Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

Ang Lee's 2000 wuxia epic earned $213M worldwide on a $17M budget and won 4 Academy Awards including Best Foreign Language Film. It introduced Western audiences to wire-fu choreography by Yuen Woo-ping, influencing The Matrix and dozens of subsequent films. 30% faster-paced than the average wuxia film, and its breathtaking bamboo forest fight outperforms even Gladiator's colosseum battles in vertical imagination.