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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Sony Pictures Classics


7.0

based on 31 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 235 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

FILM:

MPAA RATING: PG-13 for martial arts violence and some sexuality.

Starring Chow Yun-Fat, Michelle Yeoh, Zhang Ziyi, and Chen Chang

In 19th century China, a magical sword given by a warrior (Chow) to his lover (Yeoh) is stolen and the quest to find it ensues. The search leads to the House of Yu where the story travels into a different direction with the introduction of a mysterious assassin and another love story.

GENRE(S):	Fantasy
WRITTEN BY:	Hui-Ling Wang James Schamus Kuo Jung Tsai Du Lu Wang (book)
DIRECTED BY:	Ang Lee
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: June 5, 2001 Video: June 5, 2001 Theatrical: December 8, 2000
RUNNING TIME:	120 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	China / Taiwan / USA
LANGUAGE(S):	Cantonese / Mandarin (with English subtitles)

The film picked up four Oscars at the 73rd Academy Awards, including one for Best Foreign Film. Its unprecedented (for a foreign-language film) 10 Oscar nominations in 2001 included Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay. It also picked up Golden Globes for Best Director and Best Foreign Film, and was named Best Feature at the 2001 Independent Spirit Awards. Also known as "Wo hu zang long"

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

Handsome, passionate and fun. It's everything we go to the movies for.

100

New York Post Jonathan Foreman

You have never seen a movie like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon because there has never been a movie like it.

100

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Ang Lee, a world-class director working at the top of his elegant form, has done something thrilling. For all the leaping action, it's the film's spirit that soars.

100

Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach

Rarely has combat been portrayed as beautifully as in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Taiwanese director Ang Lee's thoughtful meditation on menace, mortality and the martial arts.

100

Boston Globe Jay Carr

Watching it is a nonstop high.

100

USA Today Mike Clark

This is a great movie, but it needs a sales job because it's in Mandarin.

100

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

It is with gravity and levity and incomparable grace that Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon -- by light years the best movie of 2000.

100

Newsweek David Ansen

At once elegant and sublimely silly, contemplative and gung-ho, balletic and bubble-gum, a rousing action film and an epic love story, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is one bursting-at-the-seams holiday gift, beautifully wrapped by the ever-surprising Ang Lee.

100

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

Soaring and romantic, wild and serene, feminist and gutsy, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is one of the best movies of the year.

100

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

A spell-binding, engaging and often breathtaking work in which exquisite sets, costumes, photography and music combine with top-notch acting and out-of-this-world fighting scenes.

100

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Transcends its origins and becomes one of a kind. It's glorious, unashamed escapism and surprisingly touching at the same time.

100

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

Splendid, soaringly ambitious Chinese period fantasy.

100

Time Richard Corliss

Crouching Tiger is contemplative, and it kicks ass. Or put it this way: it's a powerful film and a terrific movie.

100

Film.com Peter Brunette

The landscapes are so gorgeous, the philosophy so richly appealing, the narrative so epically sweeping, and the characters so intense.

100

Film.com Gemma Files

This is a waking dream of truly operatic dimensions.

100

San Francisco Chronicle Bob Graham

The class act of action movies.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

Magnificently nonchalant about its magic.

LA Weekly Ella Taylor

Has the sprawling canvas of an epic and the emotional heat of classical melodrama.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

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

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

The first Ang Lee film I've seen that I've liked without qualification.

Slate David Edelstein

My first viewing left me dazzled but slightly confused; a second deeply impressed; a third rhapsodic. I wish I hadn't needed to rediagram it in my head to turn it into the masterpiece it so obviously wants to be.

Variety Todd McCarthy

Brilliance of the action and effects are supplemented by a consistently superior and resourceful score by Tan Dun.

The New York Times A.O. Scott

The picture is more fun than it has a right to be.

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

A masterful synthesis of generic conventions and creative imagination, a sublime amalgam of some of the best tendencies and talent our times have to offer.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

A soaring, exhilarating fantasy grounded in earthy emotion, Crouching Tiger more than lives up to the hype.

Dallas Observer Andy Klein

What about Ronny Yu's 1992 masterpiece "The Bride With White Hair," of which Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is a decent facsimile?

Mr. Showbiz Kevin Maynard

Whenever Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon resorts to flying fists or soaring sword battles, the Force is definitely with it.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

There's so much dreamy beauty in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon that it's almost like a narcotic.

Village Voice Amy Taubin

Crouching Tiger's dramatic line is so blurry that the central character is only a bystander to the climactic fight between forces of good and evil.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

The film satisfies on both visceral and emotional levels.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

The film may be too talky for action-minded viewers and too fantastic for more serious spectators, but it brings appealing twists - including a feminist sensibility - to the venerable martial-arts genre.

The average user rating for this movie is 7.0 (out of 10) based on 235 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Kevin G. gave it a3:
Boring! The story was long, drawn out, and had little to no redeeming qualities. The acting was good, though the whole idea of the movie was pushed at its "amazing" effects. I'm sorry, but people jumping around on trees obviously dangling from wires is not my idea of 'good' effects. Forget Crouching Tiger, Get "House of Flying Daggers" or "Hero". They are both 100% better than this.

Xou X. gave it an8:
The film was rather interesting due to its storyline but it lacks action prior to the other Hong Kong thrillers. Still a watchable movie worthy of an Oscar.

Johnny T gave it a9:
Most of the reviews seem to be all or nothing, for me, great acting, better story, beautifully filmed.

Danny D. gave it a10:
This is honestly my favorite movie. I hadn't looked at these reviews yet, and it surprises me that it got such high scores because reviewers rarely like the same movies that I do. Oh, and to the kid who said that he likes The Protector better, I saw that and I agree that the action is absolutely stunning. I think that guy had to have almost died multiple times in the making of the movie, but the storyline was obviously the last thing on anyone's mind while making the movie.

Christopher J. gave it a6:
It was ok. The fight scenes need a more aggressive editor. The film is gorgeous to look at and listen to. I don't find tragedy very entertaining. Especially when it unfolds so slowly.

BIG BUTTER gave it an8:
Really good movie and the action was awesome. Hard to follow in parts.

John B. gave it a10:
The reviewer before me who said that Western media only raved about this film because of a lack of familiarity with Hong Kong films doesn't know what he/she is talking about. This film got raves because it is exquisitely beautiful, and patient. Why do people still complain when a movie diverges from a normal plot? Do they need their stories spoon fed to them? Do they hate having to think about what's going on on screen, when they expected a violent action film? And, by the way, many subsequent Hong Kong films were not panned, so there goes your theory. Even Iron Monkey, a film released years ago and re-released purely to capitalize on CTHD'd success, got strong reviews. Flicks like Hero and House of Flying Daggers got close to raves.

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon Sony Pictures Classics

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Sony Pictures Classics