Product Details

• Actors: Yun-Fat Chow, Michelle Yeoh, Ziyi Zhang, Chen Chang, Sihung Lung
• Directors: Ang Lee
• Writers: Du Lu Wang, Hui-Ling Wang, James Schamus, Kuo Jung Tsai
• Producers: Ang Lee, David Linde, Er-Dong Liu
• Format: Color, Dolby, Subtitled, NTSC
• Language: Cantonese
• Subtitles: English
• Rated: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Sony Pictures
• VHS Release Date: October 2, 2001
• Run Time: 120 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (978 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00003CXR3
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #217,294 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Hong Kong wuxia films, or martial arts fantasies, traditionally squeeze poor acting, slapstick humor, and silly story lines between elaborate fight scenes in which characters can literally fly. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon has no shortage of breathtaking battles, but it also has the dramatic soul of a Greek tragedy and the sweep of an epic romance. This is the work of director Ang Lee, who fell in love with movies while watching wuxia films as a youngster and made Crouching Tiger as a tribute to the form. To elevate the genre above its B-movie roots and broaden its appeal, Lee did two important things. First, he assembled an all-star lineup of talent, joining the famous Asian actors Chow Yun-fat and Michelle Yeoh with the striking, charismatic newcomer Zhang Ziyi. Behind the scenes, Lee called upon cinematographer Peter Pau (The Killer, The Bride with White Hair) and legendary fight choreographer Yuen Wo-ping, best known outside Asia for his work on The Matrix. Second, in adapting the story from a Chinese pulp-fiction novel written by Wang Du Lu, Lee focused not on the pursuit of a legendary sword known as "The Green Destiny," but instead on the struggles of his female leads against social obligation. In his hands, the requisite fight scenes become another means of expressing the individual spirits of his characters and their conflicts with society and each other.

The filming required an immense effort from all involved. Chow and Yeoh had to learn to speak Mandarin, which Lee insisted on using instead of Cantonese to achieve a more classic, lyrical feel. The astonishing battles between Jen (Zhang) and Yu Shu Lien (Yeoh) on the rooftops and Jen and Li Mu Bai (Chow) atop the branches of bamboo trees required weeks of excruciating wire and harness work (which in turn required meticulous "digital wire removal"). But the result is a seamless blend of action, romance, and social commentary in a populist film that, like its young star Zhang, soars with balletic grace and dignity. --Eugene Wei

Product Description

An epic set against the breathtaking landscapes of ancient China, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, combines the exhilarating martial arts choreography by Yuen Wo-Pind (The Matrix) with the sensitivity and classical storytelling of an Ang Lee film. The result is something truly unexpected: romantic, emotionally powerful entertainment.

See all Editorial Reviews

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

56 of 60 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars 5 Star Film! 3 Star DVD! Sony Rushed this one!, June 11, 2001

By 

Pasha Supreme - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (DVD)

What else needs to be said about Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon? It is the most amazing action film in years. It is the single most imaginative piece of fiction to come to the moving going audience in a quite a ling time.

But what about the DVD? Well sadly it is the most dismal piece of work to come from Sony DVD center this year. Sony was on a streak of superb discs recently but this hack job put an end to that.

The DVD was clearly rushed to market. The transfer is not very clean at all. The MPEG2 artifacts are terrible. Those of us who are fortunate to have a widescreen TV are going to be the most unfortunate this time. The Native widescreen presentation is oh so dismal of an experience! The colors are clean but the pixel jaggies does enough damage to distract the viewer.

The Audio tracks are not at all well managed. There is no reason what so ever to waste valuable data bandwidth to do a Dolby pro-logic track. I love the fact that the disc comes with both Mandarin & English 5.1 Dolby Digital but the bass is so weak. The audio was not at all enhanced. The commentary track is nothing new, it's above average.

The Extras are well... lacking, the making of documentary is pure PR fluff sadly, and the trailers are not even the original ones that Sony was using to advertise the film. The photomontage is mediocre at best.

So why all these complaints? Sony has a masterpiece on their hands and it's pretty clear they did not give it the proper treatment. In a market place where we will have "Patch Adams: Ultimate Edition", and Bring it on: Super Special Extra Spectacular Widescreen Edition, one would assume the big guys at Sony will release a DVD of monumental standards of their big film of 2000. But NO!

So what they miss? First of all the Video was mediocre and should be redone. The Audio needs a lot of work; they should be enhanced to take advantage of all the speakers. A DTS track is perfect for this film I would say. How about a Michelle Yeoh, Chow Yun Fat & Ang Lee commentary track? Most of all a Score Only track would be prudent since the film won best score at the academy awards. I am sure there are deleted scenes they could have put on the disc. How about some real making of docs, discussing the stunt work, the novels, or even the production in a larger scale. There are a wealth of pictures on this film, why not include them in user control slide shows? What happened to the music videos?

Sony rushed this disc to the market to capitalize on the films fame. The product is average at best. This film deserves a superior DVD job. Come on Sony, stop giving us special editions of Center Stage and give us a true Collector's Special Edition of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon! (Like Lawrence of Arabia, Bridge on River Kwai, Men In Black, and so on... Hint Hint! )

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Blu-ray subtitles suspect, November 24, 2010

By 

E. Garcia "tanjian3000" (ORLANDO, FL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon [Blu-ray] (Blu-ray)

I have the DVD version and saw this movie in the theater too. Recently I got the Blu-ray version. The subtitles of the Blu-ray are very suspicious. They are significantly different from the DVD/theater. Why is that? Also, the subtitle translation for Blu-ray seem very "Americanized", as if the studio wanted to make it more accessible, perhaps, to U.S. audiences. But having got used to the DVD subtitles, and not speaking Chinese, I can't say the subtitles for the DVD or Blu-ray are correct or not, or that one is better than the other.

Example: The scene where Jen meets and fights with Li Mu Bai for the first time. Jen executes a move that astonishes Mu Bai, who exclaims "Jade Fox can't be your master. Where did you learn the 'Xuan Piu' move?". Jen's response in the DVD: "I'm just playing around". The blu-ray: "Piece of cake." Now which reply by Jen seems more realistic for that time period, in that part of the world? It seems more likely that Jen would say she's just playing around, or improvising. There are two English translations on Blu ray, and they give the same translation, so there's no hunting for the "better" version on Blu-ray.

Throughout the Blu ray, there are many differences in translation compared to the dvd to make one wonder: which version is more correct, given that something is always "lost in translation" from one language to another? These are glaring differences. What's on the Blu-ray is very different from the DVD, and just feels wrong. Anyone else notice this?

41 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The real best picture of 2000..., March 27, 2001

By 

Stephen Barbe (Raleigh, NC USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (DVD)

No matter what oscar says. I knew as soon as I saw this movie nominated for both best foreign film and best picture that it would definitely win best foreign, and fall to gladiator for best picture. While I enjoyed Gladiator a great deal, it is a crime that CTHD did not win the award it so richly deserved: Best Picture of the year 2000. When I first went to see this film, I was among the hordes who were blown away by the stunning cinematography, incredible action choreography and amazing wire work. Truly a remarkable action film with amazing filming on location. I don't think I've ever seen anything quite so brilliantly green as the bamboo forest that is but a small location shot in this movie. The first viewing proved to me that I loved this film, but it did not prove to me that it was the best picture of the year. That took 2 viewings. I highly recommend to anyone who has seen this film and enjoyed it that you go see it again. I found (since I don't speak chinese) that seeing it a second time while already knowing the story allowed me to concentrate less on reading subtitles, and more on the actors and their performances. It was amazing to me to peel back the layers of the initially strong performances in this film and see the incredible amount of nuance that each of the leads provided in their portrayals. After seeing it the second time, I had a whole new take on almost every piece of dialog in the film. The first scene between Chow Yun Fat and Michelle Yeoh most definitely sets the tone for this film, and contrary to what many would have you believe it is not a tone of rollicking action/adventure. It is instead a tone of yearning, tragedy and love found too late, then lost. This movie, packed with stunning fights and amazing flying martial artists is not so much about fighting, as it is about the chinese values of loyalty, honor and duty, and how these admirable values can ultimately keep one from truly being happy. It is the story of a love denied too long, and accepted too late. I am not ashamed to say that I wept openly at the end of this film both times that I saw it. The power of the story and the performances were so strong that I felt a small shadow of the loss that the characters in the film felt, and even this small shadow was enough to make me weep. For those of you who find nothing but swordfights and blood in this movie, nothing I can say will change your mind; but for those who have an inkling that this film is about much more than fighting and bloodshed, go see it again and buy it when it is released on DVD. You will not for one instant be sorry that you did.