Ang Lee crafts a sumptuous, romantic tale of spiritual kung-fu that
synthesises his gift for social intricacies with perhaps the best
martial arts sequences ever committed to film. A sweeping epic of the
heart and sword, Lee gets a career best performance from Michelle Yeoh
and draws so much poise and dignity from Chow Yun-Fat that he seems
almost regal, even divine. The battle of wills between the pair and
Zhang Ziyi as the bad seed who steals Chow's sacred sword is gripping,
moving and spiced up by Yuen Wo-Peng's superlative fight
choreography. This would be a career high for any director.
