#229. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

"No growth without assistance. No action without reaction. No desire without restraint. Now give yourself up and find yourself again."

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is an Asian film in the Mandarin language that focuses on an epic quest. Li Mu Bai decides to pass on magical sword to a friend, but it is stolen by a mysterious martial arts master. Li and his love interest Yu Shu Lien have taken on the challenge to discover who the theif is and retrieve the sword.

I've never really been fond of Asian fighting movies, and to be honest, I especially don't get hype about this one. Sure, it was fun to watch (borderlining humorous...) and it had pretty good themes going for it like honour, love, and discipline, but the plot wasn't awe-inspiring enough to catch my undivided attention. And though the acclaimed film critics would think I was insane for this, I thought the fight scenes were extremely corny. I mean running up walls, and gliding on tree tops? They could have made at least a little bit realistic. Despite this, I do commend the actors in their talents for martial arts.

I didn't really have a favorite character while watching this. There were only about four that stood out to me, and they were of course the main characters. Dark Cloud and Jiao Long were a little bit more interesting than the other two, so my favor leans toward them.

The fact that I watch the English-dubbed version could affect my judgement of this film, but it was the only version I could find. To assess it in one word, I would say it's "decent". I could watch it again to catch some underlying meaning of the storyline, but this is not my kind of movie, so I'd rather not. My immediate rating is a 6.4.

Characters: 6.8/10
Acting: 6.4/10

Storyline: 6.5/10
Entertainment Value: 6.9/10

Immediate Rating: 6.4/10

Total Score: 33/50