[Photo: Chan Kam Chuen / Sony Pictures] Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, a feminist fable of romance and rebellion, finally arrives to thrill Tampa Bay audiences.

Cover Story
Surrender to the 'Tiger'
Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon makes you want to suspend reality and just enjoy the action, the drama and the romance.

CD Review
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is one of the year's hottest movies. Could its success have anything to do with the score by Tan Dun, a leading Chinese composer?

Film
For the love of love
An Italian tale of first love, Malena exudes a quiet sensuality that also reveals a palpable despair amid the tension of Fascist World War II.

Persall's Top Five
Recent releases recommended by Times film critic Steve Persall

Film: Also in Theaters
Definitely a horror

Family Movie Guide
The Family Movie Guide should be used along with the Motion Picture Association of America rating system for selecting movies suitable for children.

Get Away
Good dog!
ST. PETERSBURG -- Dog lovers can watch Labradors, Jack Russell terriers and other breeds perform athletic feats Saturday as the Purina Dog Chow Incredible Dog Challenge returns to the downtown St. Petersburg waterfront for the third year.

Dance with the man behind 'N Sync's moves
Darrin Henson brings his dance workshop to Tampa on Sunday.

Elegance from 'Ebony'
The annual fundraiser fashion show brings haute couture to the catwalk in Tampa.

Paperback readers ...
... and pulp magazine aficionados, let the browsing begin. The Vintage Paperback and Pulp Show offers great gleaning for readers seeking goosebumps.

Get Away: Hot Ticket
Hey, Mom and Dad, it's Barney!

Get Away: Down the road
Events to watch for; details in future editions of Weekend.

IN FLORIDIAN Hot Dame! Listen up, possums. The Australian icon of snobbery is on the way to skewer your pitiful little lives -- and make you roar with laughter.

Stage
Music and the minister
Lewis Sligh, a member of the Florida Orchestra and the Episcopal clergy, finds that his two callings have a lot of common ground.

Stage: On the horizon
Falstaff -- The Sarasota Opera season opens with Verdi's Falstaff on Feb. 10. $75-$100.

Stage: Hot Ticket
Jahja Ling's other orchestra

Video
'What Lies Beneath' a poor Hitchcock ripoff
"What Lies Beneath is moody about all this eerie stuff, to the point of being laughable. Claire drags out a Ouija board . . . and you can cut the tension with a feather."

Art
Art: Best bets
Art critic Mary Ann Marger's recommendations for this weekend. Please refer to the Art Calendar for details.

The cup is full at the Arts Center
There's great depth in a show of glass by Duncan McClellan and mixed media by John and Lynn Whipple.

Art: Hot Ticket
Book brings artist home

Pop
Pop: On the horizon
Mark Chestnutt and Clay Davidson -- Feb. 8, Florida State Fair: $5

For Bela Fleck, the banjo has no bounds
He's done pop, jazz, bluegrass, country and music for children, and now Fleck is adding something new to his repertoire: classical (yes, that's Beethoven et al.).

Pop: Ticket Window
Tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. Saturday for AC/DC, performing at 7:30 p.m. March 21 at the Ice Palace in Tampa. Tickets are $35-$45 and are available at the Ice Palace box office (813) 223-1000 or Ticketmaster at (813) 287-8844 or (727) 898-2100.

Team Pop Trivia
This week's winner: Deborah King of St. Petersburg knew that the boys in Lynyrd Skynyrd went to high school in Jacksonville. King scored a hot rockin' Southern-fried Weekend T-shirt.

Pop: Hot Ticket
Nothing holy about this Reverend

Night Life
Life is good on the beach
Ruppert Blaize and his band Hard Currency provide the calypso, reggae and Top 40 at the Adam's Mark tiki bar.

Dine
Now this is lunch
Palm Harbor's Mecca beckons to all who love comforting foods with international flavor, from soba noodles to panini.

Side dish
DANDY DINING

Shop
Fashionable frameworks
E-mail and hand-held planners are groovy as can be, but they're lousy for displaying vacation photos, treasured notes, soon-to-be-due bills, soccer schedules, babysitter memos and Dame Edna tickets. Thank goodness for bulletin boards with style.