Ang Lee honored with Lino Brocka award, vows to do a movie in PH soon

Ang Lee beams during a conference with local media and film enthusiasts at the SM Aura Cinema on Thursday. (AFP)rrvg

Even before he actually stepped on Philippine soil, two-time Academy award-winning filmmaker Ang Lee said he had heard so much about the country.

“As you may have seen in ‘Life of Pi’, Manila was mentioned twice in the film. Yes, I’m glad I made it here at last,” the director said during a forum with media and filmmakers following the special screening of the film in conjunction with a homage event for him dubbed as “A Salute To Ang Lee” held Thursday at the IMAX Cinema of the SM Aura Premier mall in Taguig City.

During the forum, the 59-year-old Taiwanese filmmaker also announced his plans to do a movie here in the country soon. He declined to disclose details about it as well as his future projects in general and merely quipped, “I’m a one-movie-at-a-time kind of guy,” he said.

Lee might as well be a one-genre-at-a-time kind of filmmaker, too. In presenting him with the Gawad Lino Brocka lifetime achievement award from Cinemanila, acclaimed Filipino filmmakers Tikoy Aguiluz and Brillante Mendoza, two leading forces of Philippine independent cinema, pointed out how Lee stays fresh by “resisting categories” and “constantly changing genres that allow him to steer clear of repetition and fakery”.

“His body of work encompasses the martial arts movie, the suburban American drama, the erotic thriller, the Jane Austen marriage plot, the superhero action movie, the gay cowboy love story and the big 3D adventure,” Aguiluz said in presenting Lee with the special citation.

Best known for “Life of Pi” and “Brokeback Mountain” for which he won his two Oscars for best director, he was also earlier nominated in the same category for “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”.

His other famous films include “The Wedding Banquet,” “Eat Drink Man Woman”, “The Ice Storm”, “Sense and Sensibility,” his adaptation of the classic novel by Jane Austen and “Hulk”, his not-so-well received big screen interpretation of the Marvel superhero that almost made him retire from filmmaking after its completion.

“I cannot imagine my life without moviemaking,” he said in explaining why he decided to reconsider his retirement plans. “I know my wife would kick me out of the house if I stopped doing films.”

Asked why his movies defy categorization, Lee simply attributes it to his simply being “a curious person”.

“Maybe I don’t want to be cached,” he pointed out, adding that his taste in movies also easily “shifts” from one filmmaker or genre to another.

“Right now, it’s Kubrick. There was a time when I was watching a lot of Hitchcock. For a time, I also enjoyed Italian neo-realism. It varies,” he declared.

Asked why he doesn’t write his own films as much as he used to when he was just starting out, Lee joked that it’s because he was forced to write because he wasn’t getting any movie screenplays to direct.

“Writing is a lonely and painful process, though. Once I’m established, I’m just glad that I didn’t have to write anymore,” he noted.

Lee said he has no criteria why he wants to adapt a certain book into the big screen, as in the case of “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”. He did admit that books like “Brokeback Mountain” and “Life of Pi” touched his heart after reading them.

“I cried after reading ‘Brokeback Mountain’. Like Pi in ‘Life in Pi’, I have been adrift all my life,” he admitted.

Being a creative person who has his own vision of how he would bring a story to life on film, Lee also revealed that getting along with his writers, especially the authors of the novels he decided to adapt is often a challenge.

“I end up telling them, ‘it’s your book but it’s my movie’,” he cracked to everyone’s laughter.

And then there are those also creative challenges, mostly from his Hollywood producers who have their own ideas of how scenes would be shot, like that scene in “Life of Pi” when Pi and the Bengal tiger finally find themselves on island beach after being stranded for so long at sea.

“They wanted the tiger to look back at Pi before disappearing from his life for good. A younger director may have done a creative way of doing it but I think I’m a seasoned enough filmmaker to win that little battle,” he pointed out.

Despite such challenges that come with filmmaking, Ang Lee said he still enjoys making films.

“Making movies is fun, it’s dealing with other people that’s not fun. As long as I have the stamina, I will still make movies.”

As spearheaded by Taiwanese Ambassador to the Philippines L.S. Wang, “A Salute to Ang Lee” is sponsored by the Taipei Economic Cultural Office and the SM Aura Premier, in cooperation with the Film Development Council of the Philippines and the City of Taguig. The event will conclude this Friday, November 29.

Ang Lee honored with Lino Brocka award, vows to do a movie in PH soon

Source: InterAksyon.com (November 29, 2013 at 12:07PM)

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