won best feature, best director and best supporting actress for Zhang Ziyi at the Independent Spirit Awards Saturday, the latest in a string of honors. The film is up for 10 Academy Awards, Reuters reported. At a reception Saturday night hosted by Taiwan, which submitted the film for an award in the best foreign-language film category, Lee considered the film's extraordinary success.
"I think the audience is getting cynical today (and longing for) old fashioned film-making, that innocence," he told Reuters at the party, which brought together cast and crew and members of a delegation from Taiwan.
"I think maybe Hollywood has failed to do that... they don't always provide the most fresh and exciting and unpredictable movies that give people a thrill," he said.
Smartly dressed in a tailored navy Mao suit and impossibly good-natured after a day of media appearances, Lee said he believed this movie harnessed the creative power of Hong Kong film-making, still the dominant force in martial arts film.
"You feel the production power which the top of Hong Kong film-makers do obtain with the proper... effort and knowledge. Somehow I think it hits that core of emotion... the naivete of going to a movie, enjoying an emotional tour, crying and laughing and enjoying the action," he said.
"Meanwhile, I think that intellectually, they have something to chew on," he said.
But that's not to say that he was thinking of all this when he embarked on the project.
"I made a movie that I wanted to do, in a way I can handle," he said.
FAVORITE AT LEAST FOR FOREIGN-LANGUAGE FILM
"Crouching Tiger" is the favorite at least for the foreign language award and was given a boost in the best director category earlier this month when the Directors' Guild honored his "outstanding directorial achievement in feature film," one of the prestige stops on the road to the Academy Awards.
Lee took the opportunity of Saturday's party to thank the Taiwanese government, which gave him his first boost in film with awards for scriptwriting that gave him not only encouragement but money at a time when both were scarce.
If "Crouching Tiger" wins best picture it will be the first subtitled film ever to do so. If it wins foreign-language film it will be the first Asian film to be so honored although Japan won three "honorary" awards in the 1950s.
It is already the first foreign-language film to make more than $100 million at the North American box office.
It's not surprising, then, that hopes have risen that the film will usher in a new era of critical and commercial success for Asian film in the U.S. market.
"Being nominated in 10 categories is already a bit hit," Jason Yuan, director-general of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Los Angeles, told Reuters Saturday.
"This is not just good for Taiwan, or for China, it's good for the whole of Asia."
Certainly a list of the cast and crew read like a map of the Chinese diaspora, with Zhang Ziyi from the mainland, love interest Chang Chen from Taiwan and principle actors Michelle Yeoh and Chow Yun-fat from Malaysia and Hong Kong, respectively. Longtime collaborator writer/producer James Schamus, an American, rounded out Lee's international team.
At Saturday's beachfront "Indie" awards, Lee told reporters he will do another film in greater China, "but not anytime soon, it's so exhausting."
"I'm thinking of doing something like an American movie for a change... and then going back. I will always go back."
Korean monster movie tops first Asian film awards (2007-03-20)Taiwan unveils nominees for Chinese Oscars (2005-10-18)Director Ang Lee Dazzles on Countdown to Oscars (2001-03-26)Movie Review: High flying 'Tiger' trips the martial arts fantastic (2000-12-30)At the Movies: 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon' (2000-12-10)
