Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is a classic film that revolutionized martial arts action films. It was also the first ever Mandarin language film to be nominated for an Oscar. That is some big shoes to fill when the sequel, Sword of Destiny, was finally released on Netflix this past February. Was it able to match up? (Some spoilers)

Sword of Destiny was filmed many years later with a different director and a much smaller budget than the original. In these ways, the movie turned out fairly differently than many people expected. I don’t think it was worse, but I also don’t think it was better. Sword of Destiny should be seen as it’s own film and not just as a sequel. It’s impossible to live up to that legacy and when taken by itself, this movie is incredibly enjoyable and definitely worth a few watches when you have time on Netflix.

First lets take a look at the trailer:

Pretty sweet, huh? Indeed this film is full of action packed scenes and awe inspiring fights. Those fights do not have the dreamy dance filled quality of the first (mostly) and are shorter, but they are concise and well executed. The fighting in general, as well as the story, are more mainstream and movie slick than the original. Some might say that’s a bad thing while others will like it better. I was fine with it, although I did miss the original fights sometimes.

We are reintroduced to Yu Shu Lien (Michelle Yeoh) who has left fighting behind only to be dragged back into it when the sword of destiny must be delivered to an old friend for safe keeping. Her role stays much the same as it did in the first film where she is a troubled martial arts teacher, philosopher and warrior. Now though she does not want to fight and the return of her one time lover causes her great pain. Sadly that story is muted for the overall plot to continue and I thought that was a real shame.

We also see Silent Wolf (Donnie Yen) again and I was pleasantly surprised by how cavalier he was in much of this film. During a bar fight (that echoes back to the original as several scenes do) he does a fast move of stepping on everyone’s feet and is smiling and maybe he even lets out a laugh. He also cracks jokes and it’s kind of enduring. When it’s time to get serious he and Yu Shu Lien are able to pull it off beautifully and I still wish we had had more of them, but the time constraints on this movie hurt that.

The story I liked best was the other romance going on. It was able to be much more fleshed out and both characters backstories told and their feeling evaluated and dealt with. We have Wei Fang (Harry Shum Jr.) who tries to steal the sword to give to the evil bad guy Hades Dai (Jason Scott Lee), who has the most obvious bad guy name I’ve seen in ages. Why he does it makes sense when finally revealed, but you’ll have to watch it. I won’t spoil everything in this review! There is also Snow Vase (Natasha Liu Bordizzo) who is a young woman who also wants the sword for her own reasons and has quite the past. Yu Shu Lien ends up taking her on as a student and is worried about the darkness she sees in young Snow Vase’s eyes.

The two young loves give each other hateful stares more than smiles throughout most of the movie, but as you see their relationship grow you can’t help but root for them. The introduction of these two, plus some original fight scenes (the one on ice is especially great) make up a lot of this movies shortcomings.

Another part the movie got right was the scenery. Filmed in New Zealand and having the film saturate the colors gave this film a gorgeous backdrop that I kept having to remind myself to stop staring at. It really added to the films overall style and helped to soften any weak story lines.

When the final battle comes up, some of the fights were too short. The one between the evil sorceress and Yu Shu Lien was almost criminal in how short it ended up being. I also wasn’t entirely happy with how our main bad Hades Dai turned out to be pretty one dimensional. I did love the costumes used for his men and their face masks. Those were original and stood out in a dark and lovely way.

Generally this film did okay when it made references back to the original Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, but it did best when it was being itself. The new characters, the new love, the humor-these all worked and should have been further developed. Still I am happy with this film. I would definitely watch it again and if you ever need a live tweet buddy, look me up @quietlikeastorm and I will gladly watch it again with you.

Also seriously Netflix, why in the world do you not have the original movie so we can all do a big marathon? It would be amazing.

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