Favorite Ang Lee Films

[waynerman]

The Wedding Banquet is the best gay comedy ever. And it was the first film that really made me aware of Ang Lee as a director. It's astonishing that, in just two films, he's done more than anyone else to portray sympathetic/realistic gay men on screen. (All right, maybe not "gay" per se, but that's another thread!)

[verkeerd]

I really like these video interviews with Ang. He comes across as a very gentle, intelligent person who's completely devoted to this project. Good sense of humour too! I'm so happy this is a healing project for him after Hulk. The Podcast especially covers a lot of ground in details.

Interview with David Lambie: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6232568203875039021&q=brokeback

Variety Interivew video excerpt: http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=vision&taxid=7748&element_id=1850013556

Full Variety Interview in Podcast http://www.arjanwrites.com/arjanwrites/2005/11/stream_entire_b.html (scroll to middle of page)

[Sam in Chicago]

Eat Drink Man Woman might actually be his best, up until BBM. However, I must say that the The Wedding Banquet is the first Ang Lee film I ever saw, and at that time both my partner (now for over 19 years) and I felt like it told our story in bizarrely personal detail (I am Euro-American, he is Chinese). It will always hold a warm place in our hearts. Luckily, it was a comedy.  Now, with BBM, I feel as if Ang Lee has told another part of my story, an even more personal, secret part of it, and this time he has left me wrecked, desperately searching for a way to bring more truth into my life. He'd better cut it out unless he wants to pay for me to get therapy or something.

[ozwitch]

Has anybody seen Ride with the Devil? I've seen the others, but have no idea what this one is like.

My favourite is Ice Storm. We studied it for film theory and Ang's use of the frame and composition and other form is so amazing. My favourite bits were:

• Christina Ricci's Nixon mask and the other Nixon references - betrayal by the 'father' of the nation
• Sigourney Weaver's 'bondage' whip and then seeing her curling up in a fetal position on that stupid waterbed
• Kevin Kline's 'self-abuse' advice to his son - just bizarre
• the scene where Kevin and Christina walk back through the woods and she is looking back over his shoulder at her childhood disappearing
• Elijah Wood's talk on the 'molecules' and what happens if you go into the bathroom after somebody else has been in there

[CellarDweller115]

Congrats to Ang Lee on his win as Best Director at the Critic's Choice Awards last night.

[glacier76]

I just wanted to list some moments from BBM that echo some things he's done in his previous films:

1. Alma lining the cloth on the wire. It was a very windy scene. The wind represents Alma's sadness and loneliness. Get the dvd of Sense & Sensibility and listen to the audio commentaries. There's a scene where Emma Thompson is at her sadest and the camera pans away, and you see an apron enter the scene as a result of the wind. He uses this device in Crouching Tiger as well.

2. Again, get the S&S dvd and you'll see a deleted scene of Hugh Grant and Emma Thompson kissing. There is no kissing in this movie and the studio used this scene in all of their promotion and were displeased to hear that this scene was cut from the final version. Ang took it out because it slowed down the film and we the viewers already knew how those characters felt for each other. He was right. His ability to portray the chemistry between characters without showing excess physical displays of affection is certainly evident in BBM. And I remember hearing a lot of people complaining about the lack of Jake/Heath contact.

3. There's a remarkable similarity between Lureen and Sigourney Weaver's character in The Ice Storm. Both are bitter, cold and in unloving marriages. Both are sexually aggressive and both have big hair. Also Lureen's phone call is reminiscent of the beginning scenes of Sense & Sensibility, where the contents of the words and the intentions of the speaker contrast.

4. Food is important. The soup/bean scene has been discussed, but also Jack's mother offering Ennis the bread. Eat Drink Man Woman is  a big food movie. Both Crouching Tiger and Sense & Sensibility have tons of scenes where characters are offering tea. Food represents "caring" and "home" and "welcoming." That Ennis never brought home fish to Alma and the kids is indication of Ennis' failures as husband and father.

5. Man/Woman hiding their true selves, that can result in sudden outbursts of anger or sadness. Eric Bana in The Hulk. Kevin Kline in The Ice Storm, crying in his car. Ennis breaking down in the alleyway. Emma Thompson crying at the end of the movie.

6. The emotional opposites of characters coming together and creating balance. Ennis & Jack. Alan Rickman and Kate Winslet in S&S. The middle daughter and gym teacher in Eat Drink Man Woman.

7. Reconciliation between parent and child. Ennis deciding to go to Alma Jr.'s wedding. Kevin Kline picking up a sad Christina Ricci in The Ice Storm. The eldest daughter and the father regaining his taste buds in Eat Drink Man Woman. The father coming to terms with his gay son in The Wedding Banquet.

I'm sure there are more. I have seen Ride With the Devil but honestly, I don't remember a damn thing.

[gnash]

loved reading your post glacier76!

i haven't seen the ice storm, but knew that ang lee was director. i chuckled to myself when lureen mentions the movie in BBM (when she tells jack she hasn't seen his blue parka since the last ice storm).

now that you've posted this, i'm compelled to print it out and rent and watch all of his movies with this in hand.

it's very interesting he closed sense and sensibilty with emma's character crying at the end!

[happycamper]

glacier76, I have seen those movies and really like the parallels you draw. Ang Lee is the master!

[kcwin]

Ang Lee is in Taiwan from 1/19 to 1/21. BBM opens in Taiwan on 1/20/06. He will then travel to Hong Kong and Japan to do publicity for the movie.
A photo from Yahoo! Taiwan of him at the airport holding his Golden Globe award!

[gnash]

awesome photo ckwin, awsome man, ang lee. i hope he's loved worldwide for this movie.

wow, looks a lot like my uncle masami. can't wait to see how japan reacts. i found out the somewhat gay flick, "my own private idaho," had japanese backers. the women there love the gay comics -- bishon or yayoi stuff i think it's called. they'll go nuts for brokeback i bet!

[kcwin]

The Wedding Banquet is the best gay comedy ever. And it was the first film that really made me aware of Ang Lee as a director. It's astonishing that, in just two films, he's done more than anyone else to portray sympathetic/realistic gay men on screen. (All right, maybe not "gay" per se, but that's another thread!)

I too voted for The Wedding Banquet because it was my first Ang Lee film. He showed such caring for his characters as human beings. They don't end up as caricatures or plot devices. His goal is to show the ridiculous situations humans can fall into when there are conflicts between social demands and the pursuit of individual happiness, and let the audience decde whether to laugh or cry, or both.

[Delilah]

HI ALL!!

Anyone here also interested in another great asian director, Wong Kar Wai? My last obsession before BBM was In The Mood For Love, another doomed love story wonderfully acted and directed, couldn't get enough of that movie. And I found a connection with BBM, too: when Jack is in Mexico, the song Quizas, Quizas, Quizas can be heard in the background, one of the three songs from the ITMFL movie soundtrack sung in Spanish by Nat King Cole. Just a coincidence or was Lee paying tribute to Kar Wai? I'd LOVE to ask him that!!!

[Alex]

Chinese actress Zhang Ziyi (L) poses with director Ang Lee (R) as they arrive at the 63rd Annual Golden Globe Awards in Beverly Hills, California yesterday. Lee wins nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Director in a Motion Picture for "Brokeback Mountain". Zhang is nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture for her role in "Memoirs of a Geisha". -- Reuters

[Alex]

[Alex]

I hope I'm not jinxing Ang's Oscar chances.