"Ang Lee's (李安) personality is very often reflected in his films," said producer Hsu Li-kong (徐立功), Lee's long-term filming partner.
Indeed, the main character in the film Pushing Hands (推手) bears a distinct resemblence to the then 39-year-old filmmaker, at the time a new hand in the business.
Before Pushing Hands, Lee had spent six years homebound waiting sullenly for film projects in up-state New York. But he kept up hope and patience, much like the elderly figure in the film, who lives with an American household and is confined to the house with virtually nothing to do and who, out of boredom, takes up tai chi (太極拳), the breathing exercises that focus physical and inner strength.
Ten years on, Lee's movies have evolved from the lugubrious Pushing Hands to the fantastical martial arts megahit Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (臥虎藏龍). Themes of waiting and endurance have been replaced with those of romance and anxiety. And the action has diversified from the glacially paced tai-chi movements to bombastic flying, hacking and sword dancing.
The biggest change in Lee's life is likely to take place tomorrow (Los Angeles time) at the 73rd Anual Academy Awards ceremony, where Crouching Tiger is up for 10 different Oscars, including best director and picture.
Crouching Tiger is the first foreign-language film to break the US$100 million mark at the US box office and has triggered considerable hype over an "Asian film invasion."
However, like most artists, Lee has his own hidden agenda in making the film aside from commercial achievement.
"Everybody has his own inner dragon inside the heart. It can be an unforgettable love, or a dream of ancient China... Making this film has fulfilled my childhood fantasy and also helped me deal with my mid-life crisis," Lee said when accepting the Golden Globe Award as for best director recently.
Hong Kong star Chow Yun-fat (周潤發), who plays protagonist Li Mu-bai in Crouching Tiger, was probably the first one to expose Lee's authorial intervention in the movie. "As you know, Li Mu-bai is Ang Lee," Chow said at the film's HK premiere.
In Lee's previous films, especially in his "Father knows Best" family dramas, the leading male role is typically a well-intentioned, yet bumbling and fundamentally clueless figure. In Crouching Tiger, however, Lee seems to have sloughed off the awkward charm of his previous characters and jumped into the skin of a sword-wielding, love-tormented martial arts hero juggling the affections of two heroines.
Lee admits that the film was probably the first time he dealt with desire and anxiety.
"In Taoism, dragon and tiger symbolize emotions and desires, respectively. One must tame the dragon and the tiger to vanquish desire, so that one can achieve the Tao," Lee has said in describing the film.
Li Mu-bai faces just such a dilemma in the film. On one hand he represses feelings for Yu Siu-lien (Michelle Yeoh, 楊紫瓊), while on the other he lectures the wild and petulant Jen (Zhang Ziyi, 章子怡). At the same time though, he feels the tug of desire for both.
The women in Crouching Tiger emerge with the strongest characters: the tough, calm, rational Yu Siu-lien and the daring, willful and brilliant Jen. The two roles, according to Lee, were inspired by his wife. "My wife's personality is more like Siu-lien. But she also has a bold and rebellious side, as in Jen's character," said Lee.
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