To celebrate the Oscars-winning director’s 69th birthday, Tatler revisits some of Ang Lee’s best loved films, from ‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’ to ‘Lust, Caution’
It's impossible to deny Ang Lee’s talent. The Taipei-born director is the first non-white person to win Best Director at the Academy Awards when he bested his competition in 2005 with his romantic drama, Brokeback Mountain (2005)—and he would bag his second Best Director award seven years later with Life of Pi (2012).
Before transitioning to also directing English-language films, he has already forged a career and directed some of the most well-known Chinese films, such as his iconic martial arts and romantic drama, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) and war drama Lust, Caution (2007). These films not only featured A-listers such as Michelle Yeoh, it also thrusted then rising stars including Zhang Ziyi and Tang Wei who were essentially unknowns overseas into international fame.
However, it wasn’t always a bed of roses for Lee. Lee first graduated from the National Taiwan College of Arts in 1975 before relocating to the United States in 1978 to study theatre at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and cinema at New York University. And after graduation he had spent six years pitching ideas to Hollywood studio executives—but to no avail. So he returned home and submitted two scripts to a screenplay contest in Taiwan, which came out on top and attracted two independent film companies to fund and produce his movies.
Since then, he has accumulated a rather impressive filmography that spans a myriad of genres, including romance, fantasy, period drama, spy thriller, martial arts and even western. Having said that, he is still best known for making emotionally charged and sometimes slow paced films that examine the repressed desires and psychological conditions of his characters.
To celebrate this legendary filmmaker’s birthday, Tatler looks back at some of the movies that have defined his career.
1. Sense and Sensibility (1995)
This period drama was Lee’s first breakthrough into Hollywood and his first entirely English-language film. Adapted from Jane Austin’s 1811 novel about two sisters who juggles heartbreak and having to take care of their family after their father’s death, the film stars Emma Thompson (who also wrote the Oscar-winning screenplay), Kate Winslet, Alan Rickman and Hugh Grant. While there has been many attempts at the novel’s adaptation, Lee’s version is by far the most recognised for the cast, faithful adaptation, breathtaking landscape and emotional music.