandable if I was fluent in Mandarin!

The score is superb, and fully deserved the Oscar, with the haunting Cello of Yo-Yo Ma beautifully reproduced through the available channels. Good use is also made of the soundstage for effects and atmospheric sound.

Features

Extras include trailers, two featurettes, a commentary and a still image gallery.

The commentary track is excellent and is backed up by two interesting featurettes, all of which are accessed through gorgeous menus.

Conclusion

Overall "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" is a extremely well made film that should have won the Best Director Oscar for Ang Lee – this is a visual treat with almost unbelievable choreography, spectacular scenery and fantastic sets. On top of that is quite superb acting from all involved, with Chow Yun Fat and Michelle Yeoh electric when on-screen together and a joy to watch.

It won`t be to everyone`s taste however, it is slow in places, and being a Chinese fantasy there is plenty of flying around etc – having said that, the martial arts are breathtaking at times, although never violent – this is an artform!

The video is not as bad as some have made out, but not as good as recent Hollywood releases, however the sound is excellent and the disc is supported by good extras.

This film is well worth seeing, and if you buy or rent this DVD you won`t be disappointed.