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Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon
DVD Review by Yanman |
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"A sword by itself rules nothing. It only comes alive in skilled hands." I will be one of the first people to admit that I am not really into movie with subtitles or foreign films that have been dubbed into English. Suffice it to say that Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon is different, not just in the fact that it is a great movie, but Columbia TriStar has gone the extra distance to make the dubbed English soundtrack sound every bit as good as the original. If you take a great story, with award winning cinematography, art direction, original score, and more, add a host of extras and a 5.1 English soundtrack, you are sure to have a DVD that every collector will want to own. Run out and get this one today. When an ancient and treasured sword "The Green Destiny" is stolen from its owner, two master warriors (Chow Yun Fat and Michelle Yeoh) will stop at nothing to return it to its rightful home. They will meet immeasurable competition though from a young aristocrat (Zhang Ziyi) that is determined to prove herself. Will her past romances and training serve her well, or will she in the end have to admit defeat? Prepare yourself to enter a fantasy world like none you have ever seen before, where combatants can fly and young girls can defeat entire armies. Suspend belief and just enjoy the great visuals and great musical score that takes the martial arts to a higher level, more like a ballet then a fight. The best thing that a DVD reviewer can say is that he got so lost in the great story that they had to go back and check the video and audio quality after the fact. That is certainly the story here; the movie is definitely the center of attention. Upon further review, the Anamorphic Widescreen 2.35:1 is generally above average with only some small amounts of artifacting in darker scenes. The English dubbed 5.1 Dolby Digital Soundtrack does a good job of showcasing the Academy Award winning Best Original Score and the dialog as well. When we enjoy a movie, it often leaves us wanting more, much more. This is where DVD's special features come into the picture. The extras on this DVD do help to meet this need with a director's commentary, a making-of-documentary, an interview with actor Michelle Yeoh, and a photo montage. Many films in the past have been labeled "a surprise hit", but Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon certainly deserves this title for the year 2000. Many things probably added to this movies success, from a great cast and thrill a minute action to brilliant cinematography this one has it all. Leaving only one question that this reviewer can't answer; what genre to put this on in, is it action, a love story, a thriller, or something else? Well I'll just have to leave that up to you, so go watch it now.
This DVD was reviewed on Yanman.com's Reference Theater #1, using a Toshiba SD-5109 DVD player, Toshiba TW56X81, and M&K 750 THX Speakers. Panamax protects all systems at Yanman.com. |
Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon "A great story with award winning cinematography, art direction, original score, and more." Staring: Michelle Yeoh Directed By: Ang Lee Running time: 120 Min.
Bonus Materials
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