Ang Lee could very easily be considered one of the best directors of all time (easily one of the best foreign directors to ever work in Hollywood). Just look at the best films he has directed:
- Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon(2000) — Oscar, Best Director
- Hulk (2003)
- Brokeback Mountain (2005) — Oscar, Best Director
- Life of Pi (2012)
While Lee was born in Taiwan and educated in America, he refutes any notion that he is either a Chinese or American filmmaker:
I was never a citizen of any particular place… My parents left China to go to Taiwan. We were outsiders there. We moved to the States. Outsiders. Back to China. Now we were outsiders there, too – outsiders from America.
This sense of independence (or ostracism, if you prefer) translates to Brokeback fairly noticeably. Lee himself even admitted: “What do I know about gay ranch hands in Wyoming?” Without getting too sappy or poetic, the final product reveals that Lee may or may not know a whole lot about gay ranchers, but he certainly knows a lot about love.
In viewing the director’s work in the four previously mentioned films, one will notice that Lee brings a distinct artistry to his projects. Crouching Tiger is a wuxia film, meaning that it is about ancient China and martial arts. As his first major motion picture, Lee took advantage of the opportunity and essentially painted a colorful picture that would be a hallmark of his later work. The scene where two main characters are fighting in an orange setting amidst flying arrows is choreographed beautifully and represents a much larger conflict between the two characters. Furthermore, the arrows literally look like calligraphy-brush strokes when juxtaposed against the orange background. The way Lee frames his establishing shots is truly a testament to his ability to direct camerawork.
Hulk may be a little different considering it was more of a commercial exploit rather than an artistic piece, yet the artistry still finds its way into the super hero film.
Brokeback, an independent film, was definitely Lee’s return to respecting the beauty of nature. The shots of the mountain and the badlands are charmingly reminiscent of the establishing shots in the bamboo fight scene in terms of coloring, shot length, and mood in conjunction with the context. Lee even matches violence in both films as a metaphor for sex, but he does it in an understated fashion.
Life of Pi follows a similar aesthetic path. Shots of the boat show Pi’s isolation and despair just as the very first shots of Jack and Ennis show that they are isolated while they wait for the sheep-owner to show up to his trailer. Both are composed much like an impressionist painting, i.e. utilizing the rule of thirds and often saving distinct colors for only the most important objects in the frame.
I love Ang Lee’s films for all of these reasons and I look forward to seeing whatever comes next.
Alex, After extensively researching Auteur theory for my final paper I couldn’t help but comment on this blog post. It is a very intriguing connection to make, and something I certainly didn’t think of immediately when referring to Ang Lee. Style and aesthetics is a major component of the Auteur theory and based on your analysis it does seem that Lee has a signature stylistic approach that he incorporates throughout his work. However, style is a very arbitrary term and can be defined in many ways but I personally think many directors have a this individualistic ‘style’ in their films because it is based on their personal taste. Therefor, to make an argument for a director to be credited with the title of an auteur, I would suggest searching for other components of the theory such as the inclusion of biographical details or repeated themes throughout a collective body of works. Regardless, your analysis is still a credible one and shined a light on an aspect of Lee that I didn’t make after watching Broke Back Mountain.