Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

I highly recommend the movie, "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon!" It's a martial arts movie, but also much more than a martial arts movie. It examines the oppression of women in ancient China, even incredibly powerful women. It shows how this oppression also oppresses the men who love them. It examines the role of duty and obligation, and how we (especially we Chinese) perceive and act on it. It examines revenge, one of the most common martial arts movie themes, and shows it's fruitlessness. And it's a beautiful film, with vast scenery, and beautiful capturing of the colors, tastes, and sounds of old China.

The martial arts definitely are outstanding. If anyone still believes that men like Jean-Claude Van Damme, Sylvester Stallone, or Chuck Norris are impressive fighters, three Chinese women prove otherwise. And one of them (Cheng Pei Pei, who plays Jade Fox) came out of retirement to do it. That's right, she was a Kung-Fu movie star when I was a teenager. I don't know how old she is, but she was a young adult then, and I'm now 53. Go see it, you'll enjoy it. Even if you're not a martial artist.