'Tiger' wins Oscar glory

Taiwan had reason to smile yesterday as director Ang Lee (李安) and his film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon captured four Oscars at the 73rd Annual Academy Awards yesterday.

Though the movie did not receive the coveted awards for best director and best picture, its awards for best foreign-language film, best cinematography, best original score and best art direction put Taiwan in the record books with the strongest showing by any Asian film at the Oscars. Crouching Tiger lost in the best picture category to the Roman Empire epic Gladiator, while Lee was bested by Steven Soderbergh for best director honors.

Yesterday was Lee's third chance at an Oscar, having been nominated in 1994 for his film The Wedding Banquet and again in 1995 for Eat Drink Man Woman.

"I am very happy and pleased with this result. This was achieved little by little through the efforts and devotion of Chinese filmmakers all around the world. I have no regrets. Like I said, winning the best foreign-language film award has been a big step for us."

Indeed, any disappointment over the best director award being given to Soderbergh for his work on Traffic and the best picture award going to to Gladiator should be diluted by the resounding success of Crouching Tiger at the box office around the world. Lee also won the best director honors at this year's Golden Globe Awards, Director's Guild of America awards and the Independent Spirit Awards.

Lee's next project will be a Universal Studio re-make of The Incredible Hulk, after which he plans to film a prequel of Crouching Tiger.

Of the Crouching Tiger winners, Peter Pau (鮑得熹) is probably the most euphoric, embracing Julia Roberts backstage after receiving his award for best cinematography. Hong Kong-born Pau has previously worked with Hong Kong directors John Woo and Tsui Hark and is now working on the film The Touch, which has received investment from Crouching Tiger starlet Michelle Yeoh's (楊紫瓊) film company.

"The most exciting part of getting this award is that I beat Gladiator!" Pau said after the ceremony.

"This is a great recognition to my work. I'd like to thank Ang Lee for giving me a chance to shoot something that I've never tried before. This award proves that the way American audiences see films has changed," he said.

Pau's work on Crouching Tiger also points to another trend in Hollywood in which foreign professionals and international cooperative projects are increasingly common.

"Hollywood is very open to foreign professionals in filmmaking. Cinematographers from Italy and Japan have been taking many of the big projects recently, for example," Pau said.

Tim Yip (葉錦添), who was honored with the award for best art direction, has quickly become the hottest art and costume designer in Hong Kong and Taiwan. Nominated for both art direction and costume design, Yip said the award for art direction was the most important for him. He recently received the British Academy Award for Best Costume Design, so yesterday's award proved he had excelled in both fields, he said.

In Crouching Tiger, Yip said he had tried to instill a sense of realism in the fantastical martial arts world, creating an unadorned, yet spiritual appearance for its characters. Yip is currently working on two projects, one titled Double Vision (雙瞳), a Columbia Asia production project, and a new film by renowned Taiwanese director Tsai ming-liang (蔡明亮).