Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny 臥虎藏龍：青冥寶劍 2016- China/America

In 2000, Director Ang Lee brought America a surprising success with the Chinese epic, martial arts film, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and now 16 years later a sequel has been born. Released exclusively through the streaming system Netflix, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny (臥虎藏龍：青冥寶劍) has not been able to hold up next to its predecessor. With a completely new cast including Donnie Yen (Ip Man), Harry Shum Jr. (Glee) and Natasha Liu Bordizzo, the only familiar face is Michelle Yeoh who is reprising her role as Yu Shu Lein. 


Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny is a sequel that probably did not need to be made, however, like most sequels it seems they felt it would ride the tales of the original's success. Directed by Yuen Woo-ping, the fight scene choreographer from the original, this film follows Shu Lein who returns to the house of Sir Te after the Sword of Destiny is found. She is greeted by an old flame and takes on a young girl's training who happens to have some type of history with a captured bandit. 

It is clear that this film does not hold the majestic storyline as does the original. Though some of the scenery and the fight scenes are still beautiful and wonderfully choreographed, it feels there is more fights than there is a story. Upon its release in China, many audience goers complained about the lack of connection it had to its predecessors as well as it feeling to "westernized". Unlike the original, many of the actors and actresses in Sword of Destiny are Asian-American or Australian actors, and though there is an option to watch the film in Mandarin, the English through out the film is strange. Some characters have British accents, while some do not. At time, it also feels as if the actors have been dubbed with voices that are a bit off. 

In the end, I did not completely dislike this film. It was entertaining enough for me to watch it all the way through. The fight scenes were still exciting to watch, and though some of the CGI was a bit cheap looking, the film was not that bad. If it was its own film, it may have been more highly reviewed, but it is not easy following in the footsteps of a foreign film that had such a surprising success in American markets. 
The moral of this review is - 99% of the time sequels do not need to be made.

CHECK OUT THE TRAILER BELOW AND CATCH THIS FILM ON NETFLIX

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