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Editor's Note: Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment first released
"Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" to DVD as a standard
edition DVD on June 5, 2001. Subsequently, CTHE has re-issued this
movie as a Superbit™ DVD on October 9, 2001.
The Superbit DVD version we
review here offers the best possible picture and sound quality possible on
the DVD format by using all of the disc's data capacity for high bit-rate
video and DTS 5.1 and Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound options. There
are no bonus features. Both
versions are currently available.
The Story
Clearly the biggest hit from Asia to hit Western culture, "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" is a magnificent film in
many respects. The martial arts action is awesome, as can be expected
from master martial arts choreographer Yuen Wo Ping (of "The
Matrix" fame). While the supernatural jumps and flights through
the air are nothing
new to Hong Kong action films, it is the depth of the drama that won this action
film its critical acclaim. In other words, what made this film great is
its sophisticated portrayal of the human spirit: the freedom it seeks, the
yearning for true love, and the desire to be with the one you love.
But both freedom and true love are constrained by the powerful social duties,
expectations, and traditions of 19th Century China. The success of this film is confirmed by
its worldwide box
office sales, its critical acclaim by critics world-wide, and its four 2000 Academy
Awards for Best Foreign Film, Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction, and
Best Original Score.
The story begins with Wudan master Li Mu Bai (Chow Yun
Fat) wanting to retire and giving his treasured sword, the "Green
Destiny", to the friend of his late master. Though surprised with
Li Mu Bai's decision, long-time friend Yu Shu Lien (Michelle Yeoh)
graciously accepts Li Mu Bai's wishes and delivers this 400-year old
treasure to its new owner. Shortly thereafter, this unusually thin
sword is stolen by a mysterious warrior who knows the Wudan martial art
form. It turns out that the mysterious thief is no other than the
seemingly innocent governor's daughter, Jen Yu (Zhang Ziyi), whose marriage is
arranged to further her father's political career. Repressed by her duties as
a governor's daughter, Jen Yu secretly wishes to live the life of a Wudan
warrior -- a life of freedom, adventure, and glorious victories. Jen
Yu is the disciple of the
notoriously evil "Jade Fox". Li Mu Bai recognizes her strength and
talent but also the evil influence of Jade Fox, and therefore wants to take her as his own
disciple. But will he
succeed in bringing her to the light?
Throughout the film, romantic interests are provided by
two parties: Li
Mu Bai and Yu Shu Lien, and Jen Yu with her first love. Li
Mu Bai is the brother of Yu Shu Lien's fiancé of many years past. But
when Shu Lien's fiancé is killed, she lives a lonely life out of respect for the
memory of her fiancé . Remember, we're talking about 19th Century China
here, rich in its social expectations and traditions. Being engaged is
like being married. Years after the loss, Li Mu Bai and Yu Shu Lien
develop romantic
feelings for one another, but neither can openly express their
feelings. How tragic. The other love interest is Jen Yu's serendipitous love
affair with the most unlikely of people and in the most unlikely of
places. Sounds romantic, doesn't it?
The acting performances were simply mesmerizing.
Zhang Ziyi is
sensational in her lead role as Jen Yu. She performed with wonderful
dexterity, in both the very physically challenging martial arts action
scenes and the emotionally charged drama scenes. The same or better
can be said for Michelle Yeoh. I think it's her best performance thus
far, physically and dramatically speaking. In fact, Michelle acknowledges her
growth as an actress and credits Ang Lee for expanding her talent as an
actress.
Having watched the DVD, I now appreciate why this movie
won those four Oscars. The cinematography is stunningly beautiful,
while the musical score, composed by Tan Dun with cello solos played by Yo-Yo Ma,
heightens the drama and action sequences. With all elements coming
into play, "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" hits the mark as one
of the best films of all time. Don't miss it.
The Extras
Because this is a Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment
Superbit™ DVD series, there are no bonus features.
Video & Audio
So how do the picture and sound quality of
the "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" Superbit DVD compare to that
from the regular release? Well,
the
picture quality improvements are more much more subtle than we would
have expected, but then much of the movie takes place in darkness or
dim lighting conditions. In the many night-time fight
sequences, shadow details are slightly better, making it a little
easier to see what's going on. (To see this, you'll have to
make sure your TV is properly calibrated, especially for contrast
and brightness.) In the more brighter scenes, differences were
still hard to discern between the regular DVD and the Superbit DVD. One
thing we noticed is that the Superbit DVDs are optimized for
widescreen displays. When watching on a large 4:3 aspect
ratio TV, we noticed some down-conversion artifacts
during the opening credits. The words and letters
of the opening credits seems to be unsteady and undulates slightly. More troubling are the same down-conversion
artifacts observed during the movie itself. One clear example
is in chapter 3 (time
counter 6:23 to 6:31), look at the door with the lite panes in the
background on the left side of the screen. The lite panes seem
to wiggle against the white background as the camera pans upward. On the standard DVD
edition, we did not see these same down-conversion artifacts.
Usually, the widescreen to full frame down-conversion is handled
very nicely and elegantly by our reference DVD player (Sony
DVP-S7700), but perhaps the higher video bit rate is pushing our DVD
player to its limits. On a widescreen display, none of the
down-conversion artifacts we mention here are a problem. And
since the Superbit DVDs are optimized for high-performance home
theaters, usually equipped with widescreen TVs, we would not
characterize this as a problem. Rather, these Superbits will serve as
reference DVDs for evaluating DVD player performance. But if
you have a large 4:3 aspect ratio TV, it's something worth noting. The
DTS 5.1 soundtrack sounds considerably better than that of the
Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack. As can be expected, where we notice the most difference are
during the fight sequences and scenes rich with musical scores, as written
by Tan Dun and played by cello soloist Yo-Yo Ma. For
example, the vibrations of the Green Destiny sword seems more clear and
pronounced. Listen to the fight sequence in Chapter 7.
The music doesn't drown out some of the more subtle on-screen sound
effects. These differences are consistent with the
differences we hear between DTS and Dolby Digital soundtracks of any DVD
movie with both soundtrack options. And this is what we had
expected. There's nothing new or novel here. But don't get us
wrong, the sonic improvement is significant and much welcomed.
Conclusion
"Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" is one of the
best movies I've seen. While I was dazzled with the martial arts
action, it was the depth of the story, character development, and romance
that swept me away. I hope everyone will take the time to enjoy this gem. It has been recognized as the first movie from Asia to make it
big with Western audiences, and well-deserved as such. While the standard
edition DVD release with bonus features is available, this Superbit DVD
edition concentrates on the best picture and sound quality possible.
Which one to choose? Well that simply depends on your priority.
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United We Stand
