Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny DVD

First, a disclaimer. I have studied Taoism and Buddhism for many years. I am thrilled to see my dreams of China on the screen: such beauty, such unique characters, such understated tragedy of Hamletesque screenwriting and characters.Those who do not have a special connection to China will still love this movie (if they aren't Joe sixpack who won't read subtitles.) The on-screen letterbox book format made the subs very readable and were very close to the words spoken by the actors.This is an extraordinary movie, a reminder of the secrets of Asia and the beauty of martial arts when danced, not punched, with one's opponent -- the dance that is the art of Tao combined with the warrior duty of the Emporor's dynasty. Women viewers will be stunned by the beauty and strength of these fluid participants in their destiny. I continue to learn more of the language, the landscape I see in my dreams, the words I hear when reading the sacred scripts.The sheer beauty of the choreography is stunning in the mist that is China. Yo Yo Ma outdoes himself in the soundtrack and I will add it to my extensive collection of his work. Even those who don't appreciate the soul of a great Cellist must have this opportunity to dip their fingers in the water of orchestral beauty. I suggest "The Last Emporer" when adding this to yourwish list and reserving a full evening to find your way to the Oriental mysteries--older than any other great civilization--fresh and inspiring to us.

Sword of Destiny is a sequel to the 2000 movie Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. It stars Michelle Yeoh (who was the only cast member from the original film to return for the sequel), Donnie Yen, Natasha Liu Bordizzo, Jason Scott Lee, Harry Shum Jr., Eugenia Yuan, Roger Yuan, JuJu Chan, Chris Pang, Woo Young Park, and Darryl Quon. The movie is set 18 years after the events of the first film. In the movie, we learn a bit more about Shu Lien's (Yeoh's character) past and the man to whom she was betrothed. There is another fight for, and an attempt to steal, the Green Destiny, which is still at the home of the recently deceased Ser Te, and then there are some weird side plots.The DVD can be played in a variety of languages (defaulting to Chinese), with an English audio track also available. The movie was actually filmed in English, even though it was released in Hong Kong and China before being released in the US. Therefore, if you watch it with the English audio track, you won't have to sit through bad overdubbing.The movie is okay, but nowhere near as good as the original film. It features some good action sequences, some of which pay homage to scenes from the first film. I think it would have been better as a straight sequel to the first movie, telling what happened to Jen after she jumped from the mountain, and what Shu Lien did after Li Mu Bai's death. Ultimately, it is not a must-watch, but if you liked the first movie, it is interesting to check out.

Delivered promptly and was the same item as shown on site. However, the English subtitles are a mess - they appear to be translated one Chinese character at a time rather than as a complete sentence. There is almost no punctuation, just a stream of words that hardly makes sense given the context of the movie. If you merely want the movie or are lucky enough to understand Chinese, then this is a deal. If not, you may want to skip this or look into srt files for better translations.

DVD arrived per noticies, no delay or damage.

Continuing story of Hidden Dragon-Crouching Tiger. Will watch this again and again.

DVD works perfectly and arrived quickly. One of my all-time favorite films in every possible way!

but we loved it

I purchased the item because I like to have the sequel to videos when they are available. I do not recall see, or didn't notice this is a Netflx's production. It is not a blu day disc. The cost + shipping and handling is not worth the approximate cost of 40.00. INote: a previous comment may have given this seller a rating of five. A mistake. It was meant for another seller. I clicked on the wrong link. Sorry.

I love the series! Very well done!!! Great for practicing and learning Chinese as well!!!

Must see movie!!! Loved the acting!! Great story!!! amazing action!!! English dubbing is awesome!!!

Good movie,a classic,I would have given it 5 stars if it had an english voice option.

Great follow-up to the original, set and filmed nearly 20 years after the original. A great addition to the story line instead of just another sequel. This one needed to be made!

We really liked the movie, always a fan of Michelle Yeoh. DVD came in very good condition.

Here we have another failure of Amazon's practice of lumping ALL the versions/editions/releases of a title into a single listing. What I received when I ordered from this listing was the HongKong/Macau release. Video and original Cantonese audio were OK in quality, but the English subtitles were quite incomprehensible, obviously produced by a non-English speaker with access to a Chinese-English dictionary doing literal word-by-word substitutions. The BEST subtitles in the film were atrociously bad, and the TYPICAL subtitles were surreal word-jazz with few verbs.I like the film, but I would like it a lot better if I weren't making up the dialog for myself while watching it.Sword of Destiny shares many structures with the original CTHD. Older couple with unrequited romantic inclinations, younger couple where the girl was mentored by a villain. Scope is less "epic", with fewer should-have-been-edited-out interludes (like the extended desert wandering in the original CTHD); film is shorter and tidier as a result. The band of guard characters probably seems like less of a tacked-on narrative sideshow for disposable minions if you have some idea what they're saying; without dialog, these guys are extremely one dimensional (and ultimately expendable without audience engagement).There was only one battle I would call completely gratuitous (at least without the benefit of dialog), and the climax battle had several "Ow, THAT's got to hurt" stunts I'd not seen before. Most of the wushu action was well choreographed (although I'd swear that early in the film there was one faked punch that missed by a visible 4 inches), and the amount of wire-supported leaping and gliding silently over rooftops, while still present for the main characters, is somewhat less than in the original CTHD.

Arrived on time and exactly as described. A+ for the seller. The film was obviously not as good as the original, but it is, nonetheless a thoroughly entertaining and thrilling movie. Great fight sequences and Michelle Yeoh and Donnie Yen are real high points, as usually. Highly recommended for all who enjoyed the original.

Donnie Yen is already a huge star in Hong Kong. He is by far one of the greatest martial artists alive.

The DVD was defective because it would not play in English subtitles. I returned the DVD and re-ordered the non-Superbit DVD which had English language dubbed in to the movie so I didn't need the subtitles. That new DVD played fine and the English was matched in very well to the movie.

well this movie took a long time getting here and it was not spoken in the right language but may not order again sorry not happy

This was a very good movie. My second time watching it.My only drawback from 5 star is that it was very dark at times. I believe the mechanics of making Fighting movies keeps it that way.But if they ever lighten the fighting scenes, the star will be awarded.

This review is based on the differences between the standard DVD disc and the Superbit version only. Based on that, I recommend that you save your money and get the standard version. You'll get more features, while barely losing any audio or video quality, which is the whole reason for buying a Superbit disc in the first place. I've watched this movie on my 40" LCD Sony XBR BRAVIA (720 dpi), an OPPO upscaling DVD player, and 5.1 sound system, and for this movie, I didn't see any perceivable difference in video quality from the standard version. So unless they're selling this Superbit version for 10 bucks or less (which seems to be the trend since Superbit discs may become moot now that HD DVD and Blu-Ray discs are starting to come out), I'd recommend getting the standard version of this movie, which sells for about 10 bucks at the major electronic retailers.