Zagatto asks a pretty fair quastion so here are my reasons for hating Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
I found it incredibly boring, and never original. The actors were flat, mostly due to the immensely dull characters they had to play (with the exception of the Jade Fox played by Cheng Pei Pei). They waste more than half the film kowtowing and greeting each other and pointlessly mentioning a sword than ever trying to tell any cohesive story. The only part of the film I enjoyed is the Zhang Zi Yi flashback with her meeting her lover in the desert for the first time. Sadly, in relation to the rest of the film, it goes nowhere. When she finally meets her lover at the end, presumably the whole reason for all the troubles she's caused, she kills herself. An extremely weak ending with no reasoning to it. It was only fitting because I wanted to kill myself by that time too.
The action choreography was horrid, an exceptionally low mark for Yuen woo Ping (that is until I saw Matrix 2) whose work i've been a huge fan of for almost 20 years. His over indulgence in high-wire effects took away from scenes that may have turned out at least decent. Part of the failing (in both CT,HD & Matrix 2) is a result of using non-martial artists to do martial arts sequences. Some action scenes aren't too bad, but they're far too short and far too few. I think in all there are a total of 5 action sequences in the whole film and most aren't worth mentioning.
The only positives in the film are the decent musical score and the films excellent cinematography.
CT,HD is little more than a poor attempt to remake the successful Wuxia films of Hong Kongs glory years of the 60's/ 70's. Since Louis Cha and Ku Lung are considered two of the greatest writers of the wuxia genre, and Shaw Brothers studios at the time to be considered the "Hollywood of the East", so those are the films i would recommend. I suggest the following (not all are written by Cha or Lung, or easy to find):
Come Drink With Me (Cheng Pei Pei, Yeuh Hua. Dir: King Hu)
Duel For Gold (Ivy Ling Po, Lo Lieh. Dir: Chu Yuan)
Have Sword, Will Travel (Ti Lung, David Chiang, Li Ching. Dir: Chang Cheh)
Golden Swallow (AKA Girl with the Thunderbolt- Kick Cheng Pei Pei, Wu Ma, Jimmy Wang Yu. Dir. Chang Cheh)
One Armed Swordsman (Jimmy Wang Yu, Ku Feng. Dir. Chang Cheh)
King Eagle (Ti Lung, Li Ching. Dir. ?)
Twelve Deadly Coins (Lo Lieh, Ching Li. Dir. Sui Jang Hung)
Clans of Intrigue (Ti Lung, Yueh Hua. Dir. Chu Yuan)
Hidden Power of the Dragon Sabre (Ti Lung. Dir: Chu Yuan)
I also HIGHLY recommend the movie "Musa". Released in 2001, tthis south Korean film (the most expensive ever made there) IS what CT,HD could only dream of being. I honestly believe you would enjoy, if not love, this movie. Easy to find now that its had a major DVD release in HK (but keep an eye out for the R3 2-disc set with hardcover book that came out a year ago or more).
I found it incredibly boring, and never original. The actors were flat, mostly due to the immensely dull characters they had to play (with the exception of the Jade Fox played by Cheng Pei Pei). They waste more than half the film kowtowing and greeting each other and pointlessly mentioning a sword than ever trying to tell any cohesive story. The only part of the film I enjoyed is the Zhang Zi Yi flashback with her meeting her lover in the desert for the first time. Sadly, in relation to the rest of the film, it goes nowhere. When she finally meets her lover at the end, presumably the whole reason for all the troubles she's caused, she kills herself. An extremely weak ending with no reasoning to it. It was only fitting because I wanted to kill myself by that time too.
The action choreography was horrid, an exceptionally low mark for Yuen woo Ping (that is until I saw Matrix 2) whose work i've been a huge fan of for almost 20 years. His over indulgence in high-wire effects took away from scenes that may have turned out at least decent. Part of the failing (in both CT,HD & Matrix 2) is a result of using non-martial artists to do martial arts sequences. Some action scenes aren't too bad, but they're far too short and far too few. I think in all there are a total of 5 action sequences in the whole film and most aren't worth mentioning.
The only positives in the film are the decent musical score and the films excellent cinematography.
CT,HD is little more than a poor attempt to remake the successful Wuxia films of Hong Kongs glory years of the 60's/ 70's. Since Louis Cha and Ku Lung are considered two of the greatest writers of the wuxia genre, and Shaw Brothers studios at the time to be considered the "Hollywood of the East", so those are the films i would recommend. I suggest the following (not all are written by Cha or Lung, or easy to find):
Come Drink With Me (Cheng Pei Pei, Yeuh Hua. Dir: King Hu)
Duel For Gold (Ivy Ling Po, Lo Lieh. Dir: Chu Yuan)
Have Sword, Will Travel (Ti Lung, David Chiang, Li Ching. Dir: Chang Cheh)
Golden Swallow (AKA Girl with the Thunderbolt- Kick Cheng Pei Pei, Wu Ma, Jimmy Wang Yu. Dir. Chang Cheh)
One Armed Swordsman (Jimmy Wang Yu, Ku Feng. Dir. Chang Cheh)
King Eagle (Ti Lung, Li Ching. Dir. ?)
Twelve Deadly Coins (Lo Lieh, Ching Li. Dir. Sui Jang Hung)
Clans of Intrigue (Ti Lung, Yueh Hua. Dir. Chu Yuan)
Hidden Power of the Dragon Sabre (Ti Lung. Dir: Chu Yuan)
I also HIGHLY recommend the movie "Musa". Released in 2001, tthis south Korean film (the most expensive ever made there) IS what CT,HD could only dream of being. I honestly believe you would enjoy, if not love, this movie. Easy to find now that its had a major DVD release in HK (but keep an eye out for the R3 2-disc set with hardcover book that came out a year ago or more).