In the eyes of "magical boy" Ang Lee, cultural differences are not a problem at all, but have become his unique weapons in filmmaking - it is these unique experiences that make him navigate the cultures of the East and the West, and the impact of two different civilizations has created a unique world in his lens.
In today's fierce competition in the world film industry, Ang Lee is definitely one of the most dazzling oriental faces.
3 Academy Awards, 5 British Academy Film Awards, 4 Golden Globe Awards, 2 Golden Lion Awards, 2 Golden Bear Awards, from the film 28 years, others have exhausted their lives to impact the international awards, have been in his pocket.
On April 6, Ang Lee won an international award, the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 74th British Academy Film Awards, becoming the first Chinese director to win the award.
Won the Lifetime Achievement Award
In the early morning of April 12, Beijing time, the 74th British Academy Film Awards Ceremony was officially held at the Royal Albert Hall in London. Previously announced winning films and filmmakers have participated in the award ceremony online.
Ang Lee, who appeared in front of the camera, gave his acceptance speech with his signature warm smile.
He said mildly and quietly that Britain was a very important place for his career, "like another film school". He also thanked his colleagues for their adventurous spirit and made him a person who dared to challenge various types of films and constantly break through himself. Finally, Ang Lee intimately thanked his family and the filmmakers who have worked together in the past, hoping that everyone can ensure health and safety at this difficult time.
Ang Lee delivered an acceptance speech through the video.
Gentle and thoughtful in his mouth and low-key and calm, this is Ang Lee's usual style. However, the low-key acceptance of the award does not affect the weight of the trophy in the slightest.
The BAFTA Awards Lifetime Achievement Award is the highest honour awarded to an individual with a BAFTA Award. Judging from the list of previous winners, the winners of this award are all well-known figures in the history of world cinema: Charlie Chaplin, Alfred Hitchcock, Steven Spielberg, Sean Connery, Elizabeth Taylor, Stanley Kubrick, Katherine Kennedy...
Mark Samuelson, chairman of the British Academy Film Awards, gave the following words when he was full of Ang Lee's achievements: "Filmmaker Ang Lee is a master, an outstanding filmmaker with versatility and courage to take risks. Films such as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Brokeback Mountain, and Young Pi's Fantastic Drift reflect his deep understanding of not only the technical field and the way of filmmaking, but also the ability to dig deep into the story – whether it is an epic or a sketch. We are always impressed by the flesh-and-blood characters he portrays. We are thrilled to award him the highest honour of the British Academy of Film. ”
In Ang Lee's own words, his name can appear behind these "big guys" and "it is a great honor."
For Ang Lee, the trophy of the British Academy Film Awards Lifetime Achievement Award is also a summary of his path to British cinema.
Prior to this, Ang Lee was awarded "Frontier" with the British Academy Film Awards. His first English-language film, Sense and Sensibility, won the British Academy Film Award for Best Picture at the 1996 British Academy Awards. In 2001, the martial arts film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was nominated for 14 British Academy Film Awards, and eventually won 4 awards, including Best Director and Best Non-English Film. In 2006, "Brokeback Mountain" was nominated for 9 British Academy Film Awards, and finally won 4 awards for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Supporting Actor.
Ang Lee, who has been "dominating the list" for many years and winning awards, finally waited for the British Film Institute, an international award that represents lifetime achievements.
Navigating between Chinese and Western cultures
The scene where Ang Lee received the award reminds many fans of the scene when he won the Academy Award for Best Director with "The Fantasy Drifting of the Young Pi" and nibbled on the side of the road - there is no bit of international director's high-cold style, like a grounded neighbor uncle.
When it comes to Ang Lee, it is also his sweet love that cannot be avoided.
"Warm heart" big director Ang Lee is an out-and-out spoiled wife demon. On the set, he kept a distance from the young actress, and the award ceremony gave a deep confession to his wife Lin Huijia, and evaluated his wife's words in the interview, which can be called a "love story book" of a literary and warm man. In the hearts of family members and friends, Ang Lee is a gentle and warm "little cute".
Ang Lee and his wife
But back in the movie, Xiao Nuannan immediately became an ambitious iron-blooded straight man.
Ang Lee grew up in Taiwan and graduated from the Institute of FilmMaking at New York University with a master's degree at the age of 30. After that, he once settled in the United States, idle at home, while washing, cooking, with children, while reading, watching films, writing scripts, immersed in 6 years to finally write "Push hand", to achieve a perfect transformation from "family master" to "new favorite of the industry".
Since then, metamorphosis has become the key word in his career. After the success of chinese films, he turned his head to shoot English masterpieces; standing firm in Hollywood, he came back to shoot Chinese martial arts; after winning the Oscar, he went to challenge Marvel blockbusters, Western cowboy films, Chinese spy films, Indian fantasy films... Others have spent their whole lives trying to find their own style, but he is afraid of being classified by the world.
Not only across tracks, but also on every track, Ang Lee wins. For him, cultural differences are not a problem at all, but like magic, they have become his unique weapons for making movies - it is these unique experiences that make him comfortable in the cultures of the East and the West, and the impact of two different civilizations has created a unique world in his lens.
Restoring the British masterpiece "Sense and Sensibility", it blends the romance of oriental forbearance in the classic western story; "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" wraps the chivalry of the West in the martial arts morality of the East; "Brokeback Mountain" implies the leisurely nature of the paradise under the character setting of the western cowboy...
・Poster for the 1995 edition of Sense and Sensibility
In this way, Ang Lee's lens has both the story of the East and the world of the West.
In the eyes of the Chinese, he can tell traditional Chinese stories, and can make a "father" trilogy and "Color Ring" adapted from Zhang Ailing's novel.
In the eyes of Westerners, he is also a sober bystander. The Western world knows he is an outsider, but foreigners want to hear his opinion. "Ice Storm" set in the United States in the 1970s, "Brokeback Mountain" about the cowboys of the American West, and "Billy Lynn's Halftime War", which examines the Iraq War in the United States, are all regarded as American films that "respond to the mood of the times". When "Ice Storm" was released, many Americans who lived through that era trembled at the sight of it, which was enough to prove how "authentic" Ang Lee's American films were.
Poster of Brokeback Mountain
To be able to make good oriental films, this is a natural outpouring. In his films, unspeakable, difficult to appear in front of people, is always the most wonderful. "Every Chinese will have metaphors, not to teach." Ang Lee said.
Being able to tell authentic American stories well is the talent of filmmakers. Ang Lee once said that he liked to discover American Civil War warriors, comic book heroes, cowboys... "Among these American cultural icons, I see another side of them, a side that few people have ever seen." After filming "Brokeback Mountain", he said that he actually "didn't spend much effort." "I flipped through the footage of western Wyoming, and sitting in front of the screen, I could smell the cow dung of the ranch. That story had nothing to do with me, but as soon as the camera swung, it happened. ”
Still at the top of the wave
It's not enough to play with film narratives, and over the years, Ang Lee has turned his attention to film technology.
In "The Fantasy Drift of The Young Pi", Ang Lee used digital technology to create tigers and real scenes, pushing the novel that "can never be made into a movie" to the Oscar throne; a few years later, "Billy Lynn's Halftime War", he broke the nearly hundred years of 24 frames per second shooting technology and found a new horizon for film production; "Twin Killers", he used digital to perfectly reproduce the young appearance of "Shi Huang" Will Smith, and the use of technology once again walked at the forefront of film and television...
Poster of "The Fantasy Drifting of the Young Pi"
In the years of studying film technology, Ang Lee, who has always been smooth, has not stumbled on the road to becoming a "technical controller". However, no matter how much controversy there is, he does not want to return to the comfort zone, the box office is worse, and he has not given up making new technical films. No matter how you look at it, Ang Lee, who is in his 60s, is still at the top of the wave.
A few years ago, in an interview before the release of "Billy Lynn's Halftime War," Ang Lee mentioned that even though he had lived in the United States for 40 years, he still did not become an American citizen.
An unpleasant event occurred at the scene of the 88th Academy Awards in 2016. The Oscars were uneventful from the start — because the nominations were so "white" that there was hardly a single black person in the major awards, the ceremony had to be hosted by African-American talk show host Kricks Locke. In the second half of the awards ceremony, Locke invited 3 Asian children. These 3 Asian-American children, dressed in black suits, wearing dark glasses and carrying briefcases, play the role of the so-called "Oscar teller", which is the stereotype of Asians in the eyes of Americans. Finally, Locke also ridiculed the problem of child labor in Asia.
Host Kricks Locke
The incident sparked an outcry from Asians, and many prominent figures, including Ang Lee and Jeremy Lin, stood up and protested. After Ang Lee protested, the filming of Billy Lynn's Halftime Battle didn't go well. Since then, the film has been released in North America and has also suffered box office setbacks.
Poster for Billy Lynn's Halftime Battle
In one of the few media interviews, Ang Lee often mentioned: I am not an American citizen.
Ang Lee once sighed: "Sometimes sandwiched between the gaps between Eastern and Western cultures, there is a feeling of darkness and powerlessness. On the way to make the movie, I also suffered a lot of suffering, suffered a lot of blows... But I really like making movies, and I love it whenever my hand touches it. In the world of cinema, Ang Lee only wants others to evaluate him as "a man who works hard to make movies."
Wandering between the Eastern and Western cultures, Ang Lee's appreciation and love come from international judges, professional film fans, and fan fans, because he is warm, elegant, free, persevering, and knows how to stir people's hearts with the lens.
Column Editor-in-Chief: Qin Hong Text Editor: Song Hui Title Map Source: Xinhua News Agency Infographic Photo Editor: Xiang Jianying
Source: Author: Global People