Ang Lee is one of my favorite filmmakers. Although, I’m not a
fan of every movie he’s done, he, like most people, have had his hits: Eat, Drink, Man Woman, The Ice Storm, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,and his misses, most notably: Hulk.
Hulk, which in my opinion really wasn’t Lee’s kind of film, is really more of an action/monster movie with dramatic elements. I personally don’t think action is a film genre that plays to Lee’sstrengths. Even Crouching Tiger, which emulates flying combat scenes from Hong Kong martial arts films, Lee’s version of the flying action sequences was a pale imitation of the Hong Kong films which achieved more
excitement, despite greater budget limitations. What does work in Crouching Tiger are the emotional scenes of the characters. Lee’s strength is emotional - family dramas and not the action blockbuster he was pushed into after the commercially successful Crouching Tiger.
The role of the “father” is often a dominant theme in Lee’s better films. Whether from a personal or cultural view, Lee often explores the relationship with great success. His first major stumbling on that subject would be the first major Hollywood summer blockbuster offered to him to direct.
"I applied to study film at theUniversity of Illinois, my father vehemently objected.He quoted me a statistic: ‘Every year, 50,000 performers compete for 200 available roles on Broadway.’ Against his advice, I boarded a flight to the U.S.” Lee and his Father barely spoke to each other after that.
The Hulk script, already dark before Lee was brought in, explored Bruce Banner as the victim of child abuse from his father. Apparently this appealed to Lee, who with his producer, re-wrote much of the script focusing on this dark family subject matter. There is an overwhelming sense of hopelessness in Lee’s Hulk. No matter what Bruce Banner does, he seems to be overpowered by his own father’s plans for him.
“Some years later, when I graduated film school, I came to comprehend my father’s concern. It was nearly unheard of for a Chinese newcomer to make it in the American film industry. That year, I turned 30. There’s an old Chinese saying: ‘At 30, one stands firm.’ Yet, I couldn’t even support myself. What could I do? Keep waiting, or give up my movie-making dream?”
I suppose Lee was going through a dark artist period in his career starting with the very cold and well-named 1970’s dysfunctional family drama, The Ice Storm. Unfortunately his dark drama style was a mismatch with the expected summer blockbuster, and audiences did not respond to it.
Lee, who had spent so much of his life following his dream of becoming a big and successful director, really considered quitting film making and retiring after the lackluster reviews of Hulk. Despite having 19 Academy Award nominations (5 wins) and 7 major films completed, Lee was still riddled with great self-doubts.
By this time Lee and his father had reconciled, and he and his family encouraged him to stick with film making, after all this was one set back after many years of battling with the system and his own demons about being a film maker.
Lee, after graduating school, struggled for six years, raising a family, writing scripts
and making films while they lived on his wife’s income. This bothered Lee greatly:
“This kind of life felt rather undignified for a man. At one point, my in-laws gave their daughter (my wife) a sum of money, intended as start-up capital for me to open a Chinese restaurant – hoping that a business would help support my family. But my wife refused the money. When I found out about this exchange, I stayed up several nights and finally decided: This dream of mine is not meant to be. I must face reality.”
Lee enrolled in a community college computer course at a nearby community college, planning for a new career in programming. Lee’s wife noticed one day his unusual lethargic demeanor and discovered a schedule of classes tucked in his bag. The morning after, as she got in her car to go to work she said to Lee: ‘Ang, don’t forget your dream.’
“And that dream of mine – drowned by demands of reality – came back to life. As my wife drove off, I took the class schedule out of my bag and slowly, deliberately tore it to pieces. And tossed it in the trash.
“Sometime after, I obtained funding for my screenplay, and began to shoot my own films. And after that, a few of my films started to win international awards. Recalling earlier times, my wife confessed, ‘I’ve always believed that you only need one gift. Your gift is making films. There are so many people studying computers already, they don’t need an Ang Lee to do that. If you want that golden statue, you have to commit to the dream.’”
That golden statue being 2 Oscars for Best Director, most recently for the Life of
Pi. What I like about Ang Lee is that he is a very talented yet flawed director. Not every one of his films is a blockbuster or fantastic, but he works hard. And like all of us, when facing the challenges of life, he wants to give up sometimes, but through it all, he creates art about life. And that is why he is a great filmmaker and
one of my favorites.
fan of every movie he’s done, he, like most people, have had his hits: Eat, Drink, Man Woman, The Ice Storm, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,and his misses, most notably: Hulk.
Hulk, which in my opinion really wasn’t Lee’s kind of film, is really more of an action/monster movie with dramatic elements. I personally don’t think action is a film genre that plays to Lee’sstrengths. Even Crouching Tiger, which emulates flying combat scenes from Hong Kong martial arts films, Lee’s version of the flying action sequences was a pale imitation of the Hong Kong films which achieved more
excitement, despite greater budget limitations. What does work in Crouching Tiger are the emotional scenes of the characters. Lee’s strength is emotional - family dramas and not the action blockbuster he was pushed into after the commercially successful Crouching Tiger.
The role of the “father” is often a dominant theme in Lee’s better films. Whether from a personal or cultural view, Lee often explores the relationship with great success. His first major stumbling on that subject would be the first major Hollywood summer blockbuster offered to him to direct.
"I applied to study film at theUniversity of Illinois, my father vehemently objected.He quoted me a statistic: ‘Every year, 50,000 performers compete for 200 available roles on Broadway.’ Against his advice, I boarded a flight to the U.S.” Lee and his Father barely spoke to each other after that.
The Hulk script, already dark before Lee was brought in, explored Bruce Banner as the victim of child abuse from his father. Apparently this appealed to Lee, who with his producer, re-wrote much of the script focusing on this dark family subject matter. There is an overwhelming sense of hopelessness in Lee’s Hulk. No matter what Bruce Banner does, he seems to be overpowered by his own father’s plans for him.
“Some years later, when I graduated film school, I came to comprehend my father’s concern. It was nearly unheard of for a Chinese newcomer to make it in the American film industry. That year, I turned 30. There’s an old Chinese saying: ‘At 30, one stands firm.’ Yet, I couldn’t even support myself. What could I do? Keep waiting, or give up my movie-making dream?”
I suppose Lee was going through a dark artist period in his career starting with the very cold and well-named 1970’s dysfunctional family drama, The Ice Storm. Unfortunately his dark drama style was a mismatch with the expected summer blockbuster, and audiences did not respond to it.
Lee, who had spent so much of his life following his dream of becoming a big and successful director, really considered quitting film making and retiring after the lackluster reviews of Hulk. Despite having 19 Academy Award nominations (5 wins) and 7 major films completed, Lee was still riddled with great self-doubts.
By this time Lee and his father had reconciled, and he and his family encouraged him to stick with film making, after all this was one set back after many years of battling with the system and his own demons about being a film maker.
Lee, after graduating school, struggled for six years, raising a family, writing scripts
and making films while they lived on his wife’s income. This bothered Lee greatly:
“This kind of life felt rather undignified for a man. At one point, my in-laws gave their daughter (my wife) a sum of money, intended as start-up capital for me to open a Chinese restaurant – hoping that a business would help support my family. But my wife refused the money. When I found out about this exchange, I stayed up several nights and finally decided: This dream of mine is not meant to be. I must face reality.”
Lee enrolled in a community college computer course at a nearby community college, planning for a new career in programming. Lee’s wife noticed one day his unusual lethargic demeanor and discovered a schedule of classes tucked in his bag. The morning after, as she got in her car to go to work she said to Lee: ‘Ang, don’t forget your dream.’
“And that dream of mine – drowned by demands of reality – came back to life. As my wife drove off, I took the class schedule out of my bag and slowly, deliberately tore it to pieces. And tossed it in the trash.
“Sometime after, I obtained funding for my screenplay, and began to shoot my own films. And after that, a few of my films started to win international awards. Recalling earlier times, my wife confessed, ‘I’ve always believed that you only need one gift. Your gift is making films. There are so many people studying computers already, they don’t need an Ang Lee to do that. If you want that golden statue, you have to commit to the dream.’”
That golden statue being 2 Oscars for Best Director, most recently for the Life of
Pi. What I like about Ang Lee is that he is a very talented yet flawed director. Not every one of his films is a blockbuster or fantastic, but he works hard. And like all of us, when facing the challenges of life, he wants to give up sometimes, but through it all, he creates art about life. And that is why he is a great filmmaker and
one of my favorites.
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