Ang Lee Biography
Summary
"Ang Lee" () (born October 23, 1954) is an Academy Award-winning film director from Taiwan.
Career overview
Many of Ang Lee's films have focused on the interactions between modernity and tradition. Some of his films have also had a light-hearted comic tone which marks a break from the tragic historical realism which characterized Taiwanese filmmaking after the end of the martial law period in 1987. Lee's films also tend to draw on deep secrets and internal torment that come to the surface, such as in the gay-themed films "The Wedding Banquet" (1993) and "Brokeback Mountain" (2005) (won the Academy Award for Best Director), the martial arts epic "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" (2000) (nominated for Academy Award for Best Director), and the comic book adaptation "Hulk" (2003).
The director's cut of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" premiered on the Ivy League campus of Dartmouth College in 2000. (... more) He received the Dartmouth Film Award in 2001, along with Meryl Streep. At Dartmouth, he also taught Kai Wong filmmaking.
Lee's film "Brokeback Mountain" (2005) won the Golden Lion (best film) award at the Venice International Film Festival and was named 2005's best film by the Los Angeles, New York, Boston, and London film critics. It also won best picture at the 2005 Broadcast Film Critics Association, Directors Guild of America, Writers Guild of America (Adapted Screenplay), Producers Guild of America and the Independent Spirit Awards as well as the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture - Drama, with Lee winning the Golden Globe Award for Best Director. Brokeback also won Best Film and Best Director at the 2006 British Academy Awards (BAFTA). In January 2006, Brokeback scored a leading eight Academy Award nominations including Best Picture and Best Director, which Lee won. He is the first Asian director to do so.
Biography
Education
Ang Lee was born in the town of Chaojhou in Pingtung, a southern agricultural county in Taiwan. He grew up in a house that put heavy emphasis on education and the Chinese classics. Both of Ang Lee's parents moved to Taiwan from China following the Nationalists' defeat in the Chinese Civil War in 1949. Lee's father, a native of Jiangxi Province in southern China, imbued his children with studying Chinese culture and art, especially calligraphy. Lee's grandparents died during the Cultural Revolution because they were accused of being one of the Five Black Categories ()
Lee studied in the prestigious Tainan First Senior High School where his father was a former principal. He was expected to pass the annual Joint College/University Entrance Examination, the only route to a university education in Taiwan. But after failing the Exam twice, to the disappointment of his father, he entered a three-year college, National Arts School (now reorganized and expanded as (National Taiwan University of Arts) ) and graduated in 1975. His father had wanted him to become a professor, but he had become interested in art at college. This early frustration set his career on the path of performance art.
After finishing the mandatory military service, Lee went to the U.S. in 1979 to study at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he completed his bachelor's in theater in 1980. Thereupon, he enrolled at the Tisch School of the Arts of New York University, where he received his MFA. He was a classmate of Spike Lee and worked on the crew of his thesis film, "Joe's Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads." During graduate school, Lee finished a 16-mm short film, "Shades of the Lake" (1982), which won the Best Drama Award in Short Film in Taiwan. His own thesis work, a 43-minute drama, "Fine Line" (1984), won NYU's prestigious Wasserman Award for Outstanding Direction and was later selected for the Public Broadcasting Service.
Dormancy after graduation
Lee's NYU thesis drew attention from the William Morris Agency, the famous talent and literary agency that later represented Lee. At first, though, WMA found Lee few opportunities, and Lee remained unemployed for six years. During this time, he was a full-time househusband, while his wife Jane Lin (), a molecular biologist, was the sole breadwinner for the family of four. This arrangement, an embarrassment in Chinese culture, put enormous pressure on the couple, but with Lin's support and understanding, Lee did not abandon his career in films but continued to generate new ideas from movies and performances. He also wrote several screenplays during this time.
In 1990, Lee submitted two screenplays, "Pushing Hands" and "The Wedding Banquet", to a competition sponsored by Taiwan's Government Information Office, and they came in first and second respectively. The winning screenplays brought Lee to the attention of Li-Kong Hsu (), a recently promoted senior manager in a major studio who had strong interests in Lee's unique style and freshness. Hsu, a first-time producer, invited Lee to direct "Pushing Hands", a full-length feature that debuted in 1991.
Debut from Taiwan
"Pushing Hands" (1992) was a success in Taiwan both among critics and at the box office. It received eight nominations in the Golden Horse Film Festival, Taiwan's premier film festival. Inspired by the success, Hsu collaborated with Lee in their second film, "The Wedding Banquet" (1993), which won the Golden Bear in the Berlin Film Festival and was nominated as the Best Foreign Language Film in both the Golden Globe and the Academy Awards. In all, this film collected eleven Taiwanese and international awards and made Lee a rising star.
Lee's first two movies were based on stories of Taiwanese Americans, and both were filmed in the US. In 1995, Hsu invited Lee to return to Taiwan to make "Eat Drink Man Woman", a film that depicts traditional values, modern relationships, and family conflicts in Taipei. The film was once again a box office hit and was critically acclaimed. For a second consecutive year, Lee's film received the Best Foreign Language Film nomination in both the Golden Globe and Academy Awards, as well as in the British Academy Award. "Eat Drink Man Woman" won five awards in Taiwan and internationally, including the Best Director from Independent Spirit. Hollywood optioned the film rights and remade it into "Tortilla Soup" (2001, dir. Marķa Ripoll). This is one of the rare occasions in which a Taiwanese film was remade outside the island.
Coming to Hollywood
Lee's three dramas opened the door to Hollywood for him. In 1995, Lee directed Columbia TriStar's British classical "Sense and Sensibility". The switching from Taiwanese to British films did not stop Lee from claiming awards in the film festivals. "Sense and Sensibility" made Lee a second time director of the Golden Bear film in the Berlin Film Festival, and it was nominated in 7 Academy Awards and won the Best Adapted Screenplay by Emma Thompson. It also won the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture - Drama. After these successes, Lee directed another two Hollywood movies: "The Ice Storm" (1997), a family-oriented satire set in 1970s suburban America, and "Ride with the Devil," an American Civil War drama (1999).
Although the critics still highly favored these works, the box office was not impressive, which paused Lee's uninterrupted popularity from the general audience and art schools since his first full-length movie. However, in the late 1990s and 2000s, "The Ice Storm" has had high VHS and DVD sales and rentals and repeated screenings on Cable television, which has increased the film's popularity among audiences.
Wuxia and the superhero genre
In 1999, Li-Kong Hsu, Lee's old partner and supporter, invited him to make a movie based on the traditional Chinese 'wuxia? (martial arts and chivalry) genre. Excited about the opportunity to fulfill his childhood dream, Lee assembled a team from Taiwan, Hong Kong, and China for "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" (2000). The film was a surprising success worldwide. With Chinese dialogue and English subtitles, the film became the highest grossing foreign film in many countries, including the United States and the United Kingdom, and was nominated for Best Picture, Best Foreign Language Film, and Best Director at the Academy Awards. It ended up winning Best Foreign Language Film and three technical awards. The success of "Crouching Tiger" demonstrated that Lee's artistry had a general appeal; it also inspired such established directors as Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige to explore wuxia films for Western audience.
In 2003, Lee returned to Hollywood to direct "Hulk", his first big-budget movie. Even though the film was based on a comic book superhero and was filled with obligatory CGI special effects, Lee used the genre to tell the tortuous story between a father and his son. The movie was a disappointment amongst both critics and audiences. After the setback, Lee considered retiring early, but his father encouraged him to continue making movies.
Climbing the Mountain
Lee decided to take on a small-budget, low-profile independent film based on Annie Proulx's Pulitzer Prize-finalist short story, "Brokeback Mountain". In a 2005 article by Robert K. Elder, Lee was quoted as saying, 'What do I know about gay ranch hands in Wyoming?'
In spite of the director's removal from the subject at hand, "Brokeback Mountain" showcased Lee's skills in probing depths of the human heart.
The 2005 movie about the forbidden love between two Wyoming cowboys immediately caught public attention and initiated intense debates. The film was critically acclaimed at major international film festivals and won Lee numerous Best Director and Best Film awards worldwide. In addition, 'Brokeback' became a cultural phenomenon and a box office hit. 'Brokeback' was nominated for a leading eight Oscars and was the frontrunner for Best Picture heading into the March 5 ceremony, but lost out to "Crash", a story about race relations in Los Angeles, in a controversial upset. There was speculation that the film's depiction of homosexuality might have been the reason for that upset, while others speculate that "Crash" was simply a better movie. Lee said he was disappointed that his film did not win Best Picture, but was honored to win Best Director, becoming the first Asian to ever win the award.
Lust, Caution
After "Brokeback Mountain", Lee seems to follow his precedence that alternates his work between the western and Chinese. His next film is "Lust, Caution", which is adapted from a short novel by a Chinese author Eileen Chang. The story was written in 1950 loosely based on an actual event that took place in 1939-1940 in Japanese occupied-Shanghai, China, during World War II. Similar to "Brokeback Mountain", Ang Lee adapted and expanded a short, simple story into a featured film in a way that allows individual figures to develop sophisticated layers of reserved emotions without being sidetracked by complicated plots or overstuffed materials.
"Lust, Caution" is being distributed by Focus Features and premiered at international film festivals in the summer and early fall of 2007. In the US, the movie received a NC-17 rating (no one 17 and under admitted) from the MPAA mainly due to several strongly explicit sex scenes. This was a challenge to the film's distribution because many theater chains in the United States refuse to show NC-17 films. The director and film studio have decided not to appeal the decision. In order to be permitted to show "Lust, Caution" in mainland China, however, Lee removed 9 minutes from the film to make the content suitable for minor audiences according to government restrictions.
"Lust, Caution" won the Golden Lion from 2007 Biennale Venice Film Festival, making Lee awarded the highest prize for the second time in three years. The critics in the US, however, are not all positive. When "Lust, Caution" was played in Lee's native Taiwan in its original full-length edition, it was very well received. Staying in Taiwan to promote the film and for a traditional Chinese holiday at that time, Lee got emotional when he found that his work was widely applauded by his fellow people. Lee admitted that he had low expectations for this film from the US audience since 'its pace, its film language - it's all very Chinese.'
Upcoming work
Ang Lee's next film is rumored to be (A Little Game) , based on the play by Gerald Sibleyras and Jean Dell. Long-time collaborator James Schamus is also currently attached to the script.
Collaborations with James Schamus
Ang Lee is also known for his longtime collaboration with writer/producer James Schamus, with whom he co-wrote and produced nearly all his films, including "Pushing Hands," "Eat Drink Man Woman," "The Wedding Banquet," "The Ice Storm," "Ride with the Devil," "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon," "Tortilla Soup," "Hulk," "Brokeback Mountain," and "Lust, Caution".
Personal life
Lee lives in Westchester, New York, with his wife and son, Mason Lee. Mason is pursuing a career in acting, and is currently in the play Zanna, Don't! with the Play Group Theatre.
Linguistic diversity in Chinese films
Ang's Chinese language films show a fair amount of linguistic diversity, which is rarely found at all in most Chinese films. In "Pushing Hands", Mr. Old Chu had a fat T'ai Chi Ch'uan student who spoke Cantonese. In "The Wedding Banquet", Wai-tun Gao's would-be bride of convenience Wei-wei, spoke to her parents on the telephone in the Wu dialect (Shanghainese). And the Chinese restaurant's owner spoke Mandarin with a Sichuan accent. In "Eat Drink Man Woman", most of the younger generation spoke Mandarin with a Taiwanese accent; a matriarch spoke Mandarin with a Hunan accent. There was also a scene in "Eat Drink Man Woman" where an old man spoke to Jia-Chien in Taiwanese, while she responded in Mandarin. While Chow Yun-Fat and Michelle Yeoh were criticized by Mandarin speakers for what they considered Mandarin with poor accents in "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon", Yeoh pointed out in an December 28, 2000 interview with Cinescape that 'My character lived outside of Beijing, and so I didn't have to do the Beijing accent.? When the interviewer Craig Reid remarked that 'my mother-in-law has this strange Sichuan-Mandarin accent that's hard for me to understand,? Yeoh responded 'yes, provinces all have their very own strong accents. When we first started the movie, Cheng Pei Pei was going to have her accent, and Chang Zhen was going to have his accent, and this person would have that accent. And in the end nobody could understand what they were saying. Forget about us, even the crew from Beijing thought this was all weird.? In Lust, Caution, languages range from Cantonese, Shanghainese, Mandarin, Suzhou dialect, to foreign speaker spoken Hindi, Japanese and English.
Films
Director
"See also:" Films directed by Ang Lee
Writer
"Pushing Hands" () (1992)
"The Wedding Banquet" () (1993)
"Eat Drink Man Woman" () (1994)
"Siao Yu" () (1995)
Actor
"The Wedding Banquet" () (1993)
"The Hulk" (2003)
Editing
"Pushing Hands" () (1992)
"Eat Drink Man Woman" () (1994)
Producer
"Siao Yu" () (1995)
"Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" () (2000)
Awards
Best Director, National Board of Review of Motion Pictures for "Sense and Sensibility" (1995)
Best Director, New York Film Critics Circle Awards for "Sense and Sensibility" (1995)
Best Director, Independent Spirit Awards for "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" (2001)
Best Director/Motion Picture, Golden Globes for "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" (2001)
Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures, Directors Guild of America for "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon"(2001)
The David Lean Award for Achievement in Directing, BAFTA Awards for "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" (2001)
Best Director, Boston Society of Film Critics for "Brokeback Mountain" (2005)
Best Director, Broadcast Film Critics Association for "Brokeback Mountain" (2005)
Best Director, Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association for "Brokeback Mountain" (2005)
Best Director, Independent Spirit Awards for "Brokeback Mountain" (2005)
Best Director, Los Angeles Film Critics Association for "Brokeback Mountain" (2005)
Best Director, New York Film Critics Circle Awards for "Brokeback Mountain" (2005)
Best Director, San Francisco Film Critics Circle Awards for "Brokeback Mountain" (2005)
Best Director, Vancouver Film Critics Circle for "Brokeback Mountain" (2005)
Best Director/Motion Picture, Golden Globes for "Brokeback Mountain" (2005)
Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures, Directors Guild of America for "Brokeback Mountain"(2005)
The David Lean Award for Achievement in Directing, BAFTA Awards for "Brokeback Mountain" (2005)
Best Achievement in Directing, 78th Academy Awards for "Brokeback Mountain" (2005)
One of 100 individuals included in Time Magazine's "TIME 100: The People Who Shape Our World" (2006)
External links
(Ang Lee) (Chinese)
(Ang Lee 64th Venice Film Festival press conference) (English)
Credit
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article about Ang Lee.
