Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)

Right when Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon has you floating, it parks the whole story in a desert for a long flashback romance, and the air goes out. Jen and Dark Cloud squabbling over a stolen comb is cute for a few minutes, then it keeps going. Everything else is a fight scene that doubles as a conversation. Michelle Yeoh’s Shu Lien grabs weapon after weapon off a rack while Zhang Ziyi’s Jen slices through each one with the Green Destiny, and it plays like a duel and an argument at once. Chow Yun-fat gives Li Mu Bai a stillness that makes every unsaid word between him and Shu Lien ache. Then there’s the bamboo forest, two fighters balancing on swaying treetops, and nothing else on film looks like it. It made $128.1 million domestic with subtitles, on a reported $17M. A 9.3 because the fights are gorgeous and the restraint under them hits even harder. $819 says you walk past a stand of tall trees this month and wonder, for a second too long, if you could stand on top.

What works: Every fight tells you something about the people in it, and Michelle Yeoh and Zhang Ziyi turn their weapon-rack duel into the best argument in the movie.

What doesn’t: The long desert flashback between Jen and Lo stalls the story right when it should be building, and a few wire stunts look floaty.

Who it’s for: Subtitle skeptics who need exactly one fight scene to change their minds.