YMMV / Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

• Adaptation Displacement: Started out as the fourth book in a pentalogy Wuxia novel series, written by Wang Dulu. It's evident in the film since there are assumed events and relationships that give the film a sequel tone.
• Americans Hate Tingle: Despite being one of the most iconic and beloved Wuxia films of all time in the West, the film is mostly disliked in China, where many audiences perceived it as an unremarkable Americanized copycat of a venerable Chinese cinematic tradition. It doesn't exactly help that the main stars were from different regions of East Asia (Chow Yun-fat is from Hong Kong, Michelle Yeoh is Malaysian, Zhang Ziyi is from Beijing, and Chang Chen is Taiwanese), resulting in the four of them having very distinct regional accents (despite the film ostensibly being set in and around Beijing during the reign of the Qin Dynasty), making much of the dialogue sound unintentionally ridiculous to viewers who actually speak Mandarin.
• Broken Base: Wuxia fans were quite divided on it. Some thought it was excellent, while others thought it paled in comparison to other films in the genre.
• Fridge Brilliance: Li Mu Bai only really unabashedly smiles while sparring with Jen. Was it the sword he really craved — or was it teaching?
• Gateway Series: Many a Westerner's first exposure to Wuxia films and fiction.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: Asian audiences mostly found it overrated and not outstanding in terms of wuxia stories. Western audiences loved it to death.
• It's Popular, Now It Sucks!: Go on the Internet and you will find many wuxia fans who don't consider this a "real" wuxia movie, and say that it only became popular because it was made specifically for American audiences and not the more wuxia friendly China.
• Magnificent Bitch: Jade Fox once posed as a nun to infiltrate the Wudan school. Becoming the lover of its master, Jade Fox grew resentful of how he refused to see her as a student for her gender. Poisoning him, Jade Fox stole the Wudan manual to become a capable martial artist and fled, leaving a legacy of villainy behind her. Later infiltrating a noble household, she became the master to its daughter Jen, who later surpassed her. Fleeing after killing a policeman and realizing Jen's true abilities, Jade Fox returns to save Jen and use her to bait a trap for her enemies with her final act being to attempt to kill Jen with poison, calling her one-time apprentice "My only family. My only enemy."
• Memetic Mutation: "Crouching X, Hidden Y."
• Signature Scene: If any scene is remembered from this movie, it's the fight between Shu Lien and Jen, where one of China's greatest armsmasters takes on the woman wielding the Green Destiny. The entire movie up until the moment the fight begins sets up this scene by showing Shu Lien's blossoming friendship with Jen and Jen's gradual downfall becoming addicted to the Green Destiny, and the intensity they fight with demonstrates just how much the two have lost coming to blows. The fight itself is a masterclass in choreography, with Shu Lien expertly wielding two fu tao, a spear, a kanabo, and more as she demonstrates true mastery in combat. The Green Destiny destroys all of the weapons, but in the end, Shu Lien manages to prove that training and diligence can overcome even a sword that powerful by ending the fight victorious.

---