Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Collector's Edition (2000) |
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Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Collector's Edition (2000) |
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| General | Extras | ||
| Category | Action |
Main Menu Introduction Menu Animation & Audio Dolby Digital Trailer-City Theatrical Trailer-2 Trailer-Vertical Limit, Not One Less Featurette-Making Of-Unleashing Dragons Featurette-A Conversation With Michelle Yeoh Audio Commentary-Ang Lee (Dir) & James Shamus (Exec Prod/Writer) Featurette-Photo Montage Biographies-Cast & Crew Web Links |
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| Rating |
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| Year Of Production | 2000 | ||
| Running Time | 115:09 | ||
| RSDL / Flipper | RSDL (76:48) | Cast & Crew | |
| Start Up | Menu | ||
| Region Coding | 2,4 | Directed By | Ang Lee |
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Studio
Distributor |
 Sony Pictures Home Entertain |
Starring |
Chow Yun-Fat Michelle Yeoh Zhang Zi Yi Chang Chen Lung Sihung Chen Pei Pei |
| Case | ? | ||
| RPI | $36.95 | Music | Tan Dun |
| Video | Audio | ||
| Pan & Scan/Full Frame | None |
Mandarin Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0  (192Kb/s)
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| Widescreen Aspect Ratio | 2.35:1 | ||
| 16x9 Enhancement |
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| Video Format | 576i (PAL) | ||
| Original Aspect Ratio | 2.35:1 | Miscellaneous | |
| Jacket Pictures | No | ||
| Subtitles |
English Arabic Bulgarian Czech Greek Hebrew Hindi Hungarian Polish Portuguese Turkish |
Smoking | No |
| Annoying Product Placement | No | ||
| Action In or After Credits | No | ||
Directed by the US-trained, Taiwanese-born Ang Lee (The Ice Storm, Sense and Sensibility), Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon combines a traditional Chinese story with amazing action sequences. These action sequences were designed by renowned Chinese director, actor and fight choreographer Yuen Wo Ping. He has directed over thirty films and worked as fight choreographer on many others including Drunken Master 2, Once Upon A Time In China Part II, Black Mask and The Matrix. The experience that this choreographer brings to the film is obvious when viewing its fantastic action sequences.
The script for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was developed by James Schamus, who also developed the scripts for all of Ang Lee's other films to date, excluding Sense and Sensibility. Initially, the script was developed in English. It was then translated to Mandarin and Chinese cultural references were added. After these changes, it was transferred back to English, further changes were made and the process repeated. The script is based around a series of books by Wang Du Lu with the majority of the characters and plot taken from the fourth book in a series of five. Both Ang Lee and the principal actors have already stated that they would be interested in producing a prequel to the film.
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon brings together Chow Yun-Fat (Hard-Boiled, A Better Tomorrow, Anna And The King), in his first martial arts film, and Michelle Yeoh (Supercop, Tomorrow Never Dies), two of Hong Kong cinema's biggest and most respected stars. During the filming of the first action sequence, Michelle injured her knee, requiring reconstructive surgery. Luckily, she was able to return to the set just four weeks later and continue filming. In addition to the action scenes, Michelle and Chow are able to show off their range of acting abilities as the script includes many dramatic scenes to balance the martial arts sequences.
The story revolves around the relationship between three principal characters: Li Mu Bai (Chow Yun-Fat), an ageing warrior; Yu Shu Lien (Michelle Yeoh), a long-time friend of Mu Bai; and Jen Yu (Zhang Ziyi), a young girl who is soon to be married. Mu Bai has decided that he will give up his life of fighting. He asks Shu Lien to deliver his sword, the legendary Green Dragon, to a long-time friend, Sir Te. The sword is safely delivered but is stolen from Sir Te the same night. Shu Lien believes that she knows the identity of the thief and must figure out a way of retrieving the sword whilst avoiding an embarrassing political conflict. Before the sword can be retrieved, Li Mu Bai arrives. Working with Shu Lien, they attempt to recover the sword and bring the perpetrator to justice.
The transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1 and is 16x9 enhanced.
The film remains consistently sharp throughout with extremely high levels of detail always visible. At no stage does low level noise pose any problem and the darkly-lit scenes exhibit excellent shadow detail.
Colours are always natural-looking and vibrant throughout the transfer.
At no stage were any MPEG artefacts detected. A few instances of aliasing were detected during the transfer. Examples can be seen at 5:55, 50:48, 56:50 and 107:56. At no stage were these artefacts disruptive to the viewer.
Unfortunately, considering the age of this movie, there are a significant number of film artefacts such as scratches and stock damage visible. While all of these artefacts are minor and are unlikely to disrupt the viewer, it is disappointing to see them. Examples of these problems can be seen at 26:50, 47:20, 67:48 and 82:50. A small amount of film grain can also be seen during this transfer but this is never disruptive to the viewer.
Eleven sets of subtitles are present on this disc and they are each presented in a white font with a black border. Interestingly, the English subtitles present on this disc are slightly different to the English subtitles provided on the Region 3 disc.
The layer change occurs at 76:48 at the start of Chapter 21 and is not disruptive to the viewer at all.
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Two of the primary actors, Chow Yun-Fat and Michelle Yeoh, do not speak fluent Mandarin and consequently had to learn their lines by rote. Due to their unfamiliarity with the language, the pronunciation of their dialogue is not always perfect. Despite this, the dialogue for all actors remains clear and easy to understand at all times.
When listening to the Mandarin track, no audio sync problems were detected. When listening to the English track, the standard and expected sync problems with dubs occurred.
The film received an Academy Award for the original score by Tan Dun that features world-renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma. This score is highly effective and is able to bridge the action and dramatic sequences extremely well. The song 'A Love Before Time', performed by Coco Lee, was nominated for an Academy Award and can be heard during the closing credits of the film. Either the Mandarin or English version is heard depending on the soundtrack selected.
Surprisingly, the soundtrack for this film does not make excessive use of the surround and subwoofer channels. They are used to reinforce the musical score and to provide effects during the action sequences. This was an intentional decision on the part of the filmmakers to focus the viewer's attention on the on-screen action.
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| Overall | |
NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.
The Region 4 version of this disc misses out on;
The video quality of this transfer is excellent, only let down slightly by the presence of numerous film artefacts.
The audio transfer is of excellent quality with the original Mandarin track provided.
The selection of extras included provide an informative insight into the production of this film.
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| Audio | |
| Extras | |
| Plot | |
| Overall | |
| Review Equipment | |
| DVD | Toshiba 1200, using S-Video output |
| Display | Sony KP-E41SN11. Calibrated with Video Essentials. |
| Audio Decoder | Built in to amplifier/receiver. Calibrated with Video Essentials. |
| Amplification | Front left/right: ME75b; Center: DA50ES; rear left/right: DA50ES; subwoofer: NAD 2600 (Bridged) |
| Speakers | Front left/right: VAF DC-X; Center: VAF DC-6; rear left/right: VAF DC-7; subwoofer: Custom NHT-1259 |