Ang Lee: The quiet little rebel

Ang Lee (Photo by Ed Ramos)

Oscar Award-winning director Ang Lee knows a thing or two about operating within the system. Although he’s expressed feeling like an outsider in the past – as a kid whose parents from Mainland China moved to Taiwan; when he moved to the US and was the smaller Asian boy intimidated of the bigger Americans he thought seemed smarter because he couldn’t speak the language; when he started working in Hollywood – he has somehow found the path of least resistance in which he still gets to do what he loves to do best but do it with as much independent spirit he could muster.

Speaking at a forum held at the IMAX Theater at SM Aura Premiere during his first-ever trip to Manila, he reiterated the story of him thinking about retiring after doing the Marvel superhero movie “Hulk,” which was widely regarded as a disappointment. “But I didn’t want to retire with a big, expensive… angry movie,” he says with a smile.

“I just grabbed anything. I thought ‘Brokeback Mountain’ was a cheap movie (to make, about) gay cowboys nobody will see – strictly art house,” he said with a laugh. Who knew, really? “That’s one of my biggest commercial successes,” he says.

To him, being an outsider means “you don’t have a sense of belonging,” and “it is scary; but I think scary is good. You tend to do your best when you’re scared. If I’m not scared I can be lazy.”

The benefit of being an outsider is “because you are objective, you are not really attached to anything; you get to some things really fast.” While he admits to seeing the subtext “right away,” he admits it is harder for him to do so when making Chinese films. However, “When I’m the outsider, I have to be diligent (about the text), learning and checking with filmmakers… you don’t assume you know; you do your study, research and you are careful about accuracy.”

However, he adds with a smile, “I have to admit I’m good at guessing… I’m quite talented that way.”

Despite his now-celebrated stature in Hollywood and in global cinema, Lee cherishes freedom of self-expression. Nevertheless, he has enough insight not to go full rebel when it comes to the system. “Hollywood, it’s an establishment,” he points out. “It’s film language, how things operate, ideology, all that; it functions a certain way. That bothers me, and I try movie after movie, I try to break away. But I also have to negotiate.”

When asked what advice he would give to aspiring Asian filmmakers, notably those whose idea of success is still synonymous to the big American dream, Lee admits, “Nobody makes big movies like Americans. It’s like, if you’re talented… you have to work in America. If you’re a great basketball player you want to play in the NBA, it’s the major league – but there’s a certain culture and way of thinking, (of) operating… you can work against it but you cannot ignore it.”

Still, his advice is, “You have to know the operation, and the film language, you can’t be a slave of that culture, that establishment. You want to show something different.”

As an example, he discussed his film “Life of Pi,” which was shown in 3D just before the forum was held. “This is a sad ending, like, no way. They weren’t prepared to lose a lot of money. (They said), ‘The tiger doesn’t look bad. Can you somehow make the tiger look bad?’… But, I didn’t do it,” he said, making the crowd laugh.

“Some younger director wouldn’t be able to pull it off, but I was strong enough to fight the fight. It turns out, in Asia, they loved it. They love sadness,” he says, again eliciting laughter.

When he was younger Lee said he wrote this own scripts because no one would give him theirs. Today, a good chunk of Lee’s works has come from books although they are “not necessarily my favorite books.” He finds the impetus when something about the work or the imagery it contains hits him – yes, even with “Pi,” the supposedly ‘unfilmable’ book.

“I don’t want to lock into literature because you are so revered by what you read, it would be hard to make a movie…But I like to be inspired by a book and then put it aside. I refuse to be a translator of a book into cinema,” he declares. “I chose them because they make me want to do something cinematically.”

He then jokes, “It’s your book, it’s my movie; see you at the premiere.”

Revealing hopes of maybe making a movie here in Manila in the future, Lee’s words at the forum have proven inspirational to the filmmakers in attendance.

“At the end of the day, movies are about inspiration; it’s not about statement,” he remarks, making the art about heart. For a man who refrains from making bold self-aggrandizing pronouncements, Lee speaks loud and clear, even in the most effective of voices.

Ang Lee: The quiet little rebel

Source: Mb.com.ph (December 02, 2013 at 06:29PM)

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