Yu Shu Lien (Michelle Yeoh), probably the least excitable action heroine in modern movies, is given a sword by Li Mu Bai (Chow Yun Fat), for safekeeping.

NEWYORKER: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

It's Hong Kong film star and Hollywood hopeful Chow Yun Fat striking what appears to be a kung fu pose, a matchstick clenched between his teeth, presumably for extra threat value.

CNN: Raw, Original and Truthful

Indeed, you wander in the courtyard of your average assembly hall and you get the sense Chow Yun Fat is about to break out of the walls in a spectacularly choreographed fight scene.

BBC: Penang: Malaysia in miniature

Granted, the tale of the aristocratic Jen (played by Zhang Ziyi), her tangles with martial-arts masters Li Mubai (Chow Yun Fat) and Yu Shulien (Michelle Yeoh, fresh from her recent successful turn as a Bond girl), and her torrid romance with rough-hewn Lo (Chang Chen) is not that gripping.

CNN: From Our Correspondent: Movie with a Message

Meanwhile, Woo's favorite leading man, Chow Yun-fat, was shooting The Replacement Killers, which will hit cinemas soon.

CNN: OT ONLY DID HONG

When I see Chow Yun-fat, for example, I see Alain Delon, so I let him hold the gun the way Delon did.

CNN: The Next Mission

Earlier, Sorvino played in The Replacement Killers with Hong Kong's Chow Yun-fat.

CNN: PEOPLE

His acting career took off in 1986 when he starred opposite Hong Kong actor Chow Yun-Fat in John Woo's gangster movie A Better Tomorrow.

BBC: Actor Leslie Cheung 'found dead'