Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon [DVD] [2001]

I love this film, simply for me because it is beautiful.
The fight scenes are breath-taking, the musical score is so haunting (using the Cello to great effect) and the story-line is one long roller coaster ride of twists and turns.
Anyone who dismisses it because of the flying sequences is probably unaware of the wirework used in a hell of a lot of martial arts movies.
I have never found the dubbing a problem for the simple reason that I watch it subtitled in mandarin, otherwise it loses it’s genuine feel, it seems that in most films the transaction from eastern to western is not a happy one. It seems we take great pleasure in changing the voices to sound ‘wacky’ and entertaining, in most cases the most inappropriate voice actors are chosen and key parts of the plot are missed out. It seems that we can’t cope with a complex storyline if we can’t read what the cast are saying, surely your brain couldn’t take it? So the people who put the effort in to read the subtitles are rewarded with the ‘true’ film, I must admit, I always watch Asian films with subtitles, how can you not like the sounds of the language being spoken?
Anyway, the film for me is totally legendary, one of a few more recent martial arts movies I have enjoyed.

There's already many reviews for the movie itself here on Amazon, and im sure the majority of people interested in this have already seen it in one form or another. For that reason this is basically a review of the Bluray itself. As im sure a lot of people want to know if its worth trading in their dvd for.

First of all, any cool new extras? Ala's no. We have a commentary with Ang Lee and James Schamus. A conversation with Michelle Yeoh (interview). Making of featurette.... and a photo gallery. All of which were supplied on previous DVD releases. Unfortunately, they are still in SD as well.

Secondly, the sound and subtitles. Thankfully we have TrueHD 5.1 for the English dub and Mandarin track. There are a 18 subtitle options in total, including English, and English for the hearing impaired.

Finally, the picture. I wasn't blown away at first truth be told, as I skipped to one of the movies night sequences. The picture had some grain to it, although its quite mild I wonder if it has had some DNR applied to it, as on closer inspection it did appear as though skin complexions would blur a little when moving. Blacks were mostly solid although I did notice a lack of detail on them during the night scenes, especially the fast moving ones. Again, perhaps a result of applied DNR. Day scenes I found to be excellent. Very clear with plenty of detail anywhere you looked. Nice!

Overall though, the picture is good and at times very good. The print used is very clean with almost no dirt or grain to be seen. Its only the night scenes that I could find a few faults with, nothing that serious though and nothing that made me regret my purchase. I can honestly say, yes it is worth buying even if you own the DVD. It's a far better Bluray than the House of Flying Daggers release we had as well, which im sure you will all be relieved to hear.

The lack of effort put into the extras would probably push me towards giving this Bluray a 3.5 if I could, but as Amazon dont allow halves, and I think its pretty good when compared to a number of catalogue titles, I think its deserving of 4 stars.

Beautiful cinematography, an amazing soundtrack, moving performances from the whole cast... Oh, and some of the most breathtaking fight-scenes ever filmed. The first fight between Jen and Shu-Lien - the roof-type scene - is mesmerising, and the elegance with which all the fighters move makes Keanu Reeves and Laurence Fishburne look like clumsy wranglers by comparison. If you haven't seen this film yet, you'll have heard by now that the characters can practically 'fly' - causing a lot of short planks to moan that the film is "unrealistic", as though Ang Lee had tied the cast to ropes and made them fly all by complete accident - but if you have the intelligence to suspend disbelief, this is one of the greatest movies of recent years. A shame that the same can't be said about the DVD, though. The 'making of' feature contains virtually nothing about the making of the film at all. But most unforgivable is the fact that for some unfathomable reason, the English subtitles provided on the DVD are not the same as the ones that were used in the cinematic release, and completely ruined the tone of the film for me - especially in the final romantic scenes where the new translation seems clumsy and staid. I am completely gutted at this alteration, in fact, and feel a little cheated that we are not getting quite the same film as the one we saw in the cinema.