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Year One
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
EMAILPRINTSony Pictures Classics
Universal acclaim
Based on 31 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 241 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Fantasy
Written by:
Hui-Ling Wang
James Schamus
Kuo Jung Tsai
Du Lu Wang (book)
Directed by: Ang Lee
Release Date:
Theatrical: December 8, 2000
DVD: June 5, 2001
Running Time: 120 minutes, Color
Origin: China / Taiwan / USA
Language(s): Cantonese / Mandarin (with English subtitles)
Summary
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.
Also On Metacritic
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Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
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...
New York Daily News Jami Bernard
Handsome, passionate and fun. It's everything we go to the movies for.
Read Full Review >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.
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.
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.
Boston Globe Jay Carr
Watching it is a nonstop high.
USA Today Mike Clark
This is a great movie, but it needs a sales job because it's in Mandarin.
Read Full Review >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.
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.
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.
Read Full Review >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.
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.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington
Splendid, soaringly ambitious Chinese period fantasy.
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.
Film.com Peter Brunette
The landscapes are so gorgeous, the philosophy so richly appealing, the narrative so epically sweeping, and the characters so intense.
Read Full Review >LA Weekly Ella Taylor
Has the sprawling canvas of an epic and the emotional heat of classical melodrama.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum
The first Ang Lee film I've seen that I've liked without qualification.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Variety Todd McCarthy
Brilliance of the action and effects are supplemented by a consistently superior and resourceful score by Tan Dun.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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?
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
The film satisfies on both visceral and emotional levels.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 7.0 (out of 10) based on 241 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Christos M gave it a9:
Saying this is a bad film just because you are bored of reading the subtitles proves how uneducated and childish some people can be.Americans tend not to recognize the fact there is filmmaking happening outside of America and the Uk too. I must admit the origins of the film increase the hype surrounding it but most of all it's a rewarding movie full of high aesthetics,great martial performances and if not good acting,at least perfect photography.It's a piece glistenning with oriental elegance!
Tracey M gave it a1:
Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon is a movie that explores the mythical side of our imagination, is something that begins to try and make our minds become a world in itself. However, was it the type of movie that is reaching for the stars when it can barely jump off the ground? “Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon” explores love and emotion, violence whilst tranquility, and success whilst disaster. However, its attempt at love was wrongly judged by other reviewers of being incredible and yet, it remains equal to all other failed attempts. The violence and action here was acceptable, although the combination of fighting and tranquility at the ending was only able to be related to the heroic and exciting bedtime story for a five year old.
Flux gave it a10:
The biggest problem with Crouching Tiger was that it's brilliance and success opened the door to all the incoherent, emperor-worshiping, "costumes and choreography over story" crap like Hero and Flying Daggers and Golden Blossom. Those later wuxia offerings were visual spectacles, but lacked story or plot. Which is perhaps why simple-minded fanboys prefer them to the intelligence and grace of this masterpiece.
Lee gave it a9:
This movie was 10x better the Pan's Labyrinth, which in my mind was sorely disapointing reguardless of the hype. A little long but it tells a great story!
Andrew R. gave it an8:
An artistically stylized martial arts movie with great performances from all.
Pama F. gave it a10:
This movie was mad. The graphics was really good and thestroy line was interesting.
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.
