Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon may not be a perfect film, but
it is most certainly a great film. Officially putting Ang Lee on the map, and
given his output we can debate the worth of that till kingdom come, its
combination of breath-taking fight scenes and phenomenal writing, not to
mention outright iconic music, resulted in what I would genuinely consider to
be a work of art. But more so than its merits as a film in its own right, its
place within film history is difficult to ignore as well. An international
co-production, it has gone into legend for basically breaking the Hollywood
system and what films should be expected to make an commercial impact, becoming
an exception to the rule that would end up having new rules written around it.
With all this in mind, and considering the unexpected quality control that can
go into Netflix releases, the prospect of a sequel to a film like this is
certainly interesting. But considering the Sequel Rules made around those that
are made over a decade after the fact, and the low expectations for success,
how did it turn out?
