Chinese have often judged their heroes by whether they won or lost. Do they still?
This year two Chinese movies from Asia, The Wedding Banquet and Farewell to My Concubine, were nominated for the Academy Award for best foreign-language film. Although a Spanish film, Belle Epoque, eventually ended up winning, the nomination of these two Chinese films- -far from the main stream- -was unprecedented.
From Hong Kong came Farewell to My Concubine, a lyric journey through 50 years of Chinese history that won the Golden Palm at the Cannes Film Festival last year. From Taiwan came The Wedding Banquet, a film dealing with homosexuality that is light and funny and goes straight to the heart. It won the Golden Bear at the 43rd Berlin Film Festival. Each of the two films has its own merits, and both were critical and commercial successes.
In Taiwan, where prospects for the film industry had long been gloomy, success of the latter sort was sorely needed. The Wedding Banquet, which cost just US$750,000 to make, raked in more than US$30 million at the box office, making its return on investment the highest worldwide for any film released last year. Director Ang Lee, an introvert who had hardly ever ventured from home during one six-year stretch, was suddenly thrust in the spotlight. He is without a doubt the man of the moment in ROC cinema.
Although media reports about Lee are considerable, the public is still very interested in him.
For this issue, David Lee, a production assistant who has participated to different degrees with the production of each of Lee's three films, has written a report that presents sides of Ang Lee known to few. In an interview the director himself talks about Chinese movies going global.
"We've also invited Chris Wang, a graduate of New York University's department of film production, to conduct an overseas interview with Fay Kanin, who heads the committee nominating films for the foreign-language Oscar. The interview sheds light on why three movies from Asia were nominated this year.
