In The Scene: Ang Lee

Ang Lee came to the fore in the 1990s as one of the 'second wave' of Taiwanese directors. After studying at New York University, Lee returned to Taiwan where over the next three consecutive years he directed three comedy-dramas focusing on aspects of the East vs. West culture and its impact on the family - Pushing Hands, The Wedding Banquet, Eat Drink Man Woman. Considering Lee's background it is surprising that he should be approached to direct the most British of novels, Jane Austen's Sense And Sensibility. It was a tremendous critical and commercial success. Since then Lee's projects have been both eclectic and striking - he took on the American suburbs of the 1970s and the war-torn American South of the 1860s in The Ice Storm and Ride With The Devil. But it was his triumphant return to the East with Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon which has transformed him into an internationally successful director.He followed this with his somewhat flawed foray into the Marvel Universe withHulk. His heartbreaking adaptation of Annie Proulx's short storyBrokeback Mountainbrought him international critical and commercial success. But forever the genre and language-hopping director, Lee's next films were much smaller in scale and reach -Lust, Caution(a Chinese erotic espionage thriller) andTaking Woodstock(American comedy-drama). His most recent film was an adaptation of Yann Martel'sThe Life of Pipushed the boundaries of CGI animation and showed how a director with great visual flair could enhance a film with 3D. His continual desire for embracing new technology divided critics and audiences forBilly Lynn's Long Halftime Walk, an adaptation of Ben Fountain's 2012 Iraq-war set novel, andThe Gemini Manwith Will Smith.ABOUT THE AUTHOREllenCheshirehas a BA (Hons) in Film and English and a MAin Gothic Studies and has taught Film at Undergraduate andA Level. She has published books on Bio-Pics, Audrey Hepburn andThe Coen Brothers and contributed chapters to books onJames Bond, Charlie Chaplin, Global Film-making, Film Form,Fantasy Films and War Movies. She is also one of a team of four writers for the new A Level WJEC Film Text Book published in 2018. For us, she has writtenIn the Scene: Jane CampionandIn the Scene: AngLee, and contributed toSilent Women: Pioneers of Cinemaeds.Melody Bridges and Cheryl Robson (voted best book on Silent Film 2016) andCounterculture UK: a celebrationeds. Rebecca Gillieron and Cheryl Robson.With a foreword byProfessor James WicksJames Wicks, Ph.D. writes about pop culture. He is the author of two books.Transnational Representations: The State of Taiwan Cinema in the 1960s and 1970s(Hong Kong University Press, 2014), andAn Annotated Bibliography of Taiwan Film Studies(Columbia University Press, 2016) with Jim Cheng and Sachie Noguchi.He grew up in Taiwan, completed his dissertation on Chinese Cinema at the University of California, San Diego in 2010, and is currently a Professor of Literature and Film Studies at Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego, California where he teaches World Cinema and Postcolonialism courses.