In 19th century Qing Dynasty China, a warrior (Chow Yun-Fat) gives his magical jade sword, Green Destiny, to his lover (Michelle Yeoh) to deliver to safe keeping, but it is stolen, and the chase is on to find it. As the search leads to the House of Yu, the story takes on a whole different level, including the manipulations of the wicked warrior, Jade Fox (Cheng Pei-Pei), a mysterious young woman (Zhang Ziyi), and her desert lover (Chang Chen).

Winner of the 2001 Oscar Awards for Foreign Language Film, Art Direction, Cinematography, and Music (Score).