Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon 《臥虎藏龍》 (2000)

“The jianghu underworld is filled with crouching tigers and hidden dragons, but so are human feelings.”
“江湖黑道里臥虎藏龍，人心又何嘗不是。”

After spinning our heads for decades with its delirious showdowns and romanized notion of chivalry, the wuxia genre finally conquered the world with – of all stories – a poignant romance about two pairs of would-be lovers perpetually repressing their feelings. Looking to his sword and settle down with his longtime muse (Michelle Yeoh), a mighty swordsman (Chow Yun-fat) is sucked into another one-last-job scenario as an aristocrat's daughter (Zhang Ziyi) recklessly juggles the thrills of the martial arts world, her secret affection for a bandit (Chang Chen), and the wish of her family to set her up for an arranged marriage. Described pertinently by Ang Lee as 'Sense and Sensibility with martial arts', this visually stunning, gravity-defying masterpiece won four Oscars (including best foreign language film) and ushered in a new era of traditional Chinese movies made with a global audience in mind.
多年來一直靠緊張激烈的對決以及古羅馬式的騎士精神刺激觀眾神經的武俠電影，終于有一部用一段凄美的愛情故事征服了全世界。片中，兩對心生愛慕的男女始終壓抑著自己的情感。一位劍術高明的劍客（周潤發）希望能收起寶劍，與愛慕已久的女神（楊紫瓊飾）隱退江湖，但他在退隱前的最后一票中卻卷入了另一場漩渦。一個貴族人家的小姐（章子怡飾）在冒失闖蕩驚險的江湖時，偷偷愛上了一個土匪（張震飾），但她的家族希望包辦她的婚姻。李安將《臥虎藏龍》稱為一部“《理智與情感》式的武俠片”，影片視覺效果震撼，是一部具有創意的杰作。這部電影收獲了4座奧斯卡獎（包括最佳外語片獎），開啟了帶著全球視野拍攝傳統中國電影的新時代。