Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

A sword master who spent his life rejecting the physical world in pursuit of enlightenment giving his last breath to his earthly lover and a noble family's daughter trapped by traditional gender norms searching for an escape. This is primarily her story. Its scale feels fairly minor as it's mostly contained to only a handful of characters. However, the wide landscape shots, the setting and the overall tone are characteristic for the historical epic genre, albeit a fairly short one with a runtime of about 2 hours. I was pleasently surprised by how focused it is on its female characters. Whereas many historical epics use women as inconsequential objects of desire for the male leads without any agency, the movie centers its female characters and their struggles. Here, the plot progresses through the actions of three women and the ending reads to me as a poetic reclamation of female autonomy and independence. I loved everything about this so much, from the weightless parkour over the snappy action choreography to the strong emotional core(s). As someone who hasn't watched all that much wuxia, the former took only a brief moment of getting used to. What an incredibly well-directed action movie. Every punch, every kick and every sword movement feels meaningful. Fighting is communication between the characters.