Ang Lee 9781903047712

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Ellen Cheshire

The Pocket Essential

ANG LEE

www.pocketessentials.com

First published in Great Britain 2001 by Pocket Essentials, 18 Coleswood Road, Harpenden, Herts, AL5 1EQ

Distributed in the USA by Trafalgar Square Publishing, PO Box 257, Howe Hill Road, North Pomfret, Vermont 05053

Copyright © Ellen Cheshire 2001 Series Editor: Paul Duncan

The right of Ellen Cheshire to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated, without the publisher’s prior consent, in any form or binding or cover other than in which it is published, and without similar conditions, including this condition being imposed on the subsequent publication.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 1-903047-71-4

2 4 6 8 10 9 7 5 3 1

Book typeset by Pdunk Printed and bound by Cox & Wyman

For Henry and Emma

Acknowledgements My thanks go to: Joy and David Cheshire, Greg Nunes, Tze Cheng, Elizabeth MacEwen, Paul Duncan, Mike Mantell, Robert Rider, Helen Simmons, Kathleen Luckey, John Ashbrook, Peter Kujawski at Good Machine and Richard Napper at Columbia Pictures UK.

CONTENTS 1. Timeline.......................................................................7 2. Ang Lee: The Master Chef .........................................8 3. Starters......................................................................20 Fine Line (1986)

4. Main Courses ............................................................25 Pushing Hands (1992).........................................................25 The Wedding Banquet (1993) .............................................33 Eat Drink Man Woman (1994) .............................................41 Sense And Sensibility (1995) ..............................................47 The Ice Storm (1997)...........................................................55 Ride With The Devil (1999) .................................................63 Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) .............................72

5. Dessert ......................................................................83 Chosen (2001) The Future

6. Side Order .................................................................89 James Schamus

7. The Takeaway ...........................................................90 Tortilla Soup

8. Reference Materials .................................................92

1. Timeline 1954 - Born on 23 rd October in Pingtung, Taiwan. 1973 - Enrolled in Taiwan Academy of Arts in Taipei as a drama student. 1976 - Two-year military service in Taiwan. 1978 - Moved to the US. BFA in theatre from the University of Illinois. 1980 - The Runner . Student short. 1981 - I Love Chinese Food. Student short. Beat the Artist. Student short. 1982 - I Wish I Was By That Dim Lake . Student short. 1983 - Married Jane Lin. 1984 - Joe’s Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads directed by Spike Lee. Ang Lee acted as assistant cameraman on fellow NYU student’s short. 1984-1986 - Fine Line . Final University thesis film made whilst doing MFA at New York University. 1985 - His son Haan was born. 1988 - The Taiwan New Cinema. Interviewee. 1990 - His son Mason was born. 1992 - Pushing Hands (Tui Shou ). Director, Editor, Producer and Screenwriter. 1993 - The Wedding Banquet (Xiyan). Director, Producer, Screenwriter and Cameo Appearance. 1994 - Eat Drink Man Woman (Yinshi Nan Nü). Director and Screenwriter. 1995 - Sense And Sensibility . Director. Shaonu Wiao-Wu (Siao Yu ) Co-producer and co-screenwriter. Directed by Sylvia Chang. 1996 - The Century Of Cinema: Yang + Ying. Gender In Chinese Cinema. Interviewee. 1997 - The Ice Storm . Director and Producer. 1999 - Ride With The Devil . Director. 2000 - Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Wo Hu Zang Long). Director and Producer. 2001 - Chosen. Director. Tortilla Soup. Remake of Eat Drink Man Woman released. Directed by Maria Ripoll.

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2. Ang Lee: The Master Chef “He’s a fucking genius… he’s a God, one of the nicest people on the planet,” exclaimed an exuberant Greg Wise when I interviewed him about working with Lee on Sense And Sensibility. A few months previously I had met Ang Lee and James Schamus at a private party at the Barbican Centre and Ang Lee was exactly how I had imagined he would be: quiet, reserved, sincere, a real gentleman. Hiding behind the rumour that he does not speak English very well, he lets his long-time working partner James Schamus do all the talking: a job Schamus has taken on with passion, humour and enthusiasm. Schamus and his production company Good Machine have been the driving force behind all Lee’s feature film projects. As well as producing responsibilities, Schamus frequently does the screenwriting. He is the lynchpin for all Lee’s films and yet, when asked why he does not want to share the limelight à la Merchant Ivory, he becomes quiet and says that he is honoured to take the back seat. And so, once again, Schamus’ contribution has been sidelined, this time into chapter 6 of this book. This is Lee’s story. And like any good movie it starts with adversity, the hero triumphs over personal difficulties and family dramas, falls in love and struggles for many years before finally becoming an overnight sensation. In the US film magazine Premiere’s list of the top 100 most powerful people in the film industry in 2000 Ang Lee was not ranked. In 2001 he was at number 59, sandwiched between Tim Burton and Leonardo DiCaprio. He achieved this miracle by directing the highest-grossing subtitled film in the US, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. He went from art-house hero to Oscar contender and mainstream player. “Ang Lee? Who is she?” Was the frequently asked question when I told people I was writing this book. When I went on to list Lee’s feature films the titles, seven over a nine-year period, were familiar to many but

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not the man behind the camera. Given the films’ sensitive portrayal of family angst and subtle emotions in a wide variety of languages and genres, many were surprised that one person had directed them, especially a man. Ang Lee was born in Pingtung, Taiwan, and was brought up in a middle-class academic household. However, his family were not native Taiwanese. They had been wealthy landlords living in Mainland China but, during the Revolution, the Communists executed his father’s entire family. His father, Shang Lee, then a District Administrator, was the only survivor. He managed to escape capture and death, and fled to Taiwan. He wanted a solitary life of religion and contemplation, and thought of becoming a monk, until he met Su-Tsang Yang (another lone survivor from the Communist slaughter). They soon married and when Lee was born in October 1954 it brought new hope for the Lee family. In the Chinese tradition, everything rested on the shoulders of the first born, which meant that Lee had a lot of responsibility and a pressure to conform. His younger brother and two sisters did not have this. In his new homeland, Shang Lee took up a new career as the principal of the high school Lee attended, and it was his hope that Lee would follow him into a teaching career. In this heavily academic family, Lee found his artistic nature and creativity stifled. His parents found his lack of academic achievement hard to bear. Having failed his university entrance examinations, Lee went ahead on his own and enrolled at the Taiwan Academy of Arts in Taipei. Standing on stage for the first time he knew he had found his home and future. Two years at drama school, where he studied traditional Chinese theatre acting and directing, were followed by two years of compulsory national service in the Taiwanese army. By 1978, Lee was eager to travel and pursue his love of theatre and performance on a bigger stage. What bigger stage than America? He continued his studies at the University of Illinois where he undertook a BFA in Theatre. He soon realised that his poor command of English 9

would limit any fulfilling career as an actor in the United States and so developed an interest in screenwriting and directing. He made his first forays into film directing with a series of short 8mm films, and he met and married (in 1983) fellow student Jane Lin, who was studying Microbiology. After graduating they moved to Westchester in the State of New York, where they still reside. She began working as a Microbiology researcher and he continued his academic studies by taking a MFA in Film Production at New York University. Children soon followed. Haan, their eldest son, was born in 1985 and Mason in 1990. After two years in the making, Lee finally completed his University thesis project, Fine Line, in 1986. It was well received at New York University, where it won the University’s two most prestigious awards, and within the local independent film community, but no offers came his way to direct a mainstream film. Instead, Lee had six years of development deals and looking after the children before he was able to make his first feature film. In sheer desperation, Lee turned back to his native Taiwan and entered a screenwriting competition sponsored by the Taiwanese Government through their Central Motion Picture Corporation. He submitted two scripts and won first and second prize. The top prize of $500,000 enabled him to make his first feature-length film, Pushing Hands. Meanwhile, James Schamus and Ted Hope at Good Machine, a newly-formed production company based in New York, were searching for directors who had made impressive student shorts but had yet to make a feature film. They approached Lee’s agent and were informed that Lee had development deals all over the place and that he would be too expensive for this young company. Luckily, a few weeks later a mutual acquaintance brought them together and with Lee’s plea of “I’ve been sitting here almost six years in development hell. If I don’t make a movie with the little amount of money that I have right now, I will die”

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James Schamus was persuaded to take a gamble. A working relationship was established that is still thriving twenty years later. The Central Motion Picture Corporation, which was instrumental in launching Lee’s career, was formed in the early 1980s. Their objective was to finance films that would enhance Taiwan’s image overseas. They financed brave films that attempted to show Taiwan’s changing political and social environment, such as Chen Kun-Hou’s A Time To Live And A Time To Die (1985) and Edward Yang’s Taipei Story (1985). These films met with considerable international success on the festival circuit but created little interest at the domestic box office. Audiences preferred to be entertained by Hong Kong action flicks and commercial films from Hollywood rather than to be lectured by these worthy films. Home-grown films were a relatively new form of artistic expression in Taiwan. 1949 saw the arrival of a number of refugee film-makers from Mainland China. Their first films, tightly controlled by the Government, were primarily works of propaganda attacking Communism and supporting the local Government. Over time the Government’s control dwindled and interest from private production companies within Taiwan and Hong Kong saw a broadening of film production. Yet it was not until the arrival of the Central Motion Picture Company that a wider reputation was sought for these films. In the early 1990s, when Lee began making films in Taiwan, he was considered, along with Tsai Ming-Liang (Rebels Of The Neon God (1992) and Vive L’Amour (1984)), to be one of the forerunners of a new generation of film-makers who had grown up in Taiwan on a diet of Western films but who wanted to use cinema as a way of dramatising their experiences of life on a small island. They wanted to use the medium to focus on intimate subjects that were closer to home, that affected the family and had a social impact. In a documentary on New Taiwan Cinema, Lee said that he wanted to show “the variety of life… the experience of growing up in Taiwan.” Their films were stylish, the

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storytelling universal and yet they were personal. These films were successful both in Taiwan and with the worldwide art-house audience. In an interview at the 1994 Seattle Film Festival, Lee commented on this burgeoning awareness of Asian film-makers: “Asians are getting onto the world stage. I don’t think we’re the most sophisticated filmmakers in the world yet – we still need to grow. But the energy is pretty tremendous, and the aesthetic – the colours and texture – is fresh and attractive. That’s what audiences are looking for. By comparison to Hollywood, which is producing more clichés and more movies about movies, the Asian films are like fresh air.” By this point, Lee had firmly established himself as a fresh voice in the Taiwan cinema establishment. His first three films, Pushing Hands, The Wedding Banquet and Eat Drink Man Woman, all won lots of awards and Lee was gaining an international reputation which ensured that there would once again be harmony in the Lee household. Lee’s chosen profession had disappointed his father - he did not want a filmmaker for a son. In Taiwan, anything to do with the entertainment industry was still considered to be low class and, as a consequence, Lee was thought to be disgracing his family. If it was not for the success of these early feature films, Lee firmly believes that a rift would have formed between him and his father. One of the criticisms levelled at Lee’s films is that they have no visual style and yet, time and time again, beautiful and subtle framing is used to enhance the emotions of the characters and the scene. He admits that his cinematographer is unlikely to win awards working with him. This apparently directionless film-making ensures that Lee does not impose himself onto the film - he lets the characters tell the story. The camerawork, on the whole, is invisible. There are no jarring shots reminding the audience that they are watching a film – the story and the characters are at the core of his films, not flashy cinematography. The beauty of Lee’s films is his attention to the small details and his work on performance. Lee’s early training as an actor has made him sensitive to the needs of an actor. Greg Wise attributed this to Lee’s understand12

ing of humanity. “He’s a very sensitive guy – he can understand. What I found was that he was interested in the energy of the performance.” Greg Wise is one of the many actors whose breakthrough performance has been in an Ang Lee film. Many actors in his films have received nominations or awards for best performance. His work with young actors is astonishing. The role of Wai-Tung in The Wedding Banquet was Winston Chao’s feature film debut, as was Jewel’s in Ride With The Devil. Adam Hann-Byrd (in The Ice Storm), Kate Winslet (in Sense And Sensibility) and Zhang Ziyi (in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) had only appeared in one other leading film role when they took on the challenging roles Lee had created for them. Even established actors such as Kevin Kline (in The Ice Storm) or Michelle Yeoh (in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) have given possibly their finest performances whilst in an Ang Lee film. To be labelled an ‘actors’ director’ is usually seen as an insult, but for Lee it is his raison d’être. Despite the seemingly eclectic body of work Lee has produced, they share a common warmth and humility with a healthy dollop of cynicism on the side. He has worked across a number of genres. At first glance Sense And Sensibility and Ride With The Devil may seem to have little in common, but they both focus on the lives of ‘ordinary’ people (an important feature of Taiwan cinema). Over and over again Lee shows us how cultural, national, family and individual identities contradict each other. This sensibility creates the underlying focus of Lee’s work that of identity. Throughout his films the understanding of oneself and how one fits into society is manifested in four key areas: The Father Figure; The Outsider; Rites Of Passage; and The Generation Gap. These four areas are personal to Lee and also to the Taiwanese people on a wider scale. Identity for the Taiwanese is complex - their relatively short and contradictory history cannot accommodate the diversity of culture and relationships bound up within it. Whether the characters are Lee and Schamus’ original inventions or adapted from previously published

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material, the films are full of characters of great depth caught up in richly entertaining tales. Lee described film-making in Time Magazine (29 November 1999): “Shooting a movie is like shopping for groceries. In the editing room, that’s when you cook the meal.” His work in the ‘kitchen’ demonstrates that it is the finished meal that is important and not the individual ingredients. He is the antithesis of the auteur theory. He cherishes every person’s involvement in film-making. When asked how the stunts were done in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, his answer was “I had an amazing fight director.” The Small Detail: It is often the small details that make the difference between a good picture and an outstanding one. Lee has mastered the art of the small detail over the bigger picture. His films are packed with instances where the slightest of glances or the smallest of gestures can say more than pages of dialogue. Lee’s films are about people and how they react under a certain set of circumstances, whether they are women growing up in 1990s Taiwan or in eighteenth-century England. Men growing up in 1970s Connecticut and young men growing up in Missouri in the 1840s are all faced with the same trials and tribulations of dealing with the rites of passage and of being the outsider. The young protagonists are often paired against those of an elder generation; this generation gap and most importantly the role of the father figure are played out against backdrops as varied as those late twentieth-century New York and a mythical vision of China in the early nineteenth century. Lee will go anywhere and use any genre to find stories featuring these four key subtexts. In the telling of these personal stories of human nature, he uses the language, costume, manners and particularly food of that time and place to tell the story. His vision is unique, he uses framing with a vibrancy that others shy away from.

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“Chinese society is a patriarchal society. I have always thought the father figure has bigger meaning than just the parent – it’s the symbol of how tradition works.” Ang Lee, Interview, September 1997 The Father Figure: Lee’s first three films focus on a domineering father. They were followed by three English-language films where the father is largely absent, either through death (Sense And Sensibility and Ride With The Devil) or through consumerism (The Ice Storm). It is only when Lee returns to a film set in China that the Father Figure is once again examined with Chow Yun-Fat’s role in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Lee’s preoccupation with paternal authority and filial piety is played out time and time again in his films. Strains and tensions between fathers and sons are depicted with a heavy dose of irony. The tradition of filial piety is deeply rooted within Chinese society and yet, in a modern society, the patriarchal role is diminishing. The father is no longer the supporter and, as such, he has become a dated concept. Lee would “never teach [his] own kids to bow down before [him].” This change in Taiwan’s social structure and, in particular, his own relationship with his father, forms the basis for the father/child relationships in his first three films. These have been retrospectively ironically subtitled ‘Father Knows Best’ (as the father often does not).

“To me I’m a mixture of many things and a confusion of many things. I’m not native Taiwanese, so we’re alien in a way in Taiwan today, with the native Taiwanese pushing for independence. But when we go back to China, we’re Taiwanese. Then, I live in the States; I’m a sort of foreigner everywhere. It’s hard to find a real identity. Of course, I identify with Chinese culture because that was my upbringing, but that becomes very abstract; it’s the idea of China. My generation of Chinese has always felt that way. And the 15

sentiment of being Chinese is different in New York than it is in Taiwan or in China. Wherever you come from, whether it’s China or Hong Kong or Taiwan, in New York, you’re just Chinese; it’s sort of generalised and merged, and people are drawn to each other by that abstract idea of being Chinese.” Ang Lee, Cinemaya, no 21, 1993 The Outsider: Two films (Pushing Hands and The Wedding Banquet) feature young Taiwanese men (one of whom is also gay) establishing a life and career in New York. (Sound familiar?) Their fathers, strict disciplinarians, travel to live/visit with their sons, are outsiders within the culture and new families. Eat Drink Man Woman, set in Taiwan, shows a father increasingly excluded from the lives of his three daughters. This pattern of characters on the outside continues throughout Lee’s career. People are excluded because of their sex, age, financial position, race and class. Each film deals with the outsider and, if rumours on the worldwide web are correct, Lee may be filming comic books’ ultimate outsider, The Incredible Hulk.

“Austen describes the sad feeling of growing up, and how we must go through so much hurt to learn about true love and integrity. This kind of struggle shapes all of our lives in one way or another – it’s universal.” Ang Lee, Sense And Sensibility press pack The Rites Of Passage: Birth, death and marriage are all things people have to deal with. It is especially hard on adolescents caught in the age when they are no longer children but not quite old enough to be treated as adults. Lee has examined this period of transition in many of his films, as well as periods of transition for older age groups.

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Sons, daughters, mothers and fathers, regardless of age, fight their own demons. They challenge perceptions of their social obligations, which are often in conflict with their personal freedom. These are people who can’t get what they want. They often find something that was there all the time, but they could not see it. Through these films’ narratives, characters stand up to their parents, fall in love or become sexually awakened, kill all in the process of coming to terms with themselves, or gain an understanding of how their behaviour affects those around them. Lee’s young protagonists have a tough time, having to endure enforced marriage, sexual inquisitiveness, murder and loss. And yet, through these personal stories, one is left with little doubt that facing your personal demons is tough regardless of age.

“Sometimes the things children need to hear most are the things parents find hardest to say, and vice versa. When that happens we resort to ritual.” Ang Lee, American Cinematographer, January 1995 The Generation Gap: The young men and women in Lee’s films often try to knock down the rigid rules that they are supposed to conform to, or build new ones. Their attempts at life are made all the more striking in comparison with an older generation who hold opposing views and have different lifestyles. Mothers, fathers, uncles, mentors and warriors are all on hand to offer a rich tapestry of life, which the youngsters draw upon or ignore.

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“Cooking on screen to me is pure cinema, because you get the audience’s mouths watering: just by watching it, they react intuitively. Hopefully, that links with the sex, and the urge for human relationships. Food and sex are the biggest impulses in human life.” Ang Lee, Eat Drink Man Woman press pack Food: In the six years between leaving NYU and filming his first feature film, Lee was a house-husband. He stayed home looking after his two children, the house and preparing elaborate Chinese meals for his wife’s return from work. When he finally began working on Pushing Hands he made packed lunches for the cast and crew, and filled the freezer with meals to keep his family going in his absence. The kitchen is at the heart of a home and, time and time again, the ritual of meal preparation and consumption is observed in Lee’s films. These are the times when families get together and talk. They demonstrate the changing dynamics of a group – how relationships deteriorate or develop over time: diets change from dry crispbread to oily Chinese dumplings. Meals are prepared with love by a caring father, or ignored by a petulant teenager. Meals are skipped, interrupted, slung to the floor or fought over. Information is shared, secrets revealed, beliefs mocked and lives put at risk. Lee’s films hinge around these formal and informal gatherings in private homes and public spaces, and much care and attention to detail ensure that these are memorable sequences.

“I insisted they should just sit there for one long shot, with Hugh Grant’s face in shadow, not being able to move, or touch each other. I think that’s very Chinese.” Ang Lee, The Daily Telegraph, 27 January 1996 Framing: In Taiwanese cinema there is an emphasis on the long shot that tells the whole story. It is akin to the philosophy of Chinese poetry. 18

This approach to film-making ensures that Lee’s films are gentle and there are no startling or annoyingly framed shots. They are careful and deliberate. By holding on an actor, the actor is forced to act with their whole body. Their posture and the space between the performers are crucial in displaying the characters’ current relationships and status within the narrative. To some this may make for a slower-paced film but it also ensures that audiences are focussed on the films’ narratives and character development. When Lee first introduced this Eastern style of film-making to a Western set on Sense And Sensibility, he was shocked that his English actors questioned his decisions. Greg Wise said that “In Taiwan the director is God. No one comes up to a director and challenges his direction.” Lee’s films are subtle in their storytelling technique. His recurrent themes reflect the life he has led and yet he remains an enigma – he is shy and quiet, hiding behind the myth that his English is not great and letting the ebullient James Schamus communicate on his behalf. It seems as if, for the time being at least, Ang Lee is always going to be shrouded in mystery. Fiercely protective of his privacy and his family, he displays very little emotion in public. He is passionate about three things: film-making; his family; and cooking. His wife describes him as more feminine than she is, and yet he can command huge film sets. His films are diverse but share a common bond. He is a master chef who creates new and exciting dishes out of tried and tested traditional recipes. And on today’s menu…

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3. Starters Lee grew up watching films, but went to the Taiwan Academy of Arts to study acting. This early decision has shaped the way in which Lee approaches film-making. The emphasis is on the action and the characters rather than a strong visual style. He continued studying theatre at the University of Illinois, but during his BFA his loyalty to live performance shifted and he became enamoured with moving pictures. It was at New York University that he made his first forays in film production. These short films were The Runner (1980), I Love Chinese Food (1981), Beat The Artist (1981) and I Wish I Was By That Dim Lake (1982). He won an award for Best Narrative Film at the Taiwanese Golden Harvest Film Festival in 1983 for the latter film. This was to be the first of many awards.

Fine Line (1984) Crew: Director: Ang Lee. Screenplay: Ang Lee. Cinematography: Bob Bukowski. Original Music: Daniel Joseph Dee. Producer: Ang Lee. US. In English. 45 minutes. Cast: Pat Cupo (Mario), Ching Ming Liu (Piu Piu), Chazz Palminteri (Angelo). Story: Mario has been imprisoned in Wards Island Mental Institution, New York. Piu Piu is slaving away in a New York Chinese takeaway to earn money to continue her Theatre Studies Degree. Mario has had enough of hanging around with the loonies and, after knocking his nurse unconscious, he dons her uniform and runs back to the waiting arms of his wife. But his wife is not waiting - she has run off with her lover taking all Mario’s savings with her. Naturally, Mario is not best pleased and starts smashing up his apartment and his hand. Concerned neighbours call Mario’s best buddy Angelo, who comes to the rescue and gives him all the gossip regarding Mario’s estranged 20

wife. After throwing his TV out of the window, Mario leaves with Angelo. They stop off at the Roman Catholic Church so that Mario can light all the candles and pray for bad things to happen to his wife. Meanwhile, Piu Piu is harassed. She has no aptitude for waitressing. She would much rather be reading a book on Italian Commedia Dell’Arte. As if working at the restaurant is not bad enough, Immigration raid the place and she runs away before she is arrested and deported. Throwing her book at the cops she does a runner. Meanwhile, Mario is also on the run because Angelo has embroiled him in a shady deal at an abandoned warehouse. When a cop tries to break up the drug deal, everyone scarpers except the rather dim-witted Mario who is left holding the dope. Mario starts running with the cop in pursuit, but the cop falls over and Mario changes into the cop’s uniform. Piu Piu seeks sanctuary in her friends’ apartment, worrying about what will happen when Immigration find her name and address in her textbook. They lament about how hard it is for a Taiwanese performer to become an international celebrity in the US. She has a bath and fantasises about winning a host of glittering awards, and about working in Chinese restaurants. Unsettled, she goes for a walk and finds herself in an abandoned warehouse where Mario (dressed as a cop) is waiting for Angelo. Mario makes the mistake of threatening Piu Piu who, with a quick kick, soon has him on the floor and his gun in her hand. After a bit more fighting and arguing, they become the best of friends, covering each other’s backs from the Italian mobsters’ hail of bullets as they make their escape in a rowing boat across the water to New Jersey. By the time they reach the other shore they know each other’s intimate secrets and are exchanging East-meets-West advice. They walk off into the sunset together. Cut to some time later. Piu Piu has grown her hair longer, and Mario has come to terms with his wife’s unfaithfulness. Piu Piu and Mario exchange phone numbers and promise to phone each other to make a date. They meet Angelo and he jokes that Piu Piu is the first Chink Mario has asked out. Piu Piu congratulates Angelo on still being alive 21

and they part with Mario firmly clutching Piu Piu’s telephone number in his fist. Background: Whilst at New York University studying for a MFA in Film Production, Lee had to produce a mid-length film as his final-year project. Work began in 1984 and over the next two years Lee was in and around New York’s Italian and Chinese districts filming this mini epic. Largely location-based, this 45-minute film so impressed his University that he was awarded the top two prizes at the New York University Film Festival for Best Director and Best Film. Lee’s film also caught the eye of James Schamus and Ted Hope and so, when they were setting up Good Machine five years later in 1991, they sought him out and offered to assist in the production of Lee’s first feature. The Small Detail: This intimate story is about ordinary people caught up in situations over which they have little or no control. It features some of the themes that Lee would go on to develop later in his career. The Outsider: Both Piu Piu and Mario are outsiders. Piu Piu is Taiwanese, constantly being mistaken for Chinese by those too ignorant to know or care. She is well educated but is forced into taking a menial job to supplement her studies in the US. She forms a bond with Mario, another loner. He has been excluded from the notoriously close-knit New York Italian environment because of his violence and mental instability. He seeks refuge in Angelo’s criminal underworld but when he is taken along to a meeting he is told to wear headphones so he cannot listen to the transaction. Because of this he misses the warning cries that the police are on the way and is left behind to carry the can. He tries to act tough with Piu Piu, but she quickly knocks him to the floor and takes control. Together these two loners forge a relationship out of adversity. She advises him to “take a step back” and let go. He tells her “don’t get mad, get even.” When they meet again some months later, they have both heeded the advice. She has become more outgoing and he has mellowed as a result of their time together.

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Food: Here food is used as a short cut to establish the cultural identities of the two lead characters. Playing to racial stereotypes, Piu Piu works in a crowded, steamy Chinese restaurant. Rushed off her feet, she brings people the wrong orders and, as a consequence, is reprimanded. This is all in a day’s work for her. Mario is seen eating a Chinese takeaway. When they meet again Angelo jokes that Mario should take Piu Piu out for spaghetti. Framing: One of the most striking visuals in the film is the wide expanse of the Jersey River where Mario and Piu Piu are rowing. The dull grey water and sky swallow up their small rowboat. Once they land in Jersey, Piu Piu glances longingly over her shoulder at the Statue of Liberty – a symbol of freedom that she cannot enjoy. Trivia: Two other illustrious students who were at New York University at the same time as Lee were Jim Jarmusch and Spike Lee. Ang Lee is credited as assistant cameraman on Spike’s 60-minute student film Joe’s Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads. The Verdict: An ambitious project for a student film given its extensive use of locations and action, and Lee’s dual role of Director and Screenwriter. The film is let down by a weak script - the characters and motivation are ill-defined. Showing us that East meets West with Mario eating a Chinese takeaway and Piu Piu reading a book on Italian Theatre is unnecessary and highlights Lee’s poor attempts at shorthand characterisation. However, Lee, as director, shows great confidence in his use of locations all over New York: Little Italy, New Jersey, abandoned warehouses; and bustling Chinese restaurants. The framing of shots and his use of lighting all add to the film’s pervading aura of gloom and despair. The haunting music by Daniel Joseph Dee, which slides between Italian, Chinese and good old-fashioned Hollywood melodrama, enhances the film’s sense of desperation and multiculturalism.

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The two leads, Pat Cupo and Ching Ming Liu, make the best with what little they are given to work with. Chazz Palminteri, the most confident of the three performers, has a charisma that Pat Cupo so sadly lacks and it is unfortunate that Chazz’s character is absent for much of the film. Not a masterpiece and not available on video, Fine Line does occasionally turn up at Film Festivals and screenings. So keep an eye out for it at the next Ang Lee retrospective as it is worth watching just to see the raw talent that would later win Academy Awards. 1/5

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4. Main Courses Pushing Hands (Tui Shou) (1992) Crew: Director: Ang Lee. Screenplay: Ang Lee and James Schamus. Editing: Tim Squyres. Cinematography: Jong Lin. Costume Design: Elizabeth Jenyon. Production Design: Scott Bradley. Original Music: Xiao-Song Qu. Producers: Emily Yi-Ming Liu, Ted Hope, James Schamus and Ang Lee. Taiwanese. In Mandarin and English. English Subtitles. 100 minutes. Cast: Sihung Lung (Mr Chu), Lai Wang (Mrs Chen), Bo Z Wang (Alex Chu), Deb Snyder (Martha Chu), Haan Lee (Jeremy Chu), Emily Liu (Yi Chu). Story: Mr Chu, a widowed Tai Chi master, has moved from China to New York to enjoy a leisurely retirement with his son Alex, his grandson Jeremy and his American daughter-in-law Martha. However, things soon turn sour as Mr Chu and Martha spend many unhappy hours coexisting in the same house. Martha, a budding author, whose first muchanticipated novel, is about to hit the shops, feels under pressure to write her second. Yet she finds Chu’s presence a distraction, she becomes more and more antagonistic towards her father-in-law, and their daily routines soon spiral out of control. They argue, but because she speaks no Chinese and he no English, they understand very little of one another. When Martha and Alex are alone together they argue about his father. Their son Jeremy is caught in the middle of this unhappy family situation. Mr Chu’s only outlet is his weekly visits to a local Chinese school where he teaches the fine art of Pushing Hands, a form of Tai Chi. It is there that he meets a widow, Mrs Chen, who is similarly unwelcome at her own daughter’s home. A friendship blooms but withers when she switches to teaching cookery at another school. Martha is somewhat overwrought by the situation. It does not help matters that she is suffering from writer’s block and the papers have not 25

reviewed her first novel. She becomes ill and Mr Chu is blamed. She is taken to hospital, putting further unhappiness and confusion onto Alex’s shoulders. When Martha returns home, Mr Chu makes an effort to assist; he brings her tea and rice cakes, which she ignores. He decides to go for a walk and Martha, delighted to be relieved of her ‘babysitting’ duties for the afternoon, becomes absorbed in her work. When Alex returns from work, he finds Martha busy at the computer and his father missing. He goes berserk, smashes up the house and leaves to search for his father. The police bring Chu home to the hostile arms of his daughter-in-law. Clearing up Alex’s mess brings them closer together. Alex’s drunken return makes him realise the harm he is doing to his wife and child, so he decides to put his father into a retirement home. He goes to break the news to his father only to discover that his father is ill. After a fairly quick recovery, his son agrees that they should swap to the other school so he can see Mrs Chen again. Alex encourages his father’s relationship with Mrs Chen but he pushes it too far, the couple are insulted and Chu feels it better for all concerned if he quietly slips away from the family scene and begins life again in New York’s Chinatown. Mr Chu takes a menial role as a dishwasher in a Chinese restaurant – he is too old and too slow, but when they try to fire him, the manager sees the full force of his Tai Chi skills. A brief comedy interlude ensues as Mr Chu sees off a gang of thugs and an army of police officers who try and evict him from the restaurant. A TV crew captures the scene and Alex runs to his rescue. But his father has no need of his assistance. Mr Chu likes his life, but is grateful that there is a place for him should he need it. The films ends on an upbeat note. Alex teaches Martha Tai Chi in their new home. Mr Chu’s TV news appearance having made him something of a local hero, he begins teaching Tai Chi again. It is at the Chinese school that Mrs Chen seeks him out and they arrange to meet up.

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Background: After finishing his MFA at New York University Lee spent six years in development hell. His agent fixed him up with a series of short contracts at various studios and production companies. As Spike Lee became an internationally renowned independent filmmaker, Ang Lee spent his time shuffling from studio to studio in search of that elusive first directing gig. In a desperate attempt to kick-start his career, he submitted two scripts to a film competition financed by the Taiwan’s state-funded Central Motion Picture Corporation. His two entries, Pushing Hands and The Wedding Banquet, came in first and second place. The top prize was $500,000, which gave him the money to film the winning entry. Meanwhile, James Schamus and Ted Hope were just forming Good Machine and searching for directors with whom to work. A mutual acquaintance introduced Good Machine to Ang Lee and a deal was struck. Ang Lee and Good Machine are still working together nearly twenty years later. The budgets are a bit bigger now and the relationship established between Lee and Schamus on that first project has remained a constant ever since. Pushing Hands was shot in 24 days in and around Lee’s home in Westchester County. Many of the locations belonged to his friends and family, and the little boy playing the son, Jeremy Chu, is Lee’s son Haan. The film was only released in Taiwan and was well received. The Central Motion Picture Corporation of Taiwan was so impressed with this debut feature that they agreed to help finance The Wedding Banquet, a brave move considering the film’s controversial subject matter. The Father Figure: In the first of his three Taiwanese films, Lee has used characteristics of his own family in the Chu family. Mr Chu is shown as a Father in the old Chinese tradition. He has instilled a sense of duty in his son. His son should be there to look after him in his old age, just as Mr Chu had looked after his son after his wife’s death. Chu is shown to be upright, full of dignity and inner

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strength. The focus of his life is the ancient art of Tai Chi but by moving from Peking to New York he has lost his sense of purpose and his integrity. He is now confused and alienated by a modern society and the individual pressures it brings. His way of life, the strength and understanding brought about through the gentle art of Tai Chi, is mocked by thugs and his daughter-in-law. When he criticises the violent cartoons Jeremy is watching, Martha says that he is a martial-arts expert and that is far more violent than any cartoon. And yet, Chu is shown using his skills for medical and therapeutic purposes rather than for force. Although a Tai Chi master, by the end of the film he is the loser. He has lost everything he had, and only receives professional respect from his students. In one of the film’s most effective scenes, Alex and his father discuss their life back in China. Mr Chu had been a schoolteacher. During the Revolution, the Red Guards wanted to punish him for his political views. Killing him wouldn’t make him suffer, so they tortured and beat him and murdered his wife. Mr Chu was left to bring up his young son alone and he now expects his son to look after him in return. Alex, the son, is trapped in the middle of the strained relationship between his father and his wife. He feels a sense of obligation to his father, which he cannot fulfil without neglecting his wife. Martha adds additional pressures by constantly pushing to move to a bigger house. They can only afford this by accepting a loan from her mother, which Alex’s pride cannot allow him to accept. Her constant nagging makes him feel less of a man because he does not feel able to provide for his family to the standard that Martha had been accustomed to. In one of their many arguments, he claims that everything he has done was so that he could support his father in his retirement. And yet now that it is time for him to fulfil this obligation as carer he is unable to do so because of the pressure this places on his own family. Alex grew up believing that his father was part of him, and cannot understand why Martha can’t accept that. When his father goes missing he physically demonstrates his despair by smashing up the kitchen and 28

storming out. When he returns, he finds his father and Martha tidying up. There is now a level of understanding between the two. No words need be spoken. Mr Chu can see what pressures he has put his family under and decides that, despite the traditional Father/Son relationship, it is not acceptable in these circumstances. The Outsider: Mr Chu and Martha are both outsiders within the same family. She is excluded as she does not speak any Chinese and he is excluded because he does not speak English. Their attempts at coexisting are not successful. Their contrasts are stark and are clearly demonstrated in the film’s fifteen-minute opening sequence. They can’t communicate with each other so they don’t. This near-silent sequence clearly sets up the unease in which they coexist. His room is tidy and organised, her desk cluttered and her study area a mess. His appearance is smart and trim, hers bohemian with her wild mane of blonde curly hair falling around her face. He practises the ancient art of calligraphy, she furiously taps away at her computer. She punches the air as she jogs, he meditates and practises the gentle art of Tai Chi. Their attempts at separate living within the same rooms and their refusal to assimilate into the other’s culture in any way are made most obvious at meal times - they both attempt to prepare separate meals at the same time in the kitchen’s confined space. When Mr Chu leaves the family home in search of a life of his own, he moves to New York’s Chinese district and gets a job as a dishwasher. Again, he is the outsider but this time it is because of his age and background. He is not able to cope with the pressures of a menial job. His colleagues try to cover for him but ultimately he is fired. When he shows what he is really capable of, fighting off scores of men without lifting a finger, they have a new-found respect for him and walk out of their jobs rather than fight him. Martha, meanwhile, has achieved what she wanted. She has a new home, and space in which to work. They have created a space for the father to come and visit. Her new novel has a Chinese theme to it. She

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has become more accepting of her father-in-law once he is no longer there. Rites Of Passage: Martha and Chu develop a sense of maturity and understanding of the other’s life as they travel this journey together. Martha is transformed. By the film’s closing scene, when she is once again in control, she is writing a novel, but she has abandoned her novel about Pioneer women in the American West and is writing about a Chinese man brought over to build the railroads. Her appearance has become more orderly and she is cooking Chinese meals. Mr Chu realises that his world and his standards have gone and that he must change too. He cannot expect to be cared for and he must make sense of this new high-speed world. The Generation Gap: The changes in attitudes towards child-rearing and the role of the parent over time and between cultures are demonstrated when Mr Chu comments on the values Jeremy is being taught. In America, everything is a deal, and manners and common courtesy are used as trade-offs. He becomes deeply troubled at Jeremy’s attitude towards his parents and in the bargaining used. Jeremy can leave the table to watch TV only after he has finished his milk. It is not just Mr Chu who is baffled by the changes in their children once they have moved to the US. Mrs Chen is going through a similar situation with her daughter. She finds it difficult to get on with her sonin-law and, like Mr Chu, finds solace in teaching at the Chinese school. They are respected at the school in a way they are not at home, which is why they become so upset when they feel they are being manipulated into a relationship by their children. It is as though they are a nuisance to their children and, if pushed together, they may form an attachment and consequently defer the need to be looked after. Martha refers to looking after Mr Chu as babysitting. She keeps him occupied by sitting him in front of the TV and, when he makes the mistake of putting tinfoil in the microwave, she scolds him as though he were a child.

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Food: When Mr Chu and Martha simultaneously prepare food in the small kitchen the cultural differences between them are highlighted. She serves up sloppy unappetising macaroni cheese. He serves up a complex array of colourful and appetising Chinese dishes. They also illustrate the father’s unworldliness when it comes to American domestic appliances. In the opening scene, Chu puts a bowl of rice covered in tinfoil into the microwave. Inevitably it explodes and sparks fly. Martha has to leave her word processor to come to the rescue. When Martha has been taken ill and is in hospital, the three ‘men’ prepare and eat a Chinese meal, but Jeremy does not want it, revealing his loyalty to his mother. He only wants food like his mum makes. Meal times are used to show the cultural differences and the tensions within the family. Alex is torn between separate conversations with his father and wife. Each wants to know what the other is saying and neither enjoys the food that has been prepared. Both father and wife want to feed Alex and his torn loyalties are at their most acute at this supposedly pleasant family time. “Will you please cut it out, both of you. Just eat.” Framing: The film’s first fifteen minutes are almost completely without dialogue. The strained relationship between Mr Chu and Martha is shown through a series of contrasts between them: he through the tranquillity of his silent Tai Chi, she through the hurried rhythmic pounding of the keyboard and her pacing around the room. Trivia: The voice on the answering machine at the beginning of the film tells Martha that the reviews of her book are due out. The voice belongs to Producer/Screenwriter James Schamus. Awards: Best Film, Asian-Pacific Film Festival, 1992. The film was nominated for nine Golden Horse Awards (Taiwan’s equivalent of the Oscars) winning three. The Verdict: The film’s ambitious opening sequence sets the tone for this debut feature film. Stunning performances from the two Taiwanese 31

actors, Sihung Lung and Lai Wang, far outweigh the weaker performances by the younger actors. Deb Snyder does her best with what she is given, but it is a thankless role. Haan Lee is cute as the Americanised son. Bo Z Wang is lost in the jumble because his role is indistinct. Bar the one night-time bonding session with his father, he is given little to do other than argue with both his father and wife. The film tackles a number of genuinely troubling issues: the assimilation of the Chinese into American society; and relationships between husbands and wives, fathers and sons. Problems concerning age, sex and ethnicity are all covered in this touching drama. Most compelling are the scenes where Mr Chu deals with life outside the home. The sequence where he is forced to take on a menial job to maintain his sense of freedom and individuality is captured beautifully by Sihung Lung, whose face expresses emotions that no words can. However, at its core, the film is deeply troubling and somewhat misogynistic. Martha’s two-dimensional character is used as a foil to the relationship between father and son. Her lack of empathy for the huge cultural shock her father-in-law is undertaking, and the constant blame laid on her shoulders by her husband, make for uncomfortable viewing. The wife’s lack of interest in her husband and son’s cultural identity makes one wonder how and why she fell in love with Alex in the first place. She is neglected and undermined by her husband and yet, when she finally triumphs and has all her material possessions in place, she becomes more understanding to Alex’s situation and even hopes her father-in-law will return and live with them again. The film’s contrived pseudo-happy ending where Chu and Chen are reunited makes for a sad climax that is at once pathetic and uplifting. These two old people have been abandoned by their offspring in a busy metropolis and are trying to make the best of it. 2/5

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The Wedding Banquet (Xiyan/Shi Yen) (1993) Crew: Director: Ang Lee. Screenplay: Ang Lee, Neil Peng and James Schamus. Editing: Tim Squyres. Cinematography: Jong Lin. Costume Design: Michael Clancy. Production Design: Steve Rosenweig. Original Music: Mader. Producers: Ted Hope, Dolly Hall, LiKong Hsu, Feng-Chyt Jiang, Ang Lee and James Schamus. Taiwanese. In Mandarin and English. English Subtitles. 111 minutes. Cast: Sihung Lung (Mr Gao), Ah-Leh Gua (Mrs Gao), Winston Chao (Wai-Tung), Mitchell Lichtenstein (Simon), May Chin (Wei Wei). Story: Wai-Tung, a successful slum landlord, and Simon, a physiotherapist, are a happily ‘married’ gay couple living in a trendy Brownstone in Manhattan. In a not quite so trendy district lives Wei Wei, a young single Shanghainese woman in search of air-conditioning and a green card. Wai-Tung, her landlord, does his best with the air-conditioner but, despite Wei Wei’s flirtatious come-ons, is not interested in assisting her in her application for a green card through marriage. Meanwhile, Wai-Tung’s parents, General and Mrs Gao, are anxiously waiting in Taiwan for news of a marriage and, more importantly, a grandchild. Neither seems forthcoming so his mother registers him with a marriage agency and ships over a potential bride. Simon is keen for Wai-Tung to tell his parents the truth but Wai-Tung’s reluctance sets about a different train of thought, which leads to Wei Wei and WaiTung’s engagement. As Wei Wei moves into the house, it is stripped of its gay iconography and replaced with traditional Chinese ornaments and calligraphy to fool the Immigration officials. But it is not just the Immigration officials the threesome have to fool as Wai-Tung’s parents announce that they are going to fly over for the wedding. Not surprisingly this former General in the Chinese Nationalist Army and his wife are not impressed with the mechanical factory line wedding their son undertakes at New York City Hall. To make amends, 33

Simon takes them to New York’s swankiest Chinese restaurant, which just so happens to be run by the General’s former chauffeur Old Chen. He offers to host a wedding banquet for the newly-married couple. The elaborate wedding preparations take their toll on Simon and Wai-Tung’s relationship. The wedding banquet goes ahead and the predominantly Chinese guests sideline Simon. Through a series of formal rituals and less formal pranks, Wai-Tung finds himself drunk, naked and making love to his wife in their hotel room. Oops. Wei Wei is pregnant and wants an abortion. Simon is angry. WaiTung is confused. Mr Gao has a stroke and Mrs Gao is finally told of her son’s sexual orientation. Matters finally resolve themselves. Mr Gao knew all along about Simon and Wai-Tung. Wei Wei keeps the baby. Mrs Gao believes that with the love of a good woman and after holding his baby in his arms, Wai-Tung will suddenly become heterosexual. Simon agrees to become the second father to Wei Wei’s child. Everyone promises to keep secrets and knowledge from the others and they all live happily ever after. Background: Although written in 1987, the film languished in Lee’s growing pile of rejected scripts. With a gay relationship at the film’s centre it became impossible to find willing investors in Taiwan. It was only after the success of Pushing Hands that Taiwan’s Central Motion Picture Corporation once again agreed to pick up the tab, on the understanding that it was filmed in six weeks. The film went on to be the most financially successful return on investment of 1993. Costing less than $1 million to make, it grossed $23.6 million at the box office, i.e. a 2300% return on its capital. $4 million of the box-office take was from Taiwan, a remarkable achievement considering the film’s subject matter. The film’s premise, a cross-cultural gay couple hiding the nature of their relationship when the Chinese in-laws hit town, was based on the 34

true life experience of a Washington DC friend of the film’s co-writer, Neil Peng. Like Wai-Tung and Simon, all evidence of a gay lifestyle was eradicated and a heterosexual one created in its place. The film was marketed well in the US, which led to its extraordinary success both commercially and critically - how many other independent films give away promotional fortune cookies in cinema foyers. It was given an R rating in the US because of the language used to describe the “fucking” going on in the next room, but apparently there was no concern about the same word being used repeatedly by Simon as an adjective when he discovers that Wei Wei is pregnant. The film got an equivalent to a PG13 in Taiwan and was considered a mainstream film there, which was surprising given that the film was set in the US and not dependent on Chinese themes and issues per se, but universal ones. On the surface, The Wedding Banquet may appear a light frothy comedy of manners in the tradition of French farce, with people creeping from bedroom to bedroom during the night, but at the film’s core there are the dual concerns of Asian-American identity in New York and of homosexuality in both American and Chinese contexts. Lee believes that the success of this film both domestically and internationally has opened a doorway in Taiwan for more homosexual-friendly films. This was considered a much-needed move because in Chinese society the homosexual is the most marginalised in terms of sexual orientation. Everyone is being deceived or being deceitful. Each character is trying to do what they feel is best. Each character’s motive for their duplicitness is morally sound and, therefore, each character is portrayed with dignity. There are no racial and sexual stereotypes at play here - no screaming queens or bigoted parents. The use of the third-person viewpoint allows each character to be equally presented. This is not Wai-Tung’s story or Wei Wei’s. It is the story of five people living in one house, lying to each other to keep each other happy.

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Many things are left unspoken. There are hidden implications in the subtlest of glances, and this is a film about a family unit struggling against the norm. The shoot was easy to control. There were few cast members, and the film is predominantly set in the claustrophobic atmosphere of Simon’s small house, although two key scenes take place outside the family environment: the wedding at City Hall; and the subsequent wedding banquet. To a Western audience, the distasteful antics at the wedding banquet may seem a little over the top. But Lee insists that many of the events shown were based on the crew’s experiences of attending such events – many suggestions were discarded as being too unbelievable. The film is really a film with three marriages. It opens with WaiTung and Simon’s domestic bliss. The fake marriage between Wei Wei and Wai-Tung forms the centre around which all other events spiral. The film ends with the real wedding – a mother and two fathers starting a family. May Chin is a huge pop star in Taiwan. In the film’s opening scenes in her apartment, she is an attractive and nonchalantly sexy bohemian artist. Hot and sweaty, she oozes sexuality. Initially Wei Wei is liberated by the freedom she purchases by marrying a gay man for a green card, but she is ultimately trapped into a traditional marriage. She is only married for the heir she reproduces to a husband who will never love her the way she secretly hopes he will. The Father Figure: Wai-Tung’s father is a former KMT general who (like Lee’s own father) saw his family massacred in the Civil War of the late 1940s. By escaping death, but not saving his family, he is left with an urgent desire to become a grandfather, which makes Wai-Tung’s deception and final fatherhood all the more believable. What is less easy to understand is his acceptance of Wai-Tung’s relationship with Simon – this seems to be wish fulfilment rather than a reality-based plot development.

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The Outsider: The Wedding Banquet focuses on Chinese versus American attitudes to age, gender, racial identity and sexuality. WaiTung is an outsider because he is Chinese and because he is gay. Simon talks about other gay friends and goes out with them – but they are shown as Simon’s friends not Wai-Tung’s. It is as though Wai-Tung is not ready to be open about his sexual orientation to New York let alone his parents. Wai-Tung’s friends seen at the wedding banquet are oblivious to his true love and are fooled along with his parents. When WaiTung finally tells his mother, she requests that he keep the truth from his father and so he remains unable to be true to himself. Wei Wei enters into the fake marriage with a glimmer of hope that she will be able to sexually woo Wai-Tung (which she does on their wedding night). But it becomes all too obvious that Wai-Tung will remain a gay man and this rejection forces her to consider terminating the resultant pregnancy. She changes her mind when she finally accepts Wai-Tung for who he is and asks Simon to be the joint father. Simon is the only American in this family who is physically different and an obvious outsider, even in his own home: he is banished to a basement room; and the conversations around him are conducted in Chinese. Even at the wedding banquet, Simon is placed on the edge of the frame, looking forlornly at the main action. He is not an active participant, but his omnipresence at Wai-Tung’s side is not understood by most of the guests. Rites Of Passage: The story told here demonstrates the duplicity that often holds families together and the need to keep the peace at any cost. The three younger characters all mature as a result of their experiences. Wei Wei is transformed from a flighty adventurous artist to an expectant mother. She has given up her desire for a romantic relationship in order to have a level of stability with Simon and Wai-Tung. Wai-Tung finally ‘comes out’ to his mother, who initially feigns understanding and then clings to the belief that it is just a phase. This new-found freedom is coupled with the responsibility of parenthood,

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which Wai-Tung would never have had to face had he not been so secretive about his true sexuality. Simon is the dependable rock in the relationship. He has a career, a steady job, a home and a full gay lifestyle. It is further legitimised by Wai-Tung’s parents knowing about their relationship and the secret shared between him and Wai-Tung’s father. The Generation Gap: Once again, Lee navigates the changing relationships between a son and his father (and in this case, his mother as well). When Wai-Tung’s parents arrive in New York, they are so delighted that their son is to be married that they don’t notice or question the coolness of Wei Wei and Wai-Tung’s relationship. To them, Wai-Tung is finally fulfilling his duty as the only son and carrying on the Gao name. Their vociferous hounding of Wai-Tung to marry is both humorous and painful. His final willingness to conform rather than tell his parents the truth is at the heart of the Chinese notion of filial piety. He would rather please his parents than be true to his own sexual orientation. The swift marriage ceremony is a rude awakening for his parents because it demonstrates how far their son has moved away from them both in terms of distance and tradition. It is only a chance meeting with a former colleague that allows the parents to host the wedding banquet of their dreams. Food: As the film’s title implies, the film revolves around a grand wedding banquet. However, it is the meals around the family table that are much more telling about the relationships… Wei Wei is unable to cook, so it is Simon (the real ‘wife’) who prepares all the family meals, only handing over to Wei Wei at the last possible moment. As the family sit around the dinner table, the conversation lapses into Chinese and Simon is constantly asking WaiTung for a translation, especially when the food is praised. The language barrier allows the dinner table to be a hotbed of gossip exchanges. Wai-Tung tells Simon (in English) about Wei Wei’s sus-

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pected pregnancy and his parents (in Chinese) wonder why Simon is always hanging around. These misdirections backfire when Mr Gao tells Simon that his knowledge of English is far greater than anyone suspects. This shared confidence is one of the film’s most heart-warming moments. The first indication that Wei Wei is pregnant is when she balks at eating sushi. Despite Simon’s deteriorating relationship with Wai-Tung, he remains ever vigilant to the well-being of all the family. He ensures that they are well fed and even orders a healthy meal for the Gaos’ return flight home. Framing: After one of the many family meals, Simon and Wai-Tung are in the kitchen clearing away, their well-practised operation interrupted when Simon tells Wai-Tung that he is going to leave him. WaiTung’s back is turned to us and Simon is leaning up against the worktop facing the camera. As he breaks the news, Wai-Tung’s whole posture changes as he slumps forward in a gesture of resignation. No words need be spoken as Simon leaves the kitchen and Wai-Tung continues to wipe down the sink. Their hidden relationship must stay a secret and this quiet acceptance of their fate is far more heart-rending than any big emotional outburst. A similar set-up is used in the film’s denouement when Mr Gao says he knows that Simon and Wai-Tung are really lovers. This is shown in a long shot with their backs to the camera. Mr Gao hands Simon a bright red envelope filled with crisp dollar bills. The same had been given to Wei Wei on her wedding day as a symbol that the care of their son has now been handed to the ‘wife.’ This simple gesture says more than any dialogue could. In one moment Simon realises that the pain and heartbreak is over and that he has just been accepted into the family. Trivia: Ang Lee is a guest at the wedding banquet. He utters the immortal line (not terribly well) “We’re only seeing the results of 5,000 years of repression,” in response to an American guest’s surprise at the raucous antics of the Chinese guests.

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Not to be outdone by his brother’s feature-film debut in Pushing Hands, Lee’s youngest son Mason C Lee plays the baby who plants a kiss on the cheek of the blindfolded bride at the wedding banquet. Mason also bounces on a bed as part of the wedding ritual, with his brother Haan standing by the bed. The “racket” Wai-Tung turns off in Wei Wei’s apartment is May Chin’s best-selling duet Diamond And Stone which she performed with fellow Taiwanese pop star Ang-Go Tong. The marriage ceremony was based on Lee and Lin’s own wedding, where Lee’s mother had been in tears at the brusque formality of the event. The swanky restaurant where Simon takes the family to celebrate was really a public pier. Borrowed tables and chairs transformed it into a swish restaurant with a Manhattan skyline. Interestingly, The Wedding Banquet was one of a number of films in the 1990s to question the notion of the romantic couples and ideal families. The 1992 Japanese film directed by Takehiro Nakajima, Okoge (slang for women who prefer the company of gay men), has a gay couple, Noh and Tochi, and a single women, Sayoko, living in the same apartment. The 1998 French film, Man Is A Women, directed by JeanJacques Zilbermann, starred Antoine De Caunes, more commonly known for Channel 4’s Eurotrash and his role in the Eurostar advertisements, playing Simon a gay Jewish man who, like Wai-Tung and Noh, accidentally finds himself a reluctant father. Awards: Golden Bear, Berlin Film Festival, 1993. Best Film and Best Director, Seattle International Film Festival, 1993. The Verdict: With the film’s clumsy green card premise quickly over and done with, we move onto what Lee does best. He challenges our perceptions and demonstrates the harm that can be brought about by misguided loyalty and the desire to please. The film successfully treads the fine line between farce and sentimentality. The comedy is broad and the drama heartbreaking. The wed40

ding banquet from hell is used as the public arena for Simon’s displacement. Wei Wei’s training by Simon for the immigration test, as she is told what colour boxer shorts Wai-Tung wears on each day of the week and on which buttock he has a mole, is contrasted by the tragic realisation that Wei Wei is infatuated with her husband to be. This is a film about nice people, where everyone gets what they want by the film’s closing credits. It manages to be both funny and tragic with a message that is also a fairy tale. It is also a film about a gay relationship that steers clear of stereotypes and heavy messages about AIDS. It is about a couple who just happen to be gay rather than a gay couple. 4/5

Eat Drink Man Woman (Yinshi Nan Nü) (1994) Crew: Director: Ang Lee. Screenplay: Ang Lee, Wang Hui Ling and James Schamus. Editing: Tim Squyres. Cinematography: Jong Lin. Costume Design: Wen-Chi Chen. Production Design: Fu-Hsing Lee. Original Music: Mader. Producers: Ted Hope, Kong Hsu, Li-Kong Hsu, Feng-Chyt Jiang and James Schamus. Taiwanese. In Mandarin. English Subtitles. 123 minutes. Cast: Sihung Lung (Chu), Yu-Wen Wang (Jia-Ning), Chien Lien Wu (Jia-Chien), Kuei-Mei Yang (Jia-Jen), Yu-Chien Tang (Shan-Shan), Sylvia Chang (Jin-Rong), Ah Lei Gua (Mrs Liang), Chao-Jung Chen (Guo Lan), Lester Chit-Man Chan (Raymond), Chin-Cheng Lu (MingDao), Winston Chao (Li Kai). Story: Every Sunday, widower Mr Chu prepares an elaborate feast for his three increasingly disinterested daughters. He no longer has a sense of taste and would never admit that he is in any way inadequate, so he relies on his wit and nose to see him through. His daughters still live at home but have very separate lives. They spend their days in modern, high-rise Taipei returning to the archaic Chinese atmosphere of the family home at the end of the day. His eldest daughter, Jia-Jen, is a spinster schoolteacher who has converted to Christianity. His middle 41

daughter, Jia-Chien, is a high-flying airline executive. His youngest, Jia-Ning, is still at school and works part-time in a fast food joint. The family lead separate, complex lives, and it is only at these weekly meals that they sit down and talk to one another. In between these formal gatherings each character falls in and out of love, and pursues careers and dreams beyond those of the family home. As each daughter has a “little announcement” these family gatherings decrease or increase in number. Jia-Jen receives anonymous love letters and begins to attract the attention of the high school volleyball coach, MingDao. Jia-Chien finds her open relationship with her boyfriend, Raymond, less of an attraction especially when she discovers that all her savings have been lost in a bad property investment. An offer of a promotion to a European office seems tempting as does the arrival of the dashing new negotiator, Li Kai. Jia-Ning falls for Guo Lan, the neglected boyfriend of one of her friends. Meanwhile, Chu has his own love life to sort out and, at a large family gathering, he announces his intention to marry the young divorcee, Jin-Rong, and be a stepfather to her daughter, Shan-Shan. This is a crashing blow to Jin-Rong’s widowed mother, Mrs Liang, who had hoped that she was the object of Chu’s affections. With Chu and two of his daughters married, he sells the family home to Jia-Chien, who decides to quit the airline business to pursue a career in catering. It is her turn to prepare a lavish Sunday lunch and, as she and her father sit alone at the family table, he discovers that his taste buds have returned. Background: Following the success of The Wedding Banquet, Lee felt confident enough to make a film in his native Taiwan completely in Mandarin. With the $1.5 million budget financed once again by the Central Motion Picture Corporation, it was Lee’s most costly film up until then. Prior to Eat Drink Man Woman, Lee’s films were heavily biased towards the male psyche. With only one male lead and six women, Lee

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and Schamus worked with TV scriptwriter Wang Hui Ling to bring the female perspective. It was she who brought the small details of the characters to life, such as the father’s mixing up of his daughters’ underwear when putting it away, as well as the tentative wake-up calls. “Eat, drink, man, woman – the basics of life.” The basics of life maybe. The basics of an Ang Lee film certainly. The Father Figure: The first two films in the ‘Father Knows Best’ trilogy have at their core a son coming to terms with his role as the eldest son in the strict Chinese tradition. By the time Lee was writing Eat Drink Man Woman, he had exorcised that particular demon in his own life and was now more concerned about his role as good father to his two growing sons. Mr Chu is a widower whose children are becoming increasingly ambivalent towards him as a provider and disciplinarian. They are forging their own careers and romances and he is beginning to feel redundant. He is of a generation where the father is respected and revered, and so he is forced to go in search of a new family for whom he can once again be the strong patriarch. He is unable to tell his daughters that he loves them, so demonstrates his love the only way he can - through the ritualistic preparation of these elaborate dinners. He provides Shan-Shan, his soon-to-be stepdaughter, with exotic packed lunches for her to take to school. The Outsider: Jia-Jen is painfully shy. She is one of the few female teachers at an all-male technical college where she teaches Chemistry to a less than enthusiastic group of boys. She does not find solace in traditional Chinese mediation and religion but in Christianity. She wears headphones and listens to majestic choral music at every opportunity. She has made herself the outsider by living in the past. Her heart broken at University, she stops looking for love and resigns herself to the role of the spinster sister who has to support her father in his declining years – yet he has made no such request. When she becomes the butt of a student prank and mistakenly believes that the volleyball coach, MingDao, is interested in her, she dispenses with the severe black skirts and

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formal white blouses and replaces them with vivid flowing clothes, bouffant hair and red lipstick. .

Although successful, Jia-Chien does not fit into her high-flying lifestyle. Her heart’s not really in it. She has a series of casual affairs but only comes alive when she is in the kitchen. However, in the Chinese tradition women are not supposed to become Master Chefs so JiaChien’s early passion for a career in catering was quashed and she was pushed into a business career. Rites Of Passage: The complex web of relationships that Lee has woven here clearly marks a maturity in his work. Considering the film’s four romances, two misguided romances, the blossoming father/stepdaughter and father/daughter relationships, it is astonishing that none of the characters’ rites of passage are lost in the mix. Jia-Jen moves from an upright spinster teacher to a vibrant woman who drives pillion on her husband’s bike. Jia-Chien, a promiscuous executive with a dream of leaving the family home, ends up buying the family home and becomes a chef. Jia-Ning abandons her college education to become a mother and wife. Chu, whose loss of taste buds threatens his career as a chef, finds a new role in life as husband to Jin-Rong and father to Shan-Shan, and is rewarded by his newly discovered relationship with Jia-Chien. The Generation Gap: The generation gap is at its most painfully acute when Mrs Liang, the widowed mother of Jin-Rong, flirts outrageously with Mr Chu. His daughters expect an imminent marriage announcement and it is a great shock to them all when, at the film’s final Sunday dinner for the family, a slightly tipsy Mr Chu announces that he is to marry Jin-Rong and be a father to Shan-Shan. Months later, when Mr Chu visits his daughter Jia-Chien, who now lives in the family home, they repair the damage done by years of misguided expectations. Chu wanted his daughter to have a better life than he had. Jia-Chien wanted exactly the same life he had.

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Food: Food preparation is a central metaphor in this film. The father is not able to tell his daughters that he loves them. Instead he prepares these elaborate Sunday meals at which they all sit and eat. Over a hundred separate dishes are prepared and served in the film. And yet frequently they are left untouched because the news delivered by the family members leave little room for eating. In contrast to the father’s painstaking meals as substitutes for saying ‘I love you,’ food is also used to show the generation gap. His youngest daughter has a part-time job in a fast food burger joint. Shan-Shan, who by the end of the film is his stepdaughter, is sent off to school by her mother with an ill-prepared packed lunch. Soon, Shan-Shan and Mr Chu set in motion a sneaky plan to exchange her mother’s packed lunch for one he has prepared. It is also used to display his paternalistic feelings for the young Shan-Shan. By eating Jin-Rong’s luncheon, he shows tenderness and love towards her by not throwing it away and thereby hurting her feelings – it helps that he can’t taste a thing! As part of Old China, Mr Chu maintains the tradition that a woman cannot be a chef. By pushing Jia-Chien into business he pushes her away. It is only when Jia-Chien is installed in the family home and kitchen, and her father accepts her for who she is and sits down to enjoy a meal that she has prepared, that he is rewarded with the return of his taste buds. Framing: The film’s opening sequence is a startling, beautifully-choreographed cooking sequence. With vegetables sizzling and rhythmic chopping accompanied by Mader’s score, it makes for a dazzling musical number worthy of Fred Astaire. It is when Lee is in the kitchen that he seems more assured. By using a Steadicam camera in the banqueting sequence, he reflects the fastpaced nature of working in such an establishment. The real chefs acting as extras adds texture and authenticity. Lee filmed primarily on location in Taipei. Shots of busy gridlocked roads are contrasted with the old worldly feel of the family home, high-

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lighting the Westernisation of their society. This is where the three daughters work. These streets, burger joints and plush offices are a stark contrast to the family home and the restaurant where their father works. Trivia: Three world-class chefs worked on the production, coaching the actors on the physical preparation of dishes, and assisting in the choreography of the cooking sequences. Up to fifteen dishes had to be prepared for the first family dinner, including exotic dishes such as Pumpkin Pot, Lotus Flower Soup and Chi-Ling Fish. A scene where Jia-Chien slices tofu to make dumplings took six hours to film. When she is required to make pancakes, two chefs and three assistants were needed, including a female chef whose hands stood in for Chien Lien Wu’s. Lee was exhilarated by the level of freedom he enjoyed in Taiwan, freedom that he could never have achieved in New York. The scenes in the hotel where Chu works were filmed during the few quiet hours in the middle of the night at the Grand Hotel, Taipei. It is reputed to be the biggest kitchen in Taiwan. The wedding banquet and the preparations beforehand were for a genuine wealthy Taiwanese wedding. It had 120 tables with 12 people per table. Lee was delighted to get a close-up of Taiwan’s Minister of Internal Affairs free of charge! The scenes in the family home were shot on location at a fifty-yearold mansion built in the Japanese style that used to belong to the Mayor. Yu-Chien Tang, the young actress playing Shan-Shan, is filmed attending her own school. Her classroom playmates are her real friends. American customs officials withheld cassettes of rushes from being sent back to Lee in Taiwan because they thought that the content of a film entitled Eat Drink Man Woman would show a little more sizzling action than the preparation of Chinese dishes and a tangle of emotional lives! Eat Drink Man Woman was remade in 2001 as Tortilla Soup. Directed by Maria Ripoll, it stars Hector Elizondo (the hotel manager in

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Pretty Woman) as Martin Naranjo, a Mexican-American chef with three daughters who has lost his sense of taste. (See The Takeaway.) Awards: Best Foreign-Language Film, National Board of Review, 1994. The Verdict: Eat Drink Man Woman is Lee’s most textured film to date. It marks a maturity in his film-making, both visually and narratively. Gone are the emotional props of New York and a reliance on East-meets-West plots. This film is an example of pure world cinema. The themes are universal and their telling is sophisticated. The look of the film is fantastic, with the beautifully-shot food preparation scenes being marvellous examples of choreography. The rich colours in the family home, contrasted with the greys and blues of hi-tech Taipei. The number of sub-plots is remarkable – each individual story is given the space to develop and they are so seamlessly interwoven that none of them get lost in the mix. Like a good meal, you don’t notice how the thing is put together – you just know that it was a very satisfying experience. 4/5

Sense And Sensibility (1995) Crew: Director: Ang Lee. Screenplay: Emma Thompson. Based on the novel by Jane Austen. Editing: Tim Squyres. Cinematography: Michael Coulter. Costume Design: Jenny Bevan and John Bright. Production Design: Luciana Arrighi. Original Music: Patrick Doyle. Producers: Laurie Borg, Lindsay Doran, Sydney Pollack and James Schamus. US. In English. 135 minutes. Cast: Emma Thompson (Elinor Dashwood), Kate Winslet (Marianne Dashwood), Hugh Grant (Edward Ferrars), Alan Rickman (Colonel Brandon), Greg Wise (John Willoughby), Gemma Jones (Mrs Dashwood), Tom Wilkinson (Mr Dashwood), Robert Hardy (Sir John Middleton), Elizabeth Spriggs (Mrs Jennings), Hugh Laurie (Mr Palmer), Imelda Staunton (Charlotte Palmer), Emilie François (Margaret Dash-

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wood), Imogen Stubbs (Lucy Steele), James Fleet (John Dashwood), Harriet Walter (Fanny Dashwood). Story: Mr Dashwood’s death leaves his widow and three daughters (Elinor, Marianne and Margaret) dependent on the good will and charity of relatives. Their half-brother, John Dashwood, breaking his promise to their dying father (with a little persuasion by his evil wife, Fanny), moves into the family home and makes it clear that Mrs and Misses Dashwood should find a new home fairly swiftly. This suggestion is made all the more striking when it seems that Fanny’s brother Edward Ferrars is falling for the eldest Dashwood sister, Elinor. A feeling which she reciprocates. An offer of a cottage on the estate of a distant relative, Sir John Middleton, finds the Dashwoods uprooted from their friends and family and transported to Devon. Sir John and his mother-in-law, Mrs Jennings, are a jovial and garrulous couple and are intent on finding husbands for the two eldest Dashwood sisters. Colonel Brandon, a mature, shy and kindly gentleman, is thought to be the perfect match of the elder, plainer Elinor, but he is instantly besotted by the vivacious and beautiful Marianne. His feelings are not returned because Marianne, half his age, thinks Brandon too old and dull and sets her sights on the young and dashing Willoughby. Without dowries, the Dashwood sisters find it hard to keep their men. Edward has been secretly engaged to Lucy Steele for the past five years, and Willoughby is a cad who has left a trail of broken hearts across the South of England. Following Willoughby’s betrayal, Marianne becomes very ill and Colonel Brandon remains a sure and steady source of friendship. The news of Mr Ferrars’ marriage to Lucy Steele brings grief to the Dashwood household, so Edward’s unexpected appearance at their cottage baffles the family, especially when Edward begins his stumbling apology and announces that Lucy has married his brother Robert. Now free to marry Elinor, they do so, as do Colonel Brandon and Marianne.

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Background: Based on Jane Austen’s novel, which was written in 1795 but not published until 1811, Sense And Sensibility was Lee’s first crack at directing a film that was based on previously published source material. But whose film is it? The opening credits tell us that it is ‘A film by Ang Lee.’ Yet, it was Emma Thompson who got the credit, the publicity, the chat-show appearances, the Oscar (for Best Adapted Screenplay), the published screenplay and the accompanying diary. But it is very much an Ang Lee film – one that neatly follows his three Taiwanese films. By placing this film directly in the middle of his seven feature-length films, it can be seen as the transitional film between his Asian- and English-language films. Bigger budgets, bigger stars, bigger locations… When it was first announced that one of England’s most popular novels was to be directed by a relatively unknown Taiwanese director who had never read any of Austen’s works, had never made a film entirely in English, had never made a film outside his two home territories of New York and Taipei, had never made a film with international stars, initial reactions were that it seemed an odd choice at the very least. Not that odd, considering that, like Eat Drink Man Woman, Sense And Sensibility is about the lives of three sisters in search of love and freedom within their strict environment. The eldest sisters are deeply conservative women who are mindful of the duties they are expected to fulfil and who pale into insignificance when their younger sisters are around. The middle sisters are attractive young women with scores of willing young men eager to woo them. The youngest sisters are rebellious and fight the conventions and expectations of girls on the verge of adulthood in their society. Given these strong similarities it is surprising that the press at the time were shocked that Lee pulled it off. Not only did he make a great film, but he (along with Thompson’s screenplay) captured the spirit and vivacity of Austen’s original.

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Without being worn down by the pressure of preserving the text, and without the ever so polite and respectful attitude of the BBC adaptations, Lee created the definitive Austen film. Sense And Sensibility has many of the themes featured in Lee’s previous films, and he brings the Chinese sensibility of the long shot, which caused much consternation on set. The act of holding back, of showing restraint, is very much in keeping with this period of English social conventions and, in particular, this novel. This film contrasts the two Dashwood sisters. Elinor (the sense) withholds all emotions and feelings and Marianne (the sensibility) is all too eager to let it be widely known who she likes and dislikes. Marianne has yet to learn the art of decorum and this almost kills her. Emma Thompson had spent six years writing the screenplay and had initially envisioned the Redgrave sisters, Natasha and Joely Richardson, as playing the two elder Dashwood sisters. It was Lee who convinced her to take on the role opposite newcomer Kate Winslet. It was also Lee who ruthlessly edited Thompson’s very talky 300-page script, which had already simplified Austen’s plot, axed characters, invented new scenes and deleted whole passages. What is left is a series of beautifully constructed vignettes and a narrative predominantly told through a series of whispered gossipy exchanges in parlours, shops and balls. Some of the major scenes are not even seen. Most notably, the scene where Edward finally proposes to Elinor. Lee felt that Margaret peeping through the window from her tree and relaying the action to her mother and sister was a far more effective method of showing how much the whole family are dependent on a successful outcome to this meeting. The Father Figure: In Lee’s ironically subtitled ‘Father Knows Best’ trilogy, the role of wife/mother is absent in two of the films and sidelined in the other, but he makes up for it here. The first scene is the death of the patriarch. Mr Dashwood’s death foreshadows that this film centres around the absent father and how, in those times, women were dependent on their husbands and fathers for financial stability. Without these protectors they are at the mercy of 50

family and acquaintances. In Thompson’s feminist reworking of the book, the issue of female non-inheritance is a key theme. Elinor rather bluntly tells her sister “Houses go from father to son, dearest – not from father to daughter. It’s the law.” Elinor has to take on the role of head of the family. It is she who tries to protect her mother and sisters from the realities of their reduced state. She makes the announcement to the staff that their services are no longer required, decides where they are going to live and manages the family budget. The women rule the roost in this film. Edward Ferrars is so scared of his mother and sisters that he does not tell them of his secret engagement to Lucy Steele, let alone his love for the despised Elinor. Willoughby is chased away from the Dashwood house with the threat of disinheritance by his aged Aunt. The Outsider: Being female and being poor were two key reasons for exclusion in this society. The Dashwoods are both. They are mocked by the more wealthy members of their family and their associates: “A cottage? How charming. A little cottage is always very snug,” purrs the evil Fanny Dashwood. “Wearing their country fashions, I see – dreadful,” sneers the elegantly dressed young women at a London ball. Marianne, so wrapped up in her life of Gothic Romance, fails to notice these insults or see the disapproving glances. She cannot understand why anyone as beautiful as her is not welcomed with open arms by society. Elinor, the plain and sensible one, is only too acutely aware of the snide remarks and, as a consequence, removes herself from society as much as possible. Rites Of Passage: The Dashwood sisters are dealt a double blow which they have to overcome. The death of their father leaves them penniless at the age when they have to marry or they will be labelled spinsters. Their reduced financial state throws any plans for a successful marriage awry. The whole question of finding a spouse becomes a matter of necessity for them rather than a desirable social function. Marianne stumbles upon her dream man (Willoughby) in a rainstorm: he is good-looking, wealthy and he recites poetry. With her 51

Gothic sensibility in full flow she becomes a romantic wild child but, because of Willoughby’s cruel rejection, she is forced to grow up. She matures into a far wiser young woman. Elinor and Edward are instantly attracted but are both of the same temperament – they are shy and sensible, ill-prepared for a Grand Romance. They retreat into themselves and it is only when they are of equal status (Edward loses all his money) that they can finally have each other. The Generation Gap: It is not only through generations that behaviours and attitudes are marked. The changing role of women from child to adult can be seen in the three Dashwood sisters. Margaret is young and of a new generation. She is a tomboy, who questions the status quo. She climbs trees and fights duels. She is going to be an adventurer. Her spirit has not been worn down by the pressure to conform. Marianne, the middle daughter, is aware of the need to act with decorum but does not see why she has to. She is wilful and acts on impulse without being fully aware of the consequences of her actions. Elinor, the eldest, is well aware of how one misconstrued remark or questionable action can ruin a girl’s chances of a good match. She acts in a most careful and appropriate manner at all times, even when it breaks her heart to do so. Food: Much of the film is set around parlours, where delicate teas are served, or balls, where lavish food is beautifully laid out but never eaten. These venues are used as an excuse for dissecting the latest scandals and passing on whispered secrets. Part of Elinor’s role as ‘father’ is curbing the family’s expenditure. She decides whether to buy beef or sugar with the utmost solemnity, while her mother seems to have little regard for their reduced circumstances. Framing: At first glance some of the framing may appear awkward. For instance, the two-shot of Elinor and Edward not telling each other 52

how they feel. Grant, an actor known for facial tics and grimaces, had to act with his whole body. The tapping of his foot on the ground shows more than any of his usual mugging. The scene in which, with awkward and uncertain body language, he tries to tell Elinor of his love and predicament, is surely one of Grant’s better screen performances. A number of times Lee frames his male characters in windows and doorways to show that they are ‘incomplete’ men, e.g. Brandon (romantically tortured) and Edward (emasculated by his calculating fiancée, sister and mother) are both caught hovering in doorways unsure whether their presence is desired. In contrast, Willoughby has no such reservations and just bounds through doors like the sex god he believes himself to be. Elinor looks out of a window to see Edward and Margaret playing. Mrs Dashwood watches out of a window to see Edward and Elinor strolling together. This touching scene makes her smile the knowing ‘mother knows best’ way, and is contrasted by Fanny’s disapproving clucks from an upstairs window. On several occasions, Elinor and Mrs Dashwood look forlornly out of windows as though trapped in their dainty parlours. Trivia: On the first day of filming (19th April 1995), Lee held a Buddhist ritual ‘Big Luck’ ceremony which Emma Thompson describes in her diary: ‘He set up a trestle table with large bowls of rice, two gongs, incense sticks, oranges (for luck and happiness), apples (for safe, smooth shooting), a bouquet of large red-petalled flowers (for success) and an incongruous pineapple (for prosperity). Everyone lit a stick of incense, bowed in unison to the four corners of the compass and offered a prayer to the God of their choice. The camera was brought in on the dolly for a blessing, and a few feet of film were rolled. Ang struck the gongs, we all cheered and planted incense in the rice bowls. I cried. Al Watson, one of the electricians, passed Ang and said, “Is this going to happen every day, guv?”’ Was the first day of filming blessed with good luck? No. There was a hailstorm! 53

Awards: Golden Bear, Berlin International Film Festival, 1996. Best Film Drama and Best Screen Adaptation, Golden Globes, 1996. Best Adapted Screenplay, Academy Awards, 1996. Best Picture, Best Actress (Emma Thompson) and Best Supporting Actress (Kate Winslet), BAFTA, 1996. The Verdict: Sense And Sensibility is a delightful film – it is fresh, funny and blessed with a deep sense of the irony in Austen’s novel. There are huge quotation marks around the Gothic Romance between Marianne and Willoughby. Austen resoundingly mocked this particular genre in Northanger Abbey and continued to do so in Sense And Sensibility. Kate Winslet (in only her second major feature film role), Greg Wise, Alan Rickman, Emma Thompson (perhaps a little old at 38 to play the 19-year-old Elinor) and Hugh Grant all turn in some of their finest performances. Not one of them is out of keeping with the mood and pace of Thompson’s screenplay and Lee’s vision. The film is beautifully constructed and framed. It begins with a death and ends with a wedding (a rebirth). Willoughby is first seen riding across the windy rainy moors to rescue Marianne. He is last seen riding on a brilliantly-lit hill looking longingly down on Marianne and Brandon’s wedding. Marianne is rescued twice from rainy hilltops: once by Willoughby (the man she becomes infatuated with at first sight) and the second time by Brandon (the man whom she learns to love). A wonderful film that works as a whole and when broken down into its component parts. A pleasurable way to spend a couple of hours and a breath of fresh air to the worthy costume drama. 5/5

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The Ice Storm (1997) Crew: Director: Ang Lee. Screenplay: James Schamus. Based on the novel by Rick Moody. Editing: Tim Squyres. Cinematography: Frederick Elmes. Costume Design: Carol Oditz. Production Design: Mark Friedberg. Original Music: Mychael Danna. Producers: Ted Hope, James Schamus and Ang Lee. US. In English. 113 minutes. Cast: Kevin Kline (Ben Hood), Joan Allen (Elena Hood), Tobey Maguire (Paul Hood), Christina Ricci (Wendy Hood), Sigourney Weaver (Janey Carver), Jamey Sheridan (Jim Carver), Elijah Wood (Mikey Carver), Adam Hann-Byrd (Sandy Carver), Katie Holmes (Libbets Casey), David Krumholtz (Francis Davenport), Michael Cumpsty (Philip Edwards). Story: The Ice Storm is a snapshot of the disintegration of the American Suburbs. In 1973 the Nixon Watergate scandal is at its peak and consumerism is at an all-time high in the USA. We are shown how this is taking its toll on the nuclear family who can have everything but are still not happy. Two middle-class families, the Carvers and Hoods, in New Canaan, Connecticut, come to terms with their self-discovery while ‘celebrating’ Thanksgiving. Ben and Elena Hood’s marriage has drifted apart, but they have honed the fine art of non-communication. Ben seeks sanctuary in the arms of the predatory Janey Carver, while her quiet and well-meaning husband is away on one of his frequent business trips. Ben’s son Paul is away at college where he is trying to woo the sophisticated Libbets and experiment with drugs with his roommate David. His pubescent sister Wendy is on the verge of sexual exploration with both the Carver sons: the melancholic Mikey and the naïve Sandy. On Thanksgiving Eve, as the ice storm approaches, the families’ attempts at seduction and sexual liberation come to a climax. Against the background music of the classic ‘Help Me Make It Through The Night’ both the Carvers and the Hoods are attending a key party, the suburban equivalent of a wife-swapping party. The party is in full swing 55

when the bowl of the husbands’ car keys is placed on the table, husbands and wives on opposite sides. The wives pluck sets of keys from the bowl at random, giving them a new husband for the night. As the keys dwindle, Elena becomes more and more convinced that Janey will be going home with Ben. But when Janey pulls out the keys belonging to the son of their friends, it is the drunken Ben who tries to stop her leaving rather than her husband. Ben passes out in the bathroom, leaving Elena and Jim as unwanted leftovers. Feeling awkward together, Jim offers to drive her home – but Elena, rejected and alone, offers herself to him. He accepts and in the front seat of his car they have a brief (and I mean very brief) and humiliating sexual encounter. Paul is in New York, attending a party which he thinks is just for two. Libbets, the object of his desire, has invited him to her apartment but on arrival he discovers that his friend, Francis, is there as well. Francis, who is far more worldly-wise, has already made some progress wooing the poor little rich girl. Wanting Francis temporarily out of the picture, Paul offers him a sleeping tablet inferring that it is in fact something far more racy. To his distress, Libbets takes one as well and, declaring that she loves Paul like a brother, she passes out. With both fast asleep and no action likely Paul races to catch the last train home only to be trapped in the middle of nowhere as the ice storm rages around him. Wendy has been left alone. Bored, she decides to go and visit Mikey. However, Mikey has gone out exploring the storm, so when she arrives at the Carver home she finds the young Sandy alone. With the help of a little vodka, the two of them are soon nestling down in his parents’ spare room. With the storm raging, Mikey, having always been drawn to nature, is killed by the very thing he loves – the ice storm. It is Ben, hung-over and confused, who finds his body and takes him to the Carver home. The families are united in the tragedy and, as the ice thaws, real emotions are revealed.

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Background: Based on Rick Moody’s 1994 semi-autobiographical novel, The Ice Storm is Lee’s darkest film. Visually the colours are diluted and the décor minimal. The sparse percussive score of predominantly Asian pan pipes and wind chimes conjures the mood of the ice storm and leaves the soundtrack free for the atmospheric cracking of ice and the expertly interwoven narratives of individual voyages of discovery. Unlike Lee’s previous films, where problems have arisen due to the obsessive conformity of the period and culture of the time, here the characters’ problems are caused by being too rebellious and too liberated – on a typically suburban level. These desperately sad characters are shown against a frozen backdrop and, as the ice begins to thaw, so do family relationships. It is only Mikey’s death that draws people out of their individual self-woven cocoons and reunites them as families. The Father Figure: This film looks at what happens to family groups when the traditional role of the father is no longer dominant. The fathers have found themselves more or less redundant because their children are growing up far too quickly. Ben tries to talk about the facts of life with his sixteen-year-old son Paul – appropriate and inappropriate places to masturbate in the family home – instead of talking to his fourteen-year-old daughter, who at that moment, is misbehaving with the Carver boys. In the DGA Magazine Lee said: “I’m in the habit of doing father figures to see the collapse of patriarchal society from the past. I did three Chinese films like that, using my father, and myself as the son, but on this one I was putting myself on the line, or at least my fear as a father.” The notion of a failing and insecure patriarchy is shown through the two contrasting fathers. Ben is loud, energetic and befuddled, tripping over his own tongue in an effort to talk his way out of a situation over which he has no control and which he cannot truly comprehend. He is a troubled father. He is no longer able to live up to the image he has of

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himself as a respected and revered father and breadwinner. He is constantly worried that colleagues at work are vying for promotion and that he has been left behind. Interestingly, Schamus excised from his screenplay much of Ben’s sense of failure and fear of professional incompetence, which are so prominent in Moody’s novel. The focus here is purely on Ben’s role as a father in a rapidly changing society. On the other hand, Jim glides silently and invisibly through life ignored by his family and, although away for days at a time, he is not missed by his sons nor his wife. However, on his return, he seems to be more perceptive of changes in the family dynamic. He is the least defined character in the film but it emphasises his insignificance - when he pops into the boys’ den to tell them he has returned after a long absence, he is flippantly greeted with the deflating, “You were away?” Wendy is obsessed with President Nixon and the Watergate scandal. The President is the Father of the Nation and he, too, has been revealed to have feet of clay - if he can no longer be respected by the American people, then what hope do Jim and Ben have at their level? Indeed, one of the most uncomfortable scenes to watch is Wendy’s seduction of Mikey, with Wendy wearing a rubber Nixon mask. Only by being someone else (even a failed ‘father’) can she allow Mikey to touch her. Little real physical contact between family members is shown. In one scene Ben, having just left his mistress’ bed upstairs, discovers Wendy and Mikey in the basement. He turns on his strict father act and reprimands Wendy for fooling around with Mikey. As he walks Wendy home, he offers to carry her - once again she is his baby girl whom he has to protect and carry in his arms. The Outsider: All the characters are unhappy, distrust one another and hide their guilty secrets. They live at the end of the line and the train is symbolically shown arriving at the big stop sign. Each child creates their own private world, living largely inside their own head and fantasies. Their self-inflicted exclusion removes them from normality. Wendy has an obsessive interest in the Nixon/Water-

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gate scandal and is willing to bed down with any number of boys. Paul is geeky and wants ‘poor little rich girl’ Libbets. He is obsessed by comic books, in particular The Fantastic Four, where he sees a family that work and fight together, something lacking in his own. Sandy likes to blow things up and mutilate his Action Men. The parents do not fare much better – they also live in their own cocoons. Jim throws himself into work and invents polystyrene packaging material. Janey is a middle-aged suburban housewife who desperately wants to be hip. She has sex with Ben but offers no warmth. She plays the vampy temptress at the key party, but feels sordid and disillusioned in the cold light of morning. It takes her son’s death to draw her out of her spiral of self-loathing. Elena is the plain Jane to Janey’s vamp. She is colourless and bland, and hides from the world. She only agrees to go to the party because Ben does not tell her what the goinghome present is. Ben, in contrast, goes over the top with this need for acceptance and peer approval. Rites Of Passage: The children are on a journey of self-awareness and must navigate the road to maturity on their own. They believe their parents have failed to find their destination, so they try to be everything their parents are not. In the decade that promised sexual freedom, these families try desperately to shed the shackles of conformity. Ben and Janey’s ill-disguised affair forces Elena to get her kicks elsewhere. She abandons the family estate car for a bike and, mirroring her daughter’s earlier visit to the local drugstore, steals make-up – but gets caught. She catches the eye of Philip, a ‘trendy’ clergyman, a long-haired hippie who, despite his clerical status, attends the key party, albeit with no wife to swap. Jim devotes himself to work and quietly ignores his wife’s increasingly erratic behaviour. As a leftover at the wife-swapping party, he is paired off with Elena. Their quick and painful coupling in his car humiliates both of them.

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Wendy is openly flirtatious, first with the boys at school and then with both the Carver boys. She kisses Mikey in an abandoned and empty swimming pool, but only after Mikey sticks his gum behind his ear. (The camera pans up and is then above them. There is a fade to black and we are at Janey’s bedroom, where she and Ben have just had sex. Fathers and sons, mothers and daughters are constantly being mirrored.) Wendy tells Sandy, “I’ll show you mine if you show me yours.” Later, with the aid of alcohol. they spend a naked night together. The yawning chasms within the families are only brought together through the death of Mikey. Both families are reunited through his death. Janey wakes up from her dazed, drug-like state and expresses real emotion for the first time as she howls over the body of her son. The Hoods all wait for Paul at the station because they need to make sure that he is safely returned to them. The Generation Gap: Everyone is in search of their identity and the meaning of life through a combination of sex, drugs, alcohol and consumerism. There is not a generation gap but more of a blurred line. The adults, although older, are no wiser than their offspring. Their fumbling attempts at sex and freedom are no less desperate and flawed than those of their children. Parents embarrass their kids and kids cause their parents anguish. The contrasts and parallels between the generations is acutely observed. The impact of parents’ ill-timed or poorly-judged advice to their children is mercilessly described. On discovering that her son and neighbours’ daughter have spent a night together, Janey is unable to communicate her emotions and spouts a garbled, half-remembered feminist diatribe about women in Samoa and a “woman’s body being her temple.” After the tragedy, the adults realise the damage they have caused by their selfish and immature behaviour. The moral seems to be that age does not necessarily make you wiser. Food: The film is set over Thanksgiving weekend. The contrast between the social and financial status of the two families is at its most acute during the dinner scenes. 60

As Elena and Ben prepare the traditional meal, they cannot admit that their marriage is not a traditional one and maintain this pretence. The preparations are all last minute - the turkey is still frozen and they have to defrost it by holding it under the hot tap. The meal is just as bad. Ben, unaware that Wendy is no longer a child, asks her to say a short grace. Instead she inflicts a political diatribe on them about the brutalisation of the American Indians. Meanwhile Mikey and Sandy have to act as servants at their parent’s formal dinner party. They are ill-prepared or trained to carry out this social function and so they find the evening mortifying. Framing: The Ice Storm crackles with ice metaphors: the cool green jade opening titles with wispy smoke; ice cubes; frozen turkeys; ice crystals; and the tinkling score which becomes more dramatic and then calms down once the storm has passed. Windows and mirrors symbolise the self-made prisons that the characters find themselves in. It is a cold blue film. All the whites are blue-toned, giving the film an even cooler hue. These factors combine as visual and aural symbols of the cold and brittle relationships between the characters. The bleakness of their emotions is mirrored by the tragic weather. The film has two contrasting looks. In the first half of the film it is bright, the air tinged with innocence. When the weather hits and everything is thrown off balance, the film becomes photorealist in style. The film begins with Paul’s journey to New York and ends with his return to New Canaan. His occasional voice-over offers the film’s only internal thoughts. Trivia: The part of Wendy was originally offered to Natalie Portman. With a budget of over $14 million, filming began in April 1996 and ran for 55 days (rather than the scheduled 50). It was shot on location in New Canaan and Westchester, New York (Lee’s backyard once again). As the film is set over Thanksgiving, the location scouts were constantly searching for backdrops where trees were not yet in bud. If that was not problem enough, many of the locations they had planned on

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using in and around New Canaan were withdrawn once local residents read Moody’s novel. By a great stroke of luck, whilst the second unit were searching for establishing and atmospheric shots of New Canaan at night, they encountered a real ice storm, the first one to hit the area in thirty years. However, they found that they had too much of a good thing, and some of the snow had to be digitally removed in post-production. In contrast, to give the effect of icy roads, hair gel was sprayed on the ground. Awards: Best Screenplay, Cannes Film Festival, 1997. Best Supporting Actress (Weaver), BAFTA, 1997. The Verdict: The Ice Storm is emotionally draining and will leave you as numbed and cold as the characters. Lee refrains from kitsching the 1970s too much. There are waterbeds and the big collars and so on but they are used as essential elements of this intimate, but ultimately bleak, tale. The bored parents’ ‘groovy’ sexual experimentation at the key party highlights the yawning gap between the people as they plan empty sexual acts without love and respect. Their children’s innocent sexual explorations are more tender and offer the film’s only genuine warmth. The ensemble cast all turn in achingly perfect performances. Weaver’s suburban housewife, a swinger who lets Ben into her bed but not her heart, is one of her finest performances. Mychael Danna’s score is oriental in feel and is a welcome contrast to the anticipated soundtrack loaded with 70s tracks. Elmes’ stark cinematography captures the reality of the story rather than presenting a pastiche of a particular period of American history. The observational fly-on-the-wall viewpoint adds a further level of cool distancing for the viewer. The cold and empty world that the Carvers and the Hoods inhabit will no doubt hold many viewers at arm’s length. Further viewing will be rewarded by an appreciation of the intelligent script, precise production and costume details, superb cinematography and flawless acting.

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The Ice Storm is a far more telling attack on the excesses and failures of American suburbia than Sam Mendes’ slick and showier American Beauty (1999). 5/5

Ride With The Devil (1999) Crew: Director: Ang Lee. Screenplay: James Schamus. Based on the novel Woe To Live On by Daniel Woodrell. Editing: Tim Squyres. Cinematography: Frederick Elmes. Costume Design: Marit Allen. Art Direction: Steve Arnold. Original Music: Mychael Danna. Producers: Robert E Colesberry, Ted Hope, David Linde and James Schamus. US. In English. 135 minutes. Cast: Tobey Maguire (Jake Roedel), Skeet Ulrich (Jack Bull Chiles), Jewel Kilcher (Sue Lee Shelley), Jeffrey Wright (Daniel Holt), Simon Baker (George Clyde), Jonathan Rhys-Meyers (Pitt Mackeson), Matthew Faber (Turner Rawls), Tom Wilkinson (Orton Brown), John Ales (Quantrill), Mark Ruffalo (Alf Bowden). Story: Ride With The Devil adopts the unusual position of focusing on the losers of the American Civil War, which was the bloodiest war in America’s history. It follows a small group of Southern bushwhackers through the Kansas/Missouri borders as they hunt down and see off the Northern Jayhawkers. However, the film’s focus is not on the North/ South divide but on the divisions and conflicts within the ranks of the Southerners, who are supposedly fighting for a common cause. The audience is asked to side with losers who are, to our current way of thinking, in the wrong. These Southerners genuinely feel they were losing their freedom to prejudiced, corrupt, racist and psychotic Yankees. Jack Bull Chiles, the son of a wealthy Southern aristocrat, and his best friend, German immigrant Jake Roedel, witness the murder of Chiles’ father. Despite family protestations, they are only too keen to sign up to fight alongside the Southern Bushwhackers to avenge his death. Roedel’s father pleas with his son to flee with him to the safety of the North. Being an immigrant, he does not see this war as their fight. 63

Roedel defies his father: “I may be born in Germany, but I was raised in the South.” The Germans may be loyal to the North, but Roedel sees himself as a Southerner. Roedel and Chiles go to war and meet up with other, seemingly patriotic, young men. They are drawn into a friendship with George Clyde who, like Chiles, is a wealthy Southern aristocratic landowner. In his shadow stands Holt, his childhood friend and ‘nigger.’ Although, Clyde had bought Holt’s freedom, to others and even subconsciously to Clyde, Holt still belongs to him. Another pair of Bushwhackers, Pitt Mackeson and Turner Rawls, are also following their own agenda. They are unstable fellows who seem just as willing to take pot-shots at the ‘dutchy’ and the ‘nigger’ (Roedel and Holt) as they are to the Northern Jayhawkers. As these young men get to know one another, they come to realise that they may all be on the same side. They are bandied together, their reasons for joining up different and their idealism misplaced. As Autumn turns to Winter, the Bushwhackers split up to find safety and shelter over the harsh Winter months. Clyde, Holt, Chiles and Roedel build a makeshift shelter near the home of Southern sympathisers, the Evans family. Their recently widowed daughter-in-law, Sue Lee Shelley, soon takes on the role of messenger between their home and the boys’ hideout. Flirtatious banter between Sue Lee and Chiles soon turns physical and romance blossoms. Clyde decides that he too is missing the company of a certain young woman and leaves the three of them at the hideout. As the snow thaws, soldiers from both sides materialise, shots are heard and the battle commences. Holt, Roedel and Chiles head off into battle, but soon return when Chiles takes a bullet in his shoulder. Without proper medical attention, drugs or even alcohol, they are forced to carry out an emergency operation. Despite Sue Lee’s constant nursing, he dies. Meanwhile, Sue Lee’s in-laws are all murdered by the Northern Jayhawkers. Holt and Roedel take Sue Lee to Orton Brown’s home and return to battle. Roedel and Holt finally realise that they are indeed riding with the devil when they are forced to participate in the Bushwhacker raid on 64

Lawrence, a bloody and brutal act where one hundred and eighty civilians were murdered. Their General, Quantrill, ordered that no lives should be spared. As the Bushwhackers are on the streets fighting their terrible battle, Roedel and Holt retire to a tea room for a bite to eat. This battle for them (and many of their comrades) is the turning point. They have lost heart, they are no longer willing and enthusiastic supporters of a cause that was never theirs in the first place. Killing defenceless women and children is not what they had signed up for and from there they return to the Brown home. Upon their return, they discover that Sue Lee has had a baby and everyone assumes Roedel to be the father. A shotgun wedding follows where it is revealed that Sue Lee and Roedel really love each other. Holt accompanies them as this new family head North to start afresh. On the way they meet Mackeson and Rawls, who have turned to a life of thieving, murder, plundering and scalping, but who are now resigned to an early death as they ride off on a suicide mission: going in search of a drink in their home town of Newport, now a Northern stronghold. Background: Based on Daniel Woodrell’s 1987 novel Woe To Live On, Ride With The Devil was Lee’s take on the Civil War drama. Tiring of his reputation as a director of family dramas, he wanted to make a macho film where both he and his cast could get dirt under their fingernails. The cast were sent to a Civil War Boot Camp for a month to immerse themselves into the period. There they learnt to ride and shoot, and attended seminars on period costume, language and behaviour. Huge mountains of information and textbooks on the history of the Civil War were distributed and the actors were set homework assignments. Following Lee’s success with Sense And Sensibility and The Ice Storm, commentators were wary of suggesting that someone from Taiwan could understand a period of history that was not his own. It is precisely because Lee hadn’t been brought up on a diet of Civil War films and literature, and had not been indoctrinated at school, that he was able to approach the genre from a fresh perspective. Hiring experts in the 65

field of period costume, design and language, left him free to focus on the emotional and spiritual journey of the five young characters. He cast actors who were right for the part, not because of who they were. Surprise choices include the Australian actor Simon Baker to play the Southern aristocrat George Clyde, and pop singer Jewel who plays the film’s only female lead, Sue Lee Shelley. Although Schamus had conceived the role of Roedel with Tobey Maguire in mind, having worked together on The Ice Storm, the part was initially offered to Leonardo DiCaprio and Matt Damon, who were more bankable stars. It was only after they had both turned it down that the part was offered to, and secured by, Maguire, who had been turning down other offers of work in the hope of gaining this role. The story is told from Roedel’s point of view. He is the only character to remain present throughout the entire film. By the end of the shoot the cast and crew had worked 16hour days for five months, and the final cost had surged to $35 million. Filming took place on and around the Kansas and Missouri border where 130 years previously the real Jayhawkers and Bushwhackers had fought. Local support was tremendous and many of the locals participated in the project, either by helping to build sets, eliminating all evidence of twentieth-century life, or acting as extras. Principal photography began on 25th March 1998 and was completed in early July of that year. Lee went straight into pre-production on Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, which meant he was unable to do much publicity for Ride With The Devil. This, coupled with the film’s poor distribution, meant that the film failed to make as much impact at the box office as it ought to have done. Once again, Schamus’ script has a circular structure. The film opens and closes with a wedding: the first formal and grand; the second forced and rushed. Although on one level Ride With The Devil operates as a butch, manly film with shoot-outs and big battle scenes, it is still basically an intimate family drama. The ‘family’ are not related by blood but are brought together by their emotional journey. Schamus’ screen-

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play touches on a range of sensitive issues such as comparisons between slavery and marriage, identity and racism, humour and intelligence. The Father Figure: As with Sense And Sensibility, the fathers here are largely absent. Within the film’s first ten minutes, Chiles’ father is murdered by Northern Unionists. This act spurs Chiles and Roedel to stop talking about what is happening and to avenge his death by joining the Southern Bushwhackers. Roedel’s father is a soft-spoken German immigrant whose loyalty lies with the North. The Southerners do not respect the Germans any more than they respect their coloured slaves. He is seen working in a manual job to earn a living for his family. But Roedel’s loyalties lie with those of his friend and he too finds himself at war to avenge his mentor’s death. By signing up to fight, Roedel does not realise that he is effectively signing his father’s death warrant. Roedel is a kind boy at heart. When former friend Alf Bowden joins the Unionists and becomes a prisoner of the Bushwhackers, Roedel helps him by entrusting him to deliver a message from Quantrill to the Northern Generals. Bowden does not deliver the message but instead goes to Roedel’s father and slits his throat. Roedel wonders in disbelief why anyone would want to murder his father, who would never have hurt a fly. He is rudely awakened by the reality of the situation when he is told that his father is now best known for being the father of Jake Roedel and not for a man in his own right. He was murdered for the sins of his son. As the Bushwhackers travel around the boundary, they come across many homes where the mothers and daughters are now alone, their husbands and fathers brutally murdered. Despite the bloodlust of many of the soldiers on both sides, there is a code of honour where women will not be harmed, thus leaving in their wake a trail of widows. The Outsider: This is a film about the realities of freedom and the desire to have something which belongs to you and that you feel strong enough to fight for. Roedel and Holt do not fight because of the slavery

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issue but out of loyalty to their friends, Chiles and Clyde respectively. In their small-town environments they could be friends, but once they leave their home environment it becomes all too clear that a ‘dutchy’ and a ‘nigger’ are not Southerners. There is a strong level of discrimination against foreigners. Clyde and Holt have grown up together and when they came of age Clyde purchased Holt’s freedom, yet he still treats him as a servant, referring to him as ‘nigger.’ Initially, Roedel is prejudiced towards Holt believing, as Chiles’ does, that all coloured folk are the same and are to be mistrusted and treated as servants. It is only when Roedel and Holt are increasingly rejected by their former friends and spend time together that a mutual bond of friendship and respect grows between them. They soon realise that they are outsiders, both in this war and in the South. They both entered the war out of a misguided sense of loyalty to a side that despised them: their fellow Southerners have no respect for them, insult them, shoot at them and abuse them. This is aptly demonstrated when Roedel and Holt are gambling with some other Bushwhackers around a campfire. When their companions run out of money, they bring out war souvenirs to use instead, including ‘nigger’ and Dutch scalps. Because of their journey, a genuine friendship develops between them and they shift from both being outsiders, fighting for a cause and with people that in all intent and purpose are their enemy, to men with their own identities and missions. In the end, Roedel has a wife and child to support and Holt returns South to find his mother. Rites Of Passage: Here, four young men and a woman on the verge of becoming adults are faced with a devastating life-altering event. Chiles and Clyde, despite being from wealthy families, are killed in their spirited and misguided mission to protect their cultural identity. Roedel and Holt are on a journey from marginalisation to liberation. Although Holt has had his freedom bought by his childhood friend, he believes that it was not Clyde’s to buy. It is only when Clyde is killed in

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battle that Holt feels free. Until that point, he was still referred to as Clyde’s ‘nigger.’ As he tells Roedel: “Being his friend was no diff’rent from being his nigger – and I never, never again gonna be nobody’s nigger.” Having come to terms with his own freedom, Holt now goes in search of his mother to ensure her freedom. By the age of nineteen, Roedel has been fighting a cause and living by his wits for over two years. In the process he has killed at least fifteen men, but when he enters his wife’s bedroom on their wedding night it is obvious to his bride that he is a virgin. It is not how many people you’ve killed or the battles you have fought but the assuming of an adult relationship that marks your maturity from adolescent to adult. Food: For the Bushwhackers on the run, food is essential for their survival and yet hard to come by. Rawls is seen eating grass and bark, and stealing food is as natural to them as eating it. When they finally come across a home where their presence is welcomed, they gleefully tuck in, but are interrupted when the Jayhawkers catch up with them and fighting breaks out. When Clyde, Chiles, Holt and Roedel are hiding out near the Evans’ home, Sue Lee brings them what little food she can. The group tease each other over food. When Chiles and Holt fall out, to make amends Chiles offers Holt his bacon, which Holt happily accepts. Clyde, feeling that maybe he ought to offer his bacon to Roedel, does so. When Roedel hesitatingly accepts, Clyde laughs and says, “Well, I’ll shit it behind the oak tree in the morning and you can just help yourself.” Framing: Holt is practically silent for the first half of the movie when he is still Clyde’s ‘nigger.’ Holt’s inner thoughts and his self-perception are projected by his subtle body language: the half walk/half shuffle and his permanently bowed head show a man who still thinks he is in shackles. As Holt’s relationship with Roedel develops following Clyde’s death, he becomes his own man, holds his head up with pride and speaks eloquently. He plans his own future instead of following Clyde into a war with which he has no real sympathy or future.

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Again, Holt is at the core of another piece of Lee’s circular framing. When Holt and Roedel first meet there is antagonism between them and Roedel, incensed that Holt does not automatically tip his hat at Sue Lee, reprimands him and forces him to conform to a Southern gentleman’s reaction to greeting a lady. At the film’s close, where Roedel and Holt part, Holt casually doffs his hat – this simple gesture is a marked reminder at how far their relationship has come from the beginning of their adventure. As they say goodbye they use each other’s full names, something no one else has done throughout the film. To each other they are Daniel Holt and Jacob Roedel, not Holt and Roedel, and certainly not ‘nigger’ and ‘dutchy.’ Trivia: Jewel can be heard singing the film’s closing credit ballad ‘What’s Simple Is True.’ One of the last scenes filmed was the grand wedding at the beginning of the movie. The fresh-faced, rosy-cheeked Maguire had a temperature of 104 degrees, and wanted to crawl into bed and never wallow in Missouri mud ever again. The Verdict: Reflecting the role of the real Bushwhackers in the Civil War, Ride With The Devil is a complex film that shows how the same experiences affect the lives of five people from different backgrounds. Lee charts their development through a number of small, intimate scenes interspersed between some big battle action sequences. Schamus’ dialogue is witty and the themes, e.g. women, race and social class, are developed more profoundly than usual in a Civil War movie. It also clearly shows the connection between war and loyalty is not always clear cut. Indeed, although the characters are all fighting for a common cause, they spend so much time fighting each other that they leave little time for the enemy. It must be admitted that the opening sequences are confusing and assume quite a high level of knowledge of the Civil War (the Pocket Essential American Civil War is an excellent brief introduction to the subject), but things soon improve as the cast of characters thins out, and

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it becomes clear that the film is going to be about a personal journey of four men and one woman through a highly personal war rather than a big Civil War movie. The novel is written in a ‘faux naïve’ style. Luckily, this is forgotten for the film and the result is much better. Nevertheless, there is no clear narrative structure. The tale seems to meander over a two-year period. In a bid to make them more realistic, the large battle re-enactments are a jumble of images and a cacophony of sound, rather than the awe-inspiring pieces of choreography and cinematography usually on offer. Although these are competently done, Lee seems more confident and assured with the smaller, more intimate, scenes. The blossoming relationship between Sue Lee and Roedel (Sue Lee’s claim that she wouldn’t marry him for “a wagonload of gold,” Roedel using his “nubbin of a finger” as an impromptu teat for Sue Lee’s screaming baby, Sue Lee’s seduction of the virgin Roedel on their wedding night) are at once humorous and moving. Lee has once again elicited stunning acting performances from the predominantly young unknown male cast, and pop singer Jewel turns in a touchingly authentic screen debut. It is a film that requires a second or possibly even a third viewing to get your head around the language and accents, and therefore fully understand the subtle characterisation and plot twists. If you have been put off by the subject matter – give it a go. Ride With The Devil is not just another Civil War movie, it is an Ang Lee Civil War film - a different thing altogether. 4/5

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Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Wo Hu Zang Long) (2000) Crew: Director: Ang Lee. Screenplay: James Schamus, Wang Hui Ling and Tsai Kuo Jung. Based on a novel by Wang Du Lu. Editing: Tim Squyres. Cinematography: Peter Pau. Costume Design: Tim Yip. Fight Choreographer: Yeun Wo Ping. Production Design: Tim Yip. Original Music: Tan Dun. Producers: Bill Kong, Hsu Li Komg, Ang Lee, James Schamus and David Linde. In Mandarin and English. English Subtitles. 120 minutes. Cast: Chow Yun-Fat (Li Mu Bai), Michelle Yeoh (Yu Shu Lien), Zhang Ziyi (Jen), Chang Chen (Lo), Sihung Lung (Sir Te), Pei-Pei Cheng (Jade Fox). Story: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is a film about inner strength, romantic will and supreme accomplishment. It is based on the fourth novel in a five-part series written by Wang Du Lu in the 1920s. The action is set a century before that, in a mythical, lyrical version of nineteenth-century China of the late Qing Dynasty. Li Mu Bai, one of the greatest martial artists and Wudan warriors of his time, is hanging up his sword. He has grown weary of his solitary life of fighting and death and is searching for a new path to follow. Yu Shu Lien, a longtime friend, is running her father’s business. She has never married, because her fiancé (Li Mu Bai’s brother) was killed in battle. Despite the unspoken love that Li Mu Bai and Yu Shu Lien have for one another, they cannot act on it because of the codes laid down by the Wudan warriors. They remain just good friends. Knowing that Yu Shu Lien is travelling to Beijing, Li Mu Bai asks her to deliver his famous and powerful Green Destiny sword to Sir Te, because Li Mu Bai journeys for the last time to the training ground of the Wudan warriors in the mountains. Before giving up this life for good, he has to pay his respects to his Master who was killed by Jade Fox, the infamous female criminal whose crimes still go unpunished.

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With the Green Destiny safely delivered, Yu Shu Lien stays with Sir Te where she meets Jen, the daughter of a neighbour, Governor Yu. Jen has been promised in marriage to Gou, a dull business acquaintance of her father, but she is fascinated by Yu Shu Lien and the presumed freedom that her life as a fighter and businesswoman must bring. The Green Destiny sword is stolen by a masked bandit. Yu Shu Lien’s midnight chase of the masked thief across rooftops leads her to the home of Governor Yu. The following day a Police Inspector and his daughter, who are on the trail of Jade Fox, think that Jade Fox is responsible for the sword’s disappearance and plaster wanted posters featuring her portrait all over the place. Yu Shu Lien, however, has different ideas and begins her own investigation. Li Mu Bai arrives unexpectedly and he too is caught up in the search for the sword. The Inspector tracks Jade Fox down. They fight in a graveyard at midnight and he is killed. Just as Li Mu Bai is about to finally avenge his master’s death, the mysterious masked thief arrives to rescue Jade Fox. Yu Shu Lien’s suspicions are now keener and she invites Jen to tea where she makes it known that she knows the guilty party and that if the sword is returned she will keep the thief’s identity a secret. That night the masked thief returns the sword, but Li Mu Bai is standing guard and the two become embroiled in a fight. Acknowledging the raw talent of this young fighter, Li Mu Bai offers to train this mysterious thief but he is quickly rebuffed and the thief flees the scene. Returning home, the mask is removed and the thief revealed to be the beautiful young noblewoman, Jen. And her governess is the evil Jade Fox. That night, a young and dashing man creeps into Jen’s bedroom. She is about to rebuff him when she realises that it is her long-lost lover, Lo... Flashback: A younger Jen is travelling with her mother across a desert with an armed guard when they are set upon by a gang of bandits. Jen pokes her head out of the carriage window and catches the eye of

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the dashing Lo. He comes over and steals her comb. Not keen to see him ride off with it, she grabs a horse and follows him. When they meet up again, they fight. Jen, using her raw talent, surprises him with her fighting spirit but is nonetheless overcome. He takes her off to his cave where, after another struggle, they make love. Her father’s soldiers eventually track them down and Lo is forced to send her away. Her happy weeks in the desert behind her, she returns home and waits for Lo to become a respectable pillar of society and claim her as his bride. Back in the present, Lo has failed in his quest and begs Jen not to marry Gou. She has to proceed as planned but the next morning, as Jen’s wedding procession winds its way through the streets of Beijing, Lo tries to reach her, fails and is caught by Yu Shu Lien and Li Mu Bai. Although they cannot express their own love for one another, they immediately recognise it in someone else and they promise to help the young lovers. After the wedding Jen disappears, as does the Green Destiny sword. Now dressed as a man she is searching for adventure, and finds it in the shape of a bar-room brawl. Unsure of where to turn or what to do, Jen shows up at Yu Shu Lien’s home seeking sisterly advice. The advice is not to her liking and soon they are fighting. The Green Destiny sword is too strong for Yu Shu Lien and Jen gains the upper hand. Li Mu Bai’s intervention gives Jen the opportunity to escape and, with Li Mu Bai in pursuit, they are soon fighting in a grove of bamboo trees. Jade Fox comes to Jen’s rescue, but Jen awakens to find that her former governess is trying to poison her. Jade Fox leaves the delirious Jen and Li Mu Bai arrives. Soon Li Mu Bai is poisoned by the now-dead Jade Fox and only Jen knows how to make the antidote. Time is of the essence and it quickly runs out. Yu Shu Lien and Li Mu Bai alone in the cave say their last farewells as he drifts into unconsciousness. Jen, remorseful that her foolish behaviour has led to the death of such a great man, travels to the Wudan mountain where she makes the supreme sacrifice worthy of a Wudan warrior.

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Background: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is the most commercially successful foreign language film ever. The film’s budget of $15 million was the highest ever for a Chinese language film. And yet for action film, that is loose change in Hollywood. It was filmed over five months in mainland China across a wide range of spectacular locations: the Gobi Desert (where the crew got lost in a sandstorm); the Taklamakan Plateau, north of Tibet; and the Bamboo Forest in Anji way down in the South. In the East it was marketed as a mainstream movie. In the West, as a subtitled film, it would normally have been promoted as an art-house film but Richard Napper, Managing Director of Columbia Pictures UK, wanted a wider audience. Two campaigns were devised, one aimed at the fans of Jackie Chan films and the other at the more knowing audience who would be aware of Lee’s reputation as a first-class filmmaker. The trailer used does not feature any dialogue so people are not necessarily aware that it is a subtitled film. It was hoped that word of mouth and reviews would drive the film through to wider audience. It worked. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is, to date, the most successful subtitled film ever to be distributed worldwide. It is a reworking of the popular Chinese genre, the wuxia pian, whose roots are in a literary tradition that has been around since the ninth century. These romantic tales are set in a mythical China where amazingly strong, professional swordsmen and women, who can, amongst other skills, fly and become invisible, roam the land righting wrongs and seeking retribution. They may be outlaws, but these men and women are noble, strong and skilful. One of the earliest wuxia pian films was the 1928 epic serial film Burning Of The Red Lotus Monastery, which employed a range of special effects still in use today including flying daggers and wirework. This film genre remained popular through to the 1970s when it fell into disfavour as the harder more masculine, Kung-Fu films gripped first the Far East then the rest of the world.

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Various attempts were made to reintroduce the genre throughout the 1980s and 1990s with films such as Duel To The Death (1982), The Swordsman (1990) and Wong Kar-Wai’s Ashes Of Time (1994). When Columbia Pictures brought their mighty marketing power to the wuxia pian and Lee brought his unique sensibility, it ensured that this popular Chinese genre was introduced to a wider international audience. Lee was brought up on a diet of these films in the 1950s and 60s, when the genre was at its zenith. He has taken aspects of these films and added sophisticated computer technology to create some superior supernatural special effects. For example, they were able to seamlessly remove the actors’ wires - over 300 in the Bamboo fight sequence alone. To western audiences who have never seen the evolution and demise of this genre, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is an amazing film with its mixture of fantasy and reality, strong female characters who get more action than the men, mature adult romance and breathtaking scenery. The Father Figure: The film is about teaching. Who is the master? Li Mu Bai is the film’s central father figure. He has been the student, and now he feels that he is ready to be the master. Through his protection and desire to teach the young Jen, it is the closest he is going to get to be a father. Jade Fox tells Li Mu Bai that she killed his master because he would sleep with her but never teach her. She stole the Wudan manual from which she studied the ancient art and, in turn, taught her young charge, Jen. Far younger and brighter, and able to read the text, Jen soon exceeded her master’s skills and, behind Jade Fox’s back, taught herself until she was able to fight with the best of them. Yu Shu Lien, although a fighter and running her father’s business, would never be accepted to the ancient Wudan tradition because she is a woman. A slight glance of disappointment passes across her face when Li Mu Bai offers Jen, a woman, a place at the Wudan school.

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Sihung Lung, who plays the father in Lee’s ‘Father Knows Best’ trilogy, plays Sir Te, who Li Mu Bai regards as his surrogate father after the death of his Wudan master. By handing his Green Destiny sword to Sir Te he is surrendering his role as a Wudan warrior and potential master. The Outsider: Being hero or heroine in a wuxia pian film means that you are an outsider - a knight errant figure who, through this tradition of honour, loyalty and justice, travels a lone journey through life. Li Mu Bai is retiring from this life, hanging up his sword to pursue a different way of life, but is drawn back into the world when another outsider, Jen, steals the sword. Jen is trapped in a society and a class where young women are brought up to marry and look decorative. But Jen wants a different life. She wants adventure and romance, believes that Wudan is the answer and sees Yu Shu Lien as her role model. Yu Shu Lien is a loner. The life she had planned as a wife and mother was cruelly snatched from her by the death of her fiancé. She now lives the solitary, celibate life of a spinster, unable to express her love for Li Mu Bai because of the traditions of the time. Rites Of Passage: Jen is on the verge of womanhood. Having enjoyed her romantic adventure in the desert with her bandit lover, Lo, her arranged marriage to the tepid Gou proves completely unsatisfactory. She seeks answers in the stolen Wudan manual, but she only learns the technicalities of the fight from it, not the inner ethos of the way of life. After the death of Li Mu Bai, she slowly understands the mistakes of her past and avenges his death by taking her life in a perverse reworking of the Wudan tradition. The Generation Gap: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon focuses on the conflict between youth and middle age. Li Mu Bai and Yu Shu Lien are from a generation and culture within Chinese society that has been taught that emotions have to be suppressed, that you live your life through a series of strict moral codes,

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and that you have a moral duty to your elders and the community as a whole. Jen, by contrast, is wilful, thoughtless and passionate. She follows her instincts and her heart without thinking about the consequences. She symbolises a new generation that has grown up reading the exciting adventures of these powerful swordsmen. She sees it as an escape from the life her parents have planned for her, married to a dull rich man. Jen wants to embrace this life but shrugs off the moral obligations and humility that the world demands. When fighting Yu Shu Lien and Li Mu Bai she uses their conventions against them. When they fight, Jen uses the Green Destiny sword and Yu Shu Lien wields an array of exotic weapons. Yu Shu Lien, a more skilful fighter schooled in the ancient traditions of honour and fair play, doesn’t harm Jen when she is overcome. Jen has no such moral compunction when she has the upper hand and slashes Yu Shu Lien across the arm. Jen expresses herself in a way that Li Mu Bai and Yu Shu Lien never did. Only in death do Li Mu Bai and Yu Shu Lien express their true feelings. Food: Food is used to illustrate the changes in Jen’s social position. At home, Jen is beautifully coiffed and dressed. She serenely drinks her tea and eats delicate biscuits. When out in the real world, she goes to a tavern where her order of a complex meal betrays her aristocratic lineage. But, like the Bushwhackers in Ride With The Devil, she never gets to eat it because she is interrupted by a gang of thugs - by the end of the fight there is no tavern to eat in. It is this sudden introduction to life in the real world that sends her to seek sanctuary in Yu Shu Lien’s home. Framing: The film is beautifully shot and framed throughout. The film’s title refers to the characters’ unexpected secondary identities. In Premiere (December 2000) Lee said: “The (Chinese) culture is very repressed, but there are a lot of hidden dragons in people – and crouching tigers – that from time to time explode.” Here, everyone is hiding something from someone else and this is visualised in the film’s two key spaces – the red of the desert contrasted with the green of the forest. 78

The tiger represents the passion and openness of Jen and Lo’s affair in the desert where they can be themselves. The dragon represents hidden desire and social taboos which the characters are forced to follow whilst in the more formal structure of the forest. Trivia: The role of Li Mu Bai was initially offered to martial-arts star Jet Li, but he turned it down to make Romeo Must Die. With the plot restructured to reduce the martial-arts fight sequences, Chow Yun-Fat took on the part with only a month to prepare for his complex and athletic role of the Wudan Master. Michelle Yeoh broke her knee at the end of the first fight sequence and for two and half months she had to travel to and from Baltimore for treatment. She was in incredible pain for ninety-five per cent of the film-making. In a number of shots she is filmed from the waist up or obscured behind plant pots in an effort to hide her plastered leg. This was all the more galling for Yeoh who had dedicated months of preparation for her role, learning the language and even scouting locations with Lee. Fight choreographer Yeun Wo Ping usually worked with a wirework team of fifteen, but for the bamboo forest sequence he had forty crew members and three construction cranes. The cast and crew were drawn from all over China, Asia and the US so the Assistant Directors had to give instructions in Cantonese, Mandarin and English. The film was shot and set in China. The Chinese Government were concerned that the film could be deemed as anti-authoritarian so approval had to be sought at the script and final cut stage. However, it did not request any changes to any of the shots, narrative or dialogue, but it did ask for Lo’s accent to be modified so it would not offend any particular Chinese region. To test audience reaction to the film in the UK, a sneak preview of a dubbed version was shown to an audience expecting to see a Jackie Chan movie and it was not well received. The DVD, however, includes

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the dubbed soundtrack and both a dubbed and a subtitled version of the film are available, so be careful which one you pick up. In April 2001, following Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’s success, Michelle Yeoh was given the Royal title of Dutak by the Sultan of her home state of Perak in Malaysia. In the wake of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Hong Kong’s Golden Sun Corporation released Flying Dragon, Leaping Tiger. Miramax has snapped up the distribution rights, so check your local multiplex. Awards: “I saw Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and I didn’t see any tigers or dragons and then I realised why. They were hiding and crouching.” That was Oscar host Steve Martin’s quip at the 2001 Academy Awards Ceremony where Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon won four Oscars: Best Art Direction, Best Foreign Film, Best Cinematography, Best Score. It also won: Best Film in a Foreign Language, Best Score, David Lean Award for Best Director, Best Costume Design, BAFTA, 2001; Best Director, Directors’ Guild of America, 2001; Best Director, Best Foreign Language Film, Golden Globes, 2001. The Verdict: On one level, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is pure escapist fun, much like a children’s fairy tale. It is filled with brave warriors, evil witches, mystical swords and magic potions. On another level, it is a profound and deeply spiritual film. James Schamus, working in collaboration with two Chinese screenwriters, has created a wonderful screenplay with which Lee could work his magic. The genre may well be a fantasy, but the emotions are real. Wang Hui Ling, again brings her female sensibility, which was used to good effect in Eat Drink Man Woman, and film critic Tsai Kuo Jung defies the old adage: Those that can, do. Those that cannot, become critics. Unusually for an action film, the film begins with fifteen minutes of dialogue explaining the history of the Green Destiny sword and the life of a Wudan warrior. Then bang, people are climbing up walls and flying

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across rooftops. The film never explains why and how people walk up walls - it is just something that you have to accept as part of the wuxia pian genre, in just the same way you accept Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers breaking into song and dance at a drop of a top hat. Tan Dun, the Chinese-born composer now residing in America, composed the sweeping score which features the world-renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma. The traditional Chinese instruments are beautifully balanced with the accentuated strings that are so prevalent in epic Hollywood movies. Unusual percussion arrangements accompany the fight sequences and whenever you see the Green Destiny there is an ominous metallic warble. CoCo Lee, China’s equivalent of Celine Dion, sings ‘A Love Before Time,’ which is the obligatory love ballad over the end credits. James Schamus has the dubious honour of being the lyricist – perhaps he should stick to screenwriting. The three key performances are marvellous. Chow Yun-Fat, a major star in Asia with a growing reputation worldwide, and Michelle Yeoh, whose Western debut in Tomorrow Never Dies marked her as an action heroine of the twenty-first century, both turn in startling performances. Their ability to express real emotion ensures that they will maintain a career longevity way beyond their ‘kicking ass’ days. Zhang Ziyi, plucked from college to star back to back in The Road Home and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, shows remarkable maturity. The progression from seemingly innocent child to raunchy sex kitten, crossdressing warrior and doomed heroine is a remarkable journey, which she carries off with style and panache. The contrasts between the breathtaking beauty of the China landscape and slapstick farce, the flying and painful deaths, make for a film that is many things to many people. Each viewer experiencing Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon will be watching a different film. For those already steeped in the history of the wuxia pian martial-arts epics (as opposed to Kung-Fu actioners) there will be knowing nods as the tried and tested plot devices and effects are reworked with a twenty-first-century feminist and social slant. Fans of both Hollywood and Spaghetti 81

Westerns can spot the influence those genres have had on both the storyline and the cinematography, and admirers of Japanese ghost stories of the 1960s will find their excitement rekindled. But for many, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon will be their first foray into the wuxia pian genre, and what a stunning introduction. The amalgamation of all the traditional elements, Lee’s insight in what makes people tick and the crème de la crème of technical advisers and stuntmen make Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon one of the most spectacular films around. I saw this film at the Odeon Muswell Hill and it was the first time a cinema audience applauded at the end of the first fight sequence. They gave the film a standing ovation. Lee certainly knows his stuff and has proved that, properly handled, you can attract comparatively large audiences to what could easily have been a home-grown hit and a more esoteric art film overseas. Lee served up the right fare, brilliantly ‘cooked’ at just the right moment. 5/5

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5. Dessert Chosen (2001) Crew: Director: Ang Lee. Screenplay: David Carter. Editing: Tim Squyres. Cinematography: Frederick Elmes. Costume Design: Kasia Walicka Maimone. Production Design: Jane Musky. Original Music: Jim O’Brien and Christian Erickson. Producers: Aristides McGarry and Robyn Boardman. US. In English. 6 minutes 38 seconds. Cast: Clive Owen (Driver), Mason Lee (Passenger), Sonom Gualson (Tugboat Monk), Brian Smyj (Shadow), Jamie Harris (Stick), Jeff Jensen (Car 1 Driver), Jared Bunch (Car 1 Passenger), Artie Malesci (Car 2 Driver), Kevin Catucci (Car 2 Passenger), Losang Gyatso (Impostor Monk), Saturo Tsufura (Real Monk). Story: A young Tibetan boy arrives by ship to America and is collected by the Driver. In their BMW 540i they drive off and are chased by bad guys who try and kidnap the boy. It is only because of the car’s nifty manoeuvrability and the Driver’s skilful driving that they are able to foil the kidnap attempt. The Driver delivers the boy to a Tibetan monk, but has his suspicions that all is not as it first appears. Background: Ang Lee’s latest film cannot be seen in any cinema or video store. This short is one of five films that can be downloaded from www.bmwfilms.com, a Website that puts today’s top film-makers behind the camera to make short films that feature BMW cars. The project’s executive producer is David Fincher and through Anonymous Content, a LA-based multimedia entertainment company, the other film-makers lured to the project were John Frankenheimer, Wong KarWai, Guy Ritchie and Alejandro Gonzales. Chosen is just one of the five interrelated films in The Hire series. All the films feature Clive Owen as the mysterious driver who has to utilise his driving skills and a range of BMW cars through a series of cryptic and dangerous scenarios. Lee’s son Mason plays the mysterious Tibetan boy. 83

The films can be downloaded with or without a director’s commentary. In addition to the five separate films, there is also a backstory which puts them in context. Also on the site are short films about the individual cars used and the opportunity to download themed wallpaper. Trivia: Losang Gyatso, who plays the impostor monk, owns a Tibetan restaurant in New York. For some reason, the film’s closing shot is of Clive Owen sticking a plaster on his ear. On the plaster is an image of The Incredible Hulk. Now, I wonder what Lee could be alluding to? Lee loved driving the BMWs on set. In the downloadable director’s commentary he talks about becoming a different person behind the wheel of the cars, especially because he usually drives a 1995 Mini Van. The Verdict: Chosen is beautifully shot and lit, the chase scene a complex dance routine with the cars as stars. The baroque soundtrack is in perfect sympathy with the action, adding a sense of mystery and unreality to the situation the boy and the Driver have found themselves in. But, no matter how you dress it up or how prestigious the director is, it is still a six and half minute advert for a BMW car. 1/5

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The Future Picture the scene, Lee is sitting in his office, he has his feet up on his desk and is eating an iced bun. He glances at his wall, where he has a big chart listing every known film genre, as he methodically ticks off...

Civil War drama Martial Arts film British Costume drama American Suburbia flick Women’s picture Gay drama Melodrama

He looks at all those unchecked boxes...

The Gangster The Western The Sci-Fi The Musical The War film The Sequel The Biopic The Comic Book Action Adventure

And he thinks to himself ‘what next?’

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At the time of publication, no official announcements have been made from Good Machine regarding Lee’s next project but there is a hulking presence in the shadows.

Prequel To Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon Following the huge success of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Lee has commissioned screenwriters to develop a prequel. Because this was an adaptation of the fourth of a five-part saga, this could be the dream franchise that Lee could return to, much like Lucas’ Star Wars. Having killed off the film’s main star (Chow Yun-Fat) marketing would dictate that a prequel would be a more effective move than a sequel. Discovering how and why Li Mu Bai (Chow Yun-Fat) and Yu Shu Lien (Michelle Yeoh) become the world-weary warriors they are at the beginning of the film would be yet another exciting challenge for the director and actors alike.

Same Old Song Whilst promoting Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Lee made reference to working on a remake of Alain Resnais’ 1997 French musical comedy, Same Old Song, which is about six characters in search of love - and luxury apartments. By transposing the action from Paris to Westchester, New York, this would allow Lee to return to the bosom of his family at the end of each working day. Having described Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon as a musical of sorts, and considering the beautifully choreographed cooking sequences in Eat Drink Man Woman, it does not take that much of a leap of imagination to visualise what Lee could do with the musical comedy genre. Until Baz Luhrmann’s stunning Moulin Rouge, recent attempts by Woody Allen (Everyone Says I Love You) and Kenneth Branagh (Love Labours Lost) at reviving the genre had not proved terribly successful. This was mainly because the actors did not have particularly good singing voices, a fault that would be avoided in the remake because the original had its cast lip-synching to popular show tunes. 86

A challenge certainly, but one which looks increasingly likely to be put on hold whilst he tackles a big movie version of…

The Incredible Hulk The net has been alive with speculation that 2003 will be the year when Lee will tackle a big budget, big special effects, Comic Book Action Adventure movie. (And remember the ‘subtle’ wink and a nod in the direction of The Incredible Hulk in Chosen.) In January 2001 Lee was quoted as saying, “I don’t have a story yet, but I think it’s a great idea… an interesting psychological study…” The producer Gale Anne Hurd was quoted in Variety as saying, “Ang will bring the characters and the drama to the foreground, and in addition to his visual storytelling ability, I can’t think of anyone today who is operating at a higher level across the board. The relationship that has always been neglected in the various screen versions of the Hulk is that (one) between the protagonist and his Hulk inner self. This will be an old-fashioned Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde type story that has character and depth and psychology and meaning as well as a lot of new twists.” His use of the Outsider character type, and his demonstration in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon that he can combine comedy, drama and action, do seem to indicate that Lee would be an ideal choice for this project. Credits harvested from the web (not always a reliable source) say that the screenplay is by David Hayter, Michael Tolkin, Michael France and James Schamus. Also from the net you can find announcements that he might just have time to squeeze in another film first, perhaps …

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The Berlin Diaries Set in Germany during the Second World War, The Berlin Diaries is based on the real life story of Marie Vassiltchikov, a Russian aristocrat who finds herself trapped with her family in Hitler’s Germany at the outset of the war and then gets embroiled in a plot to kill Hitler. Nicole Kidman is rumoured to be interested in playing the lead, with James Schamus and John Logan adapting the screenplay. Or maybe …

Houdini A biopic, possibly starring Tom Cruise, as Harry Houdini, the circus performer who became the world’s most popular escapologist…. Or …

One Last Ride Reuniting Ang Lee with Chazz Palminteri after twenty-five years, this is the tale of a compulsive gambler who cannot get his life straight. Set in New Jersey, this might also star David Faustino.

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6. Side Order James Schamus No book on Ang Lee would be complete without a brief mention of the contribution made by James Schamus. James Schamus is the Producer and Co-President of Good Machine, a production company that he founded with Ted Hope in 1991. In addition to a whole host of film credits Schamus is an Associate Professor of film theory, history and criticism at Columbia University, where he was recently a University Lecturer. He currently serves on the board of directors of the Foundation for Independent Video and Film, and on the board of Creative Capital. It is not only Ang Lee who has benefited from an association with Good Machine. They have also worked with Edward Burns (The Brothers McMullen (1995), She’s The One (1996)), Nicole Holofcener (Walking And Talking (1996)), Todd Haynes (Poison (1991), Safe (1995)) and Todd Solondz (Happiness (1998)), among others.

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7. The Takeaway Tortilla Soup (2001) Crew: Director: Maria Ripoll. Screenplay: Tom Musca, Ramon Mendendez and Vera Blasi. Based on Ang Lee, James Schamus and Wang Hui Ling’s Eat Drink Man Woman. Cast: Hector Elizondo (Martin Naranjo), Jacqueline Obradors (Carmen Naranjo), Tamara Mello (Maribel Naranjo), Elizabeth Pena (Leticia Naranjo), Raquel Welch (Hortensia), Constance Maria (Yolanda), Nikolai Kinski (Andy). Story: Based on Ang’s Eat Drink Man Woman, in Tortilla Soup Maria Ripoll has transported the tale of a Taiwanese master chef’s dilemmas in the kitchen and at home to the vibrant Hispanic community in the US. Much of the plot and many of the scenes from Lee’s original have been neatly retained. Martin is the head of the Los Angeles-based Naranjo family. As a professional chef, the thought that he is losing his taste buds is an emotional upheaval, but not nearly as emotional as preparing traditional Sunday dinners for his three daughters: Leticia, Carmen and Maribel. Each week brings a new announcement. Leticia, a prim religiously devote chemistry teacher, suddenly begins receiving love letters from an unknown admirer. Carmen, a successful executive, first plans to move to Barcelona and then gives up her job to become a chef. Maribel, the youngest, meets a young Brazilian guy and jacks in her plans for a college education. All this may sound familiar because many plotlines, scenes and dialogue are lifted directly from Lee’s original. The characterisation of the three daughters is stronger. The middle daughter is made less of a prig. The youngest daughter is given a full and complicated life and romance to navigate, rather than being sidelined as in the original. The eldest daughter’s phantom first boyfriend has been eradicated, giving her a much more credible backstory. Martin’s relationship with his daughters 90

still remains the film’s central focus and it is only the larger than life portrayal by Raquel Welch of Martin’s amorous next-door neighbour that shifts the film’s focus from a romantic comedy to a broad farce. These slight changes in character and plot make for a more streamlined narrative, which is less subtle than Lee’s original. Tortilla Soup works as a movie in its own right and not just as a leftover Chinese takeaway splattered in tamale sauce.

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8. Reference Materials Books & Magazine Articles Asian Cinema Asian Pop Cinema: Bombay To Tokyo by Lee Server, Chronicle Books, US, 1999. A beautifully produced book with lots of colour pictures. Only devotes four pages to Taiwanese cinema (as opposed to 30 to Hong Kong cinema), but Ang Lee is the featured director. The Asian Film Industry by John A Lent, Christopher Helm (Publishers) Ltd, UK, 1990. Given its age, the book makes no reference to Ang Lee, but it acts as a worthy historical look at the Asian film industry. Broken down country by country, each chapter offers an introduction, historical background and look at the contemporary film-making scene, including Taiwan, China and Hong Kong.

‘Father Knows Best’ Trilogy Eat Drink Man Woman/The Wedding Banquet: Two Films (The screenplays), Overlook Press, 1994 ‘Dinner For Two,’ Film-maker, Summer 1993 ‘Taiwanese Melodrama Returns With A Twist In The Wedding Banquet’ by Chris Berry, Cinemaya 21, 1993 ‘Lee Eats, Drinks, Sleeps Films’ by Amy Dawes, Moving Pictures, 30 June 1994 ‘Eat Drink Man Woman: A Feast For The Eyes’ by Brooke Comer, American Cinematographer, January 1995 ‘Small Triumphs: The New Asian Woman In American Cinema’ by Marina Heung, Cinemaya 35, 1997

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Sense and Sensibility Sense And Sensibility: The Diaries by Emma Thompson, Bloomsbury, UK, 1995 ‘Cautionary Tale’ by Graham Fuller, Sight And Sound, March 1996 ‘Passionate Precision’ by Donald Lyons, Film Comment, January/ February 1996 ‘Dressing The Part’ by Andy Medhurst, Sight And Sound, June 1996 ‘Austen Viewed From Mars’ by Michael Pye, The Daily Telegraph, 29 January 1996

The Ice Storm The Ice Storm (the novel) by Rick Moody, Abacus, 1994 The Ice Storm (the screenplay) by James Schamus, Nick Hern Books, 1997 ‘The Angle On Ang Lee’ by Oren Moverman, Interview, September 1997 ‘Reflections On An Era’ by David E Williams, American Cinematographer, October 1997 ‘The Morning After’ by Geoffrey Cheshire, Film-maker, Fall 1997 ‘The Ice Storm’ by Robert Sklar, Cineaste, December 1997

Ride With The Devil Woe To Live On (the novel) by Daniel Woodrell, 1994 Ride With The Devil (the screenplay) by James Schamus, Faber and Faber, 1999 ‘Helmer Brings Eastern Touch To Western World’ by Richard Natale, Variety, 30 August 1999 ‘Manifest Destiny’ by Adam Pincus, Film-maker, Fall 1999 ‘Riding With Ang Lee’ by David Thomson, Film Comment, November/ December 1999 ‘Look Back With Ang’ by Mark Morris, The Observer, 17 October 1999 ‘Gone With The Wounded’ by Peter Matthews, Sight And Sound, December 1999

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Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: A Portrait Of The Ang Lee Film (the screenplay). Foreword and Notes by Ang Lee and James Schamus. Introductions by Richard Corliss and David Boardwell. Screenplay by Wang Hui Ling, James Schamus and Tsai Kuo Jung, Faber and Faber, 2000. ‘Stealth And Duty’ by Philip Kemp, Sight And Sound, December 2000 ‘Tiger, Tiger Burning Bright’ by Andrew Pulver, The Guardian, 3 November 2000 ‘Year Of The Dragon’ by David Chute, Premiere, December 2000 ‘With One Mighty Leap He Was Free’ by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 4 January 2001 ‘Ang Tough’ by Roald Rynning and James Mottram, Film Review, February 2001

The Incredible Hulk ‘From ‘Tiger’ To Universals ‘Hulk’ For Helmer’ by Cathy Dunkley, Variety, 12 January 2001

Video & DVD Pushing Hands (US DVD only) B000001ZOB The Wedding Banquet (VHS) ML014 Eat Drink Man Woman (VHS) CC8131 Sense And Sensibility (VHS widescreen) CVR 34509, (VHS) CC8198, (DVD widescreen) CDR94509 The Ice Storm (VHS) CC7930, (DVD) D888215 Ride With The Devil (VHS widescreen) EVS1371, (DVD widescreen) EDV9060 Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (VHS dubbed) CVR31055, (VHS subtitled) CVR31055M, (DVD widescreen) CDR31055 The Century Of Cinema: Yang + Ying. Gender In Chinese Cinema. A Film by Stanley Kwan (VHS) CAV 045

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Soundtracks The Wedding Banquet (CD) Varese Records Ltd Eat Drink Man Woman (CD) VSD-5528 Sense And Sensibility (CD) SC62258 The Ice Storm (CD) VEL-79713 Ride With The Devil (CD) Atlantic 83262-2 Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (CD) SK 89347

Websites http://www.bmwfilms.com - BMW Films Website where you can download (if you’re lucky) Ang Lee’s 7-minute film, Chosen. http://www.goodmachine.com - James Schamus and Ted Hope’s production company. Has brief synopsis on Ang Lee’s projects with links to official Websites. http://www.crouchingtiger.com - Official film Website for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. With links to lots of related Websites. http://www.hants.gov.uk/austen/sands - The official Website for the Hampshire County Council which details all Jane Austen’s film adaptations. Includes background details to Sense And Sensibility plus an extensive list of locations used in the film. http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2001/americasbest/pro.alee - CNN’s Website has links to related sites and downloads of Lee’s acceptance speech at the 2001 Oscars and a short CNN Presents profile.

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The Essential Library: Currently Available Film Directors: Woody Allen (Revised) (£3.99) Jane Campion (£2.99) Jackie Chan (£2.99) David Cronenberg (£3.99) Alfred Hitchcock (£3.99) Stanley Kubrick (£2.99) David Lynch (£3.99) Sam Peckinpah (£2.99) Orson Welles (£2.99) Steven Spielberg (£3.99) Ang Lee (£3.99) Film Genres: Film Noir (£3.99) Horror Films (£3.99) Spaghetti Westerns (£3.99) Blaxploitation Films (£3.99) French New Wave (£3.99) Film Subjects: Laurel & Hardy (£3.99) Steve McQueen (£2.99) The Oscars ® (£3.99) Bruce Lee (£3.99)

Tim Burton (£3.99) John Carpenter (£3.99) Joel & Ethan Coen (£3.99) Terry Gilliam (£2.99) Krzysztof Kieslowski (£2.99) Sergio Leone (£3.99) Brian De Palma (£2.99) Ridley Scott (£3.99) Billy Wilder (£3.99) Mike Hodges (£3.99)

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TV: Doctor Who (£3.99) Literature: Cyberpunk (£3.99) Philip K Dick (£3.99) Agatha Christie (£3.99) Noir Fiction (£2.99) Terry Pratchett (£3.99) Sherlock Holmes (£3.99) Hitchhiker’s Guide (Revised) (£3.99) Ideas: Conspiracy Theories (£3.99) Nietzsche (£3.99) Feminism (£3.99) History: Alchemy & Alchemists (£3.99) The Crusades (£3.99) American Civl War (£3.99) American Indian Wars (£3.99) Black Death (£3.99) Available at all good bookstores, or send a cheque to: Pocket Essentials (Dept AL), 18 Coleswood Rd, Harpenden, Herts, AL5 1EQ, UK . Please make cheques payable to ‘Oldcastle Books.’ Add 50p postage & packing for each book in the UK and £1 elsewhere.

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