Favorite Ang Lee Films

[Dave Cullen]

Share your favorite Ang Lee film and/or pick up ideas on what film to check out next.

And we'd love to hear why it's your favorite, too.

Or what Ang Lee film you want to check out next.

[Dave Cullen]

For me, Crouching Tiger, hands down.

Most impressive film I've seen in the past ten years. One of the main reasons I got so excited about the Brokeback film project in the first place.

But then I have still not seen The Wedding Banquet.

And I loved Sense & Sensibility and The Ice Storm, but Crouching Tiger just left me in awe.

[Jadey]

Dave for some so knowledgeable about films and everything else how could you miss Wedding Banquet? It's such a wonderful story with happy ending. In fact if people are having problem handling the sadness from BBM, they should watch Wedding Banquet to change the mood. For me, I like Eat Drink Men and Women the most. Ice Storm is also very impressive. Haven't seen Sense and Sensibility yet.

[Dave Cullen]

Dave for some so knowledgeable about films and everything else how could you miss Wedding Banquet?

Well, you can't get to everything. Definitely on my list now, though.

(And I'll definitely take the compliments. Hehehe.)

[JH]

I second Jadey on her comment about Wedding Banquet. It is such a nice movie. Much lighter too than BBM.

Wedding Banquet helped me come out (when I was only 19). So this movie will always be so special for me.

[mary]

What, no Hulk tovote for? 

(My sister tells me that the Hulk was not so bad for a 'comics' movie as she put it(she of course went to see it with an 8 year old boy))

I liked CTHD, my husband loved it (watches it again regularly)
I loved Wedding Banquet, my husband liked it.

I'm planning to see The Ice Storm soon, I had meant to and now feel like I need to see all of Ang Lee's films (well I may draw the line at Hulk)

[Dave Cullen]

What, no Hulk tovote for? 

OK, I added The Hulk, even though that was a joke.

I actually like it, for what it was. Don't quite get the howls about it. It thought it was way better than most of the comic book films, including all the Batmans, except maybe the one this year.

I don't think it's in a class with the other films in the poll, but then it wasn't supposed to be, was it?

[peteinportland]

I adore The Ice Storm. My boy, Tobey was remarkable in that film. 

[jack]

CTHD in a first tv pass, didn't hook me, so i never even got into the story line.  i don't have troubles with subtitles so it wasn't that.  maybe it really deserves a bigger canvas.

i am torn between wedding banquet and ice storm based on reviews, but then eat drink got ravees and i didn't do that one either.  i don't have much of an entertainment budget.  my computer and cable access eats most of that up.  having said that, ang lee is now a definite avocation for me.  i can't remember any time recently that i was so aware of the craft of direction, maybe antonioni?  hawks?  god i'm old!   

[Fish]

I'm in total agreement with Jadey - see The Wedding Banquet for a story with similar themes but a happy ending.  For those of us who find Ang Lee's subtexts of children struggling with the expectations of their parents/society fascinating, this movie resolves the situation in a beautiful way.  But my favorite is still Eat Drink Man Woman - the entire movie is devoted to that subject.  It was also my first Ang Lee movie which is always a special thing.

[canmark]

I voted for The Wedding Banquet, which is delightful in so many ways. A film from the early '90's showing a normal, stable gay couple living an essentially married life. The cross-cultural parental pressures/conflicts which, while specific to the characters and their Chinese background, are still universal generation gap issues. It's light and fun, and in the films that follow show how Ang Lee is the master of showing characters who are repressing sides of their self due to society, family, and their own individual nature.

Eat Drink Man Woman is another delightful family comedy-drama, re-made as Tortilla Soup. I don't remember much of Sense & Sensibility (and may have it confused in my mind with Emma). Haven't seen  Pushing Hands, Ride with the Devil or Hulk, and tried to watch The Ice Storm on TV recently but couldn't get through it. I really liked Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, but would put it in the same category as Hero and House of Flying Daggers--and as such doesn't stand out as much for me.

[Carissa]

At NYU, Lee was the assistant director on classmate Spike Lee's student film, "Joe's Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads."

http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2006/Jan/04/il/FP601040302.html

[Carissa]

I couldn't decide between "Sense and Sensibility" and "The Ice Storm."  The girly-girl-JaneAustenite in me says "Sense and Sensibility" but I just loved "The Ice Storm" and the performances he got from both the veterans, the young veterans, and the relatively newbies in Tobey Maguire and Katie Holmes (very pre-Tom Cruise and Dawson's Creek).

[iDropper]

ICE STORM

Is my favorite (besides BBM, of course) Has a lot in common with BBM, actually. Many themes of quiet desperation, and struggles against conformity. Beautiful, sad and human.

No one does quiet desperation like ang lee!

[aceygirl]

I voted for The Wedding Banquet, which is delightful in so many ways. A film from the early '90's showing a normal, stable gay couple living an essentially married life. The cross-cultural parental pressures/conflicts which, while specific to the characters and their Chinese background, are still universal generation gap issues. It's light and fun, and in the films that follow show how Ang Lee is the master of showing characters who are repressing sides of their self due to society, family, and their own individual nature.

Eat Drink Man Woman is another delightful family comedy-drama, re-made as Tortilla Soup. I don't remember much of Sense & Sensibility (and may have it confused in my mind with Emma). Haven't seen  Pushing Hands, Ride with the Devil or Hulk, and tried to watch The Ice Storm on TV recently but couldn't get through it. I really liked Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, but would put it in the same category as Hero and House of Flying Daggers--and as such doesn't stand out as much for me.

Ditto and ditto! I would say that the cross-cultural parental pressures/ conflict are specific not just to those of Chinese background but of other Asian backgrounds as well!

EDMW always makes me....hungry...mmmm.....


Well, I guess I would disagree about CTHD being in the same category as Hero and HoFD. The love denied between Michelle Yeoh's and Chow Yun Fat's characters was as tragic in its way as that between Jack and Ennis, IMO. Hero was stunningly gorgeous, House was very entertaining. But in all three--it seems like Zhang Ziyi just perpetually comes riding up on horseback to find doomed lovers dead, over and over again! LOL.