The Sense & Sensibility of Ang Lee

I became a big fan of Ang Lee, the 48-year-old low-profiled Taiwanese director, after I saw his l993 widely-acclaimed film The Wedding Banquet which premiered at that year’s Berlin Film Festival and subsequently received a string of nominations (including for Best Foreign-Language Film at the Oscars). Banquet, I would learn later, is part of Ang’s Father Knows Best trilogy along with Pushing Hands (also screened at the Berlin Filmfest, in l992, and won as Best Film at the same year’s Asian-Pacific Film Festival) and Eat Drink Man Woman (opening feature for the Directors Fortnight Series at the l994 Cannes Film Festival and chosen Best Foreign Language Film by the National Board of Review).

Since then, I’ve been following Ang’s career and looking forward to his other films, such as the critically-successful and multi-awarded Sense and Sensibility (l995), The Ice Storm (l997), Ride with the Devil (l999) and, of course, his landmark film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon in which Ang made martial artists fight, kick-boxing and all, atop swaying bamboo trees.

I banged my head on the wall when, three years ago, I missed a chance to come face-to-face with Ang Lee and have a one-on-one with him on the set of Crouching Tiger in Beijing, upon the invitation of Columbia Pictures’ marketing manager Doris Torres, all because my visa got derailed. But I did cheer for Ang when Crouching Tiger was named Best Foreign-Language Film at the Oscars two years ago.

Three weeks ago, United International Pictures’ Manila manager Chris Sy invited Bulletin’s Cris Belen and me to the press junket for Ang’s latest work, Hulk, at the Universal Studios in L.A. You guessed it: I dropped everything and flew to L.A. despite a bum stomach and an acute attack of hyperacidity.

My encounter with Ang Lee (and Hulk stars including Eric Bana who plays the scientist Bruce Banner in the movie inspired by the comics character first played in the TV series by the late Bill Bixby as Banner and bodybuilder Lou Ferrigno as the Hulk) had a curative effect on me. In person, Ang was self-effacing, soft-spoken and seemed to be shy. If you didn’t know who he is, you wouldn’t think that he cast such as long shadow in Hollywood. After my TV/print interviews with Ang, my stomach was back to normal and the acid inside it was mysteriously gone! Nervous tension, I guess.

Here’s Ang Lee, in his own words:

What do you find most fascinating about Hulk?

(Smiling) "It’s my American version of Crouching Tiger. I’m able to articulate and rationalize the psychological part of the movie which really interested me. It’s pretty much anything you want to make and I took the form of horror film as genre. But there’s also lots of action. It’s more than just a film about a comics character; it’s the psychological drama as backdrop of the horror story that really attracted me."

It’s obvious from watching the movie that you are a comics fan. Did you see the original Hulk? How old were you then?

"Yes, I’ve known the comics character from way back. I saw The Incredible Hulk a little bit in Taiwan and most of it when I moved to America. It’s a very successful TV series but I didn’t take anything from there except that famous line – You won’t like me when I’m angry – and also inviting Lou to make a cameo appearance (as a detective, shown at the start of the movie)."

Besides the touch of King Kong, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and the Greek tragedy (unresolved conflict between father and son, played respectively by Nick Nolte and Eric Bana, dramatized theater style toward the end of the movie), how else is the movie different from the original?

(Smiling some more) "The Hulk now looks healthier and far bigger than the Hulk before. I just took whatever I liked – the story, or part of it, and the Hulk logo. The Hulk now looks more childish, doesn’t he?"

And that’s how he should look like, shouldn’t he?

"Yes. I think he represents our innocence. As the film progresses, I gradually go for the earlier look – more manly and more muscular."

I read somewhere that you said that doing a Hulk movie was your long-time dream.

"No, I wasn’t dreaming of making a big movie, not in a personal way. It’s just that after Crouching Tiger, the idea of doing Hulk got my attention."

Did you have any hand in choosing the cast?

"Oh, yes, I have."

Was Eric Bana the first and only choice for the role?

"Oh, there was a lot of choices. I saw Eric in Chopper and I thought, ‘He’s it!’ He has a face that you can sympathize with because it carries a lot of melancholy."

Eric is relatively unknown especially in America, having done only two movies so far (the other was Black Hawk Down; coming soon is his third, Troy, in which he plays Hector). Did you purposely pick a non-big star for the role?

"No, it’s not an issue at all. The Hulk... the CGI (Computer-Generated Imagery) actor... is much more expensive than any star, any superstar. He’s the star of the movie. I prefer a new face (to play Bruce Banner) because he can make something out of it and it’s more exciting. Eric played a kind of human monster in Chopper, someone who was so monstrous because he was human, too. With just a simple look, he could communicate a kind of super human fury and intelligence. I thought it would be marvelous to see him as Bruce Banner, having to suppress that energy until he couldn’t take it anymore."

After Hulk, what?

"I’m not sure what I want to do next yet. At the moment, I’m in the process of de-Hulking. For months now, all I’ve been seeing is the color green (which is how Hulk looks when angry, with his elastic underwear colored maroon), so I’m sick of green."

One of the most interesting parts of the movie is Bruce Banner/Hulk’s unhappy childhood. I’m curious...How was your childhood like back in Taiwan?

"Repressed, I guess. Not much fun, a bit like that of Bruce Banner. That’s why in my mid-life crisis, I’m looking for fun. My father was a high-school principal in Taiwan. I was shy as a child, too shy to even kiss a girl; I hardly went out. My daily routine was boring – go to school, go to a private tutor and staying there all the time, studying. But my mind wasn’t on the book, it was somewhere else. That was the kind of upbringing I had."

Tell me more about your father.

"In my autobiography, I narrated that I came from a prosperous family in China. Unfortunately, the family fortune declined during my grandfather’s time. My grandfather was brought to a local official who fined him 1,300 silver dollars. That was big money at that time. After that, my grandfather vowed to send my father to a Western-style school so he would become a court official and provide protection for our clan. At 28, my father became a country mayor and later became the general secretary of the Ministry of Education. When the civil war broke out, he moved from one place to another, working as a teacher, until he ended up in Taiwan."

And that’s where you were born.

"Yes, in the Tsaochou country in Pingtung, Taiwan, on Oct. 23, l954. I was told that I almost died at birth. My face was blue! It turned out that the umbilical cord had wound itself around my neck several times. I was named after our ancestral home in De Ang and the boat Yong Ang on which my father escaped to Taiwan during the civil war."

What happened to the rest of the clan in China?

"My father told me that the family was designated as members of the ‘Five Black Group’ together with landlords and counter-revolutionaries. My grandfather was executed. My father was so devastated that, for a while, he thought of becoming a monk. But then, he met my mother and changed his mind. They soon started a family."

I read somewhere that your father frowned on your ambition to be filmmaker.

"My father wanted me to be a teacher, like him, or a government official. But filmmaking was the only thing that excited and interested me. I was bored with schoolwork, I got poor grades; I even failed the university entrance exams. Grudgingly, my father accepted the reality that my heart was in film. He wasn’t happy when I decided to study drama and films. Even after I completed Sense and Sensibility, my father was telling me, ‘Ang, my boy, the Oscar will be yours if you keep this up until you’re 50. After that, you can retire from filmmaking and teach.’ I have proven him wrong."

But you have a very supportive wife in Jane Lin (who has a Ph.D. from an Illinois university and whose field of specialization is microbiology).

"Jane and I complement each other. She leaves me alone, she lets me be. She gives me the time and space to develop my potential (as filmmaker) and to create. Jane is independent. When she felt labor pains for Cat, the older of our two sons, Jane checked into a hospital in Illinois by herself; I was out playing basketball with friends. The doctor asked Jane if she wanted to notify her husband and she smiled, ‘No, there’s no need.’ She’s like that. Very independent. As I said, we complement each other. Jane is straightforward, sharp and focused, which are the qualities required in her field of specialization; while I am absent-minded, not knowing how to take care of myself and other people. Jane is the wind beneath my wings."

You have a master’s degree in film production from the New York University (1984). Why didn’t you go back to Taiwan and start a career in film after graduation? (The Lees are now based in New York.)

"That was what I had in mind initially. But just when I was preparing to go back to Taiwan, my graduation project, called Fine Line, was chosen Best Film at the New York University Film Festival in l985 and I was also named Best Director. Then, an agent (William Morris) from a major talent and literary agency in America offered me a contract on the spot."

Was it smooth sailing from then on?

"No. Not at all. For six years after graduation, I hardly accomplished anything. I completed a screenplay called Not a Superstation with a friend, Joel Rose, and, in two weeks, I knocked on the door of more than 30 companies. Some of them asked me to do revisions. Nothing happened. For more than two months, I wasn’t earning anything. I was demoralized; I was depressed. I became a house-husband, helping in household chores such as cooking and driving the kids (the other, Stone, was born in l990) to school."

It’s a good thing you didn’t drop your dream of becoming a director.

"I held on; I refused to give up my dream. Soon, my patience paid off. That was when the screenplays of my films, Pushing Hands and The Wedding Banquet, won prizes in Taiwan. And then things began to take a turn for the better."

Your big break came with Sense and Sensibility, your first collaboration with a Hollywood company, with Emma Thompson as scriptwriter and one of the stars. For an Asian director to have beautifully captured Western (British) sensibility was a feat, a singular achievement. It was very impressive.

"Directing Sense and Sensibility made me aware for the first time that I was an Asian director. I wanted to make the movie a genuine Western film but I knew that it wouldn’t have anything new to offer if its vision and expression were the same as any other Western films. I realized that if Asian films would hope to surpass Western films, we Asian filmmakers must develop our strengths. So I started to pay attention to the use of imagery, situation and setting to reflect the mental landscape of the characters."

Sense and Sensibility won many awards (Oscar, etc.) and so did Crouching Tiger, further boosting your stock as a director. Now, everybody seems to be scrambling over one another to be directed by Ang Lee. By the way, how was it working with fellow Asian Michelle Yeoh (Crouching Tiger)?

"Michelle agreed to do the movie without even seeing the script. She was injured during the shooting but it didn’t dampen her enthusiasm. She’s a great actress. For the farewell scene, the script required her to cry and she shed genuine tears. It was absolutely heart-rending. It touched off the anguish I felt while making the movie. As I watched Michelle cry before the camera, I, too, began to cry behind the camera."

Do you believe that there’s a God?

"It’s hard to say. I pretty much go with the Chinese philosophy – you know, we were told to respect anything three feet above our heads and not pretend that you know or imagine that somebody like you who created it. We just don’t talk about it."

Nick Nolte is noted for his interest in scientific research which is, in a way, akin to the search for spiritual meaning in our lives. Did Nolte’s special interest perhaps help in your choosing him for the role?

"I don’t think so. I just thought that he’s perfect for the role. I just envisioned him doing the role. He’s a respected actor of l0 or l2 years. Then he turned away from Hollywood; he only wanted to do small films. I had to go to his house and show respect and give him the pitch. I went to his house and I had a most strange experience. I was sitting by the fireplace, feeling as if I was in an entirely another world, not of this world. Nick came down and said, ‘You must come up and see my blood.’ We went upstairs and I saw a row of bottles containing what looked like his blood. And then we went downstairs and talked more about science. He said, ‘Oh, I’m on my down time, I’m in-between films.’ He was wearing long hair and moustache. He said, ‘Oh, I can get a shave.’ I said, ‘Oh, no, just come as you are.’ I didn’t want to pitch him as a comic-book character; I wanted him for the Greek-tragedy part of the film."

I wonder, didn’t you dream of first becoming an actor before becoming a director?

"I’d rather be behind the camera, watching, than being in front of the camera being watched. Making movies is my way of performing. I’m more comfortable behind than in front of the camera. I work better behind, not in front of, the camera."

What pointers can you give your fellow Asian directors who want to break into Hollywood?

"Just this: Do the best you can. Your chances would be better if you have originality. Give your best shot. Hollywood makes big movies, so being popular helps a lot, too. You have to work your way up, even starting with small movies. It’s a long commitment and you must have the patience for it; you must be ready for it."

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