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Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon | 2000 | PG-13 | - 5.7.1
In this martial arts flick with a romantic twist, a swordfighter (Yun-Fat Chow) asks a fellow warrior (Michelle Yeoh) to deliver his 400-year-old sword to his mentor as a symbol of his new peaceful life; but the sword is stolen. Also with Ziyi Zhang, Chen Chang, Sihung Lung, Pei-pei Cheng. In Mandarin with English subtitles. [2:00]
SEX/NUDITY 5 - A young man and young woman kiss passionately several times. A young man and young woman wrestle to the ground, kiss passionately and it is implied they have sex: we see the man's hand come out of the top of a woman's skirt and briefly touch her clothed breast; then we see the woman on top of the man with her legs spread slightly (she's still wearing her skirt but it's up a bit and her legs are visible). We see the two talking and holding each other in a pool of water (their shoulders and lower neck and upper chest are bare; they're presumably naked). In two scenes we see them kissing passionately and again presumably making love (again, we see bare shoulders, and we see a young woman's bare shoulders and neck while she's bathing). A young woman's nipples are prominent after she moves away from being under a small waterfall and opens her outer shirt, revealing a wet white undershirt.
VIOLENCE/GORE 7 - Numerous sword fights and martial arts combat, including the use of various martial arts weapons. Many of these scenes are choreographed fights that look more like two people dancing rather than being violent toward each other. A man is hit in the chest with a sheathed sword. A woman throws a few roof tiles at a man. A woman throws a bale of hay or rice at a man and hits him in the back. A woman kicks and trips a man and a woman throws a rock at another woman and hits her in the arm. A woman punches and kicks another woman in the chest several times and a man grabs another man by the throat and holds him up against a wall. A man hits a woman with a pole and then kicks her several times. A woman throws a sharp object/weapon at a man, and a dart is thrown in a man's face, and a man is hit in the groin. A woman knocks another woman to the ground during a fight. A man is hit in the forehead with a flying, pointed weapon; it sticks in his head and causes a bit of blood to drip down his face. A woman has blood on her shirt. A man with a sword on a horse slices into a man (we see no blood). A man and woman fight with swords while riding horses; then they engage in serious hand-to-hand combat. A woman shoots a horse with an arrow. A man throws a woman over his shoulder and she hits the ground hard. A woman stabs a man in the chest with a pointed object and a little blood oozes out. A man spins another man in the air and then tosses him to the ground, and a woman knocks a man off a balcony; the man goes through a railing and falls several feet. And a woman hits a man in the back and knocks him down a flight of stairs. A woman wrecks a restaurant by jumping and kicking and chopping and throwing things. A woman hits a man in the head with a stone and knocks him out. Several men are very bruised and cut and scarred (we see some dried blood on a few faces and lips; one man has scratch marks on his chest). A woman slices a man in the arm with a sword. A man and woman have a sword fight atop some trees. A woman is impaled by a spear and we see quite a bit of blood bubble out of the gash; she then dies. A woman throws poison darts at people; one lands in a man's neck and he pulls it out but soon dies. A corpse is rolled into a ditch. A woman jumps off a bridge into a deep gorge, obviously committing suicide (but we don't see the body land). A man uses a small metal object to get something out of a woman's foot. We see the bones of a long-dead animal.
LANGUAGE 1 - A few minor insults.
DISCUSSION TOPICS - Arranged marriage, suicide, vengeance, hubris, bucking convention and tradition, family, independence, being a warrior.
MESSAGE - Carve your own path in life; "be strong but supple."
CAVEATS
Be aware that while we do our best to avoid spoilers it is impossible to disguise all details and some may reveal crucial plot elements.
We've gone through several editorial changes since we started covering films in 1992 and older reviews are not as complete & accurate as recent ones; we plan to revisit and correct older reviews as resources and time permits.
Our ratings and reviews are based on the theatrically-released versions of films; on video there are often Unrated, Special, Director's Cut or Extended versions, (usually accurately labelled but sometimes mislabeled) released that contain additional content, which we did not review.
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