By David Chang Feb 1, 2006, 14:19 GMT
Taipei - Now that Taiwan-born Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain, a tale about love between two American gay cowboys, has gathered eight Oscar nominations, Taiwan is waiting anxiously for Lee to win the Oscars on March 5.
Winning Oscars is not only a recognition of Lee's cinematographic achievements, but also a life-saving shot into the arm of Taiwan's film industry, analysts said on Wednesday, a day after the nominations were announced in the US.
In Taiwan nearly everyone - from President Chen Shui-bian to street vendors and farmers - is excited that Brokeback Mountain has won eight Oscar nominations and hopes it will win more Oscars than any other movie at next month's Academy Awards ceremony in Hollywood.
Chen, in his online newsletter, hailed Lee as 'the glory of Taiwan' and said he hopes Brokeback Mountain will win Oscars so that it can stimulate Taiwan's film industry and launch Taiwan films to audiences around the world.
While recognizing Lee's cinematographic success, Chen also lauded Lee's patriotism.
'Lee left for the US when he was 23 but he has never forgotten his roots. Everywhere he goes, he tells foreigners he is from Taiwan. All Taiwanese must learn from Lee his patriotism,' Chen wrote in his newsletter.
Taiwan press gave wide coverage of Brokeback Mountain winning eight Oscar nominations. The United Daily News carried a file photo of Lee waving his hand with the caption 'Ang Lee Marching towards Oscar'.
Era TV said that if Lee wins the Oscar for Best Director, he will be the first Asian director to win that prize.
The eagerness of Taiwanese for Brokeback Mountain to win Oscars shows that many Taiwanese believe Lee, who already has a pack of prize-winning films under his belt, deserves Hollywood's highest honour.
The son of a Taiwan high school principle, Lee embarked on the road of film making in 1973 when he enrolled in the Film & Drama Department of National Arts School in Panchia near Taipei.
At 23, he went to the US to study film-making at New York University and has lived in the US since then.
Now 51 years old, Lee is the only Chinese director who is at ease in making English films and Chinese films, thanks to his understanding of the two cultures.
Lee began to shine on the international stage when he directed the film Pushing Hands in 1991 for Taiwan's Central Motion Picture Corp. The film won the Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress awards at Taiwan's Golden Horse Film Festival and the Jury's Special Award at Hong Kong's Asia Pacific Film Festival.
It was followed by two more Chinese films - Wedding Banquet (1993) and Drink, Eat, Man, Woman (1994). Wedding Banquet, a gay film, won the Golden Bear award at the 1993 Berlin Film Festival.
In the next ten years, Lee directed Sense and Sensibility (1995), Ice Storm (1997), Ride with the Devil (1999) Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) and Hulk (2003).
Sense and Sensibility, adapted from Jane Austin's novel and starring Emma Thompson, Hugh Grant and Kate Winslet, won the Golden Bear in 1995 for Best Picture.
Lee's biggest success so far is the English-language Chinese kung fu film Couching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, starring Hong Kong's Chow Yun-fat, Malaysia's Michelle Yeo and China's Zhang Ziyi. It won Oscars in 2000 for Best Foreign Language Film, Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction and Best Music.
Some Chinese believe the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences of the US has not awarded an Oscar for Best Director to Ang Lee partly because he is Chinese.
'Racial discrimination plays a role in Oscar awards. They do not want the top Oscar prize to go to an Asian,' Taiwan documentary maker Chen Chun-chih told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa. <!--page-->
Lee's younger brother Lee Kang said 'it's about time that Ang Lee wins the Oscar for Best Director.'
But Ang Lee is not that anxious. In an telephone interview with United Daily News from his New York home on Tuesday, Lee said he is very happy about the Oscar nominations, but he is calm and not as nervous as he was when he was waiting for the announcement of Oscars for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
'I was under more pressure because I felt I was using that film to usher Chinese films into the international arena. This time, Brokeback Mountain has already won many prizes so I think it's natural that it won eight Oscar nominations,' he said.
Brokeback Mountain has put Taiwan's gay community into a jubilant mood because the film portrays true love between gays while homosexuality is still a taboo subject in much of Asia.
'Brokeback Mountain has triggered heated discusssions on the internet, not only by gays but also by straights,' said film-maker Chen Chun-chih, who is gay.
'Some gay friends say that when the film ended and lights came on in the cinema, they saw many gay couples wipe away each other's tears. From the discussions on the internet, you can see that some straights envy the love between the two gay cowboys. To us, Ang Lee's biggest contribution is his positive portrayal of love between gays,' he said.
Lee's direction of two gay-themed films has triggered speculation among Taiwanese that he might also be gay, but Lee has denied it.
'I made gay films because I think it is a subject worth exploring. One does not have to be a homosexual to make a homosexual movie, just like one does not need to be a murderer to shoot a murder movie,' he said on TVBS.
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