His father actually wanted him to become a professor, but Ang Lee saw things differently. He preferred to study theater and film at the University of Taipei – his parents gave him their blessing in the end. Luckily, over the last few decades he has given us some of the most beautiful films as a director, including “Sense and Sensibility“, “Tiger and Dragon” and “Brokeback Mountain”.
Ang Lee was born in Taiwan in 1954. His parents were Chinese immigrants and his grandparents died during the communist revolution. After completing his film studies in Taipei in 1978, he went to the USA and continued studying theater and directing there. He decided to stay in the USA with his wife Jane Li, who also comes from Taiwan.
Things are going very slowly there for Ang Lee at the beginning, but the need for directors seems to be met. He was unemployed for six years, taking care of the household and his first son Haan, who was born in 1984. His wife earns money as a microbiologist.
Ang Lee doesn’t give up
But Lee doesn’t give up on his dream, even if it takes a lot of patience. He turns thematically back to his old homeland and makes the film “Sliding Hands” – a great success at the box office in Taiwan and with the critics there. The film is the first of Ang Lee’s so-called “Father Knows Best” trilogy, which also includes “The Wedding Banquet” and “Eat Drink Man Woman.” In all three films, Lee deals lovingly, amusingly and touchingly with relationships and conflicts in families that move between tradition and modernity, between East and West. “The Wedding Banquet” received international attention for the first time, winning the Golden Bear at the Berlinale in 1993 and being nominated for an Oscar for best foreign language film.
His big breakthrough came with the film adaptation of the English literary classic “Feeling and Reason” by Jane Austen. In “Sense and Sensibility”, as the cinema adaptation is called, the star cast of British actors plays: Emma Thompson, Kate Winslet, Hugh Grant, Alan Rickman. And Ang Lee shows that he can not only handle Asian material brilliantly.
Ang Lee is without question one of the most important directors working today. He has given his audience a fantastic range of films. What unites his work over the years: the really big emotions.
