Ang Lee
27 December 2009 – 8 January 2010
Internationally acclaimed filmmaker Ang Lee has constructed a remarkably diverse filmography, ranging from period dramas and literary adaptations to martial arts epics and human dramas that witness shifts in contemporary Taiwanese experience. Whether working in a historical idiom or in a contemporary setting, Lee brings a deeply humanist sensibility to his films. The narratives he chooses are characterised by notions of marginalisation and transformation in characters exploring their gender, sexual and cultural identity, and their filial and social duties.
Return to APT6 film programs
Xi yan (The Wedding Banquet) 1993 M
3.00pm Sun 27 Dec 2009 / Cinema A
35MM, COLOUR, MONO, 106 MINUTES, TAIWAN/USA, MANDARIN/ENGLISH (ENGLISH SUBTITLES) / DIRECTOR: ANG LEE / SCRIPT: ANG LEE, NEIL PENG, JAMES SCHAMUS / CINEMATOGRAPHER: JONG LIN / EDITOR: TIM SQUYRES / PRINT SOURCE: CHINESE TAIPEI FILM ARCHIVE / RIGHTS: CENTRAL MOTION PICTURE CORPORATION
Wai-Tung Gao is a young Taiwanese landlord who lives with his partner Simon in Manhattan. His parents, unaware of his current living arrangement, are eager for him to get married and start a family. Tired of listening to their constant demands, a plan for a marriage of convenience is hatched. Wai-Tung will marry Wei-Wei, Wai-Tung’s tenant from mainland China who is in desperate need of a green card. The simple plan goes awry when Mr and Mrs Gao arrive in Manhattan an insist on a lavish wedding banquet. Wei-Wei breaks some surprising news and Mr Gao has a brush with death.
Yin shi nan nu (Eat Drink Man Woman) 1994 PG
3.00pm Sat 26 Dec 2009 / Cinema A
35MM, COLOUR, DOLBY, 123 MINUTES, TAIWAN/USA, MANDARIN (ENGLISH SUBTITLES) / DIRECTOR: ANG LEE / SCRIPT: ANG LEE, JAMES SCHAMUS, HUI-LING WANG / CINEMATOGRAPHER: JONG LIN / EDITOR: TIM SQUYRES / PRINT SOURCE: CHINESE TAIPEI FILM ARCHIVE / RIGHTS: CENTRAL MOTION PICTURE CORPORATION
Eat Drink Man Woman is third in the Ang Lee’s ‘Father knows best’ trilogy, following Pushing Hands 1992 and The Wedding Banquet 1993, and is filled with mouth-watering displays of acromatic cooking. Master Chu (Sihung Lung) lives in a traditional house in the bustling city of Taipei with his three daughters, who are caught up with concerns about their careers and love. Every Sunday the family sit down to a lavish banquet delicately prepared by Master Chu. While his daughters makes some controversial announcements over the dinner table, it turns out Master Chu has the most surprising revelation.
Sense and Sensibility 1995 G
2.00pm Sat 2 Jan 2010 / Cinema A
35MM, COLOUR, DOLBY SR, 136 MINUTES, USA/UK, ENGLISH/FRENCH (ENGLISH SUBTITLES) / DIRECTOR: ANG LEE / SCRIPT: EMMA THOMPSON / BASED ON THE STORY BY JANE AUSTEN / CINEMATOGRAPHER: MICHAEL COULTER / EDITOR: TIM SQUYRES / PRINT SOURCE/RIGHTS: AMALGAMATED FILMS
A faithful adaption of Jane Austin’s first published novel, Sense and Sensibility centres on the windowed Mrs Dashwood and her three daughters who are without a home due to the passing of their late father and the eighteenth-century inheritance laws. Left with nothing, the daughters’ marriage prospects are greatly reduced. Three gentlemen do arrive on the scene but, in true Austin style, the story slowly reveals that the Dashwood ladies may have made the wrong assumption about the character of these gentlemen.
The Ice Storm 1997 M
1.00pm Sun 27 Dec 2009 and 6.00pm Wed 6 Jan 2010 / Cinema A
35MM, COLOUR, DOLBY DIGITAL, 112 MINUTES, USA, ENGLISH / DIRECTOR: ANG LEE / SCRIPT: JAMES SCHAMUS / BASED ON THE STORY BY RICK MOODY / CINEMATOGRAPHER: FREDERICK ELMES / EDITOR: TIM SQUYRES / PRINT SOURCE: TAMASA DISTRIBUTION / RIGHTS: ROADSHOW FILMS
The Ice Storm follows two neighbouring families in suburban Connecticut over the Thanksgiving holiday. In the film, set against a background of the sexual revolution and American politic's Watergate scandal, parents and children alike dabble in drugs, crime, and sexual experimentation. As an ice storm descends, lingering tensions between the characters crystallise to shattering point, and truths are revealed beneath the veneer of an all-American family.
Wo hu cang long (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) 2000 M
1.00pm Sat 26 Dec 2009 and 8.00pm Fri 8 Jan 2010 / Cinema A
35MM, COLOUR, DOLBY DIGITAL, 120 MINUTES, TAIWAN/HONG KONG/USA/CHINA, MANDARIN (ENGLISH SUBTITLES) / DIRECTOR: ANG LEE / SCRIPT: HUI-LING WANG, JAMES SCHAMUS, KUO JUNG TSAI / BASED ON THE STORY BY DU LU WANG / CINEMATOGRAPHER: PETER PAU / EDITOR: TIM SQUYRES / PRINT SOURCE/RIGHTS: AMALGAMATED FILMS
Li Mu Bai, retiring from a life as an infamous Wudang swordsman, entrusts his sword to Yu Shu Lien who delivers it to Master Te in Beijing, the capital of Qing Dynasty. Soon after the handover takes place the sword is stolen. In the process of recovering it Li meets Jade Fox, who killed his master for refusing to teach woman the secrets of Wudang. Li vows to take up his sword one last time to avenge his master death but will this ruin the one chance at a life with Yu.
Brokeback Mountain 2005 M
6.00pm Wed 30 Dec 2009 / Cinema A
35MM, COLOUR, DOLBY DIGITAL, 134 MINUTES, CANADA/USA, ENGLISH / DIRECTOR: ANG LEE / SCRIPT: LARRY MCMURTRY, DIANA OSSANA / BASED ON THE STORY BY ANNIE PROULX / CINEMATOGRAPHER: RODRIGO PRIETO / EDITORS: GERALDINE PERONI, DYLAN TICHENOR / PRINT SOURCE/RIGHTS: ROADSHOW FILMS
Set in the 1960s in Middle America two cowboys, Ennis and Jack, are hired to spend the summer together looking after a herd sheep on Brokeback Mountain. Late nights by the fire sparks a romance between them. After descending from the mountain they go their separate ways, marry and start families, meeting infrequently for fishing trips to recapture what they experienced during their time on the mountain.
Se, jie (Lust, Caution) 2007 R18+
2.00pm Sun 3 Jan 2010 / Cinema A
35MM, COLOUR, DOLBY DIGITAL, 157 MINUTES, USA/CHINA/TAIWAN/HONG KONG, MANDARIN/JAPANESE/ENGLISH/HINDI/SHANGHAINESE/CANTONESE (ENGLISH SUBTITLES) / DIRECTOR: ANG LEE / SCRIPT: JAMES SCHAMUS, HUI-LING WANG / BASED ON THE STORY BY EILEEN CHANG / CINEMATOGRAPHER: RODRIGO PRIETO / EDITOR: TIM SQUYRES / PRINT SOURCE/RIGHTS: UNIVERSAL PICTURES
During WWII, the young Ms Wong joins a drama group at Hong Kong University and falls into the lead role of an espionage plot to kill Mr Yee, an agent for the Japanese government. Ms Wong, disguised as Ms Mak, befriends Mrs Yee over Mah-jong in an effort to get closer to her target. After successfully seducing Mr Yee, Ms Wong finds herself in a highly charged sexual relationship with a man whose assassination she is arranging.
Taking Woodstock 2009 MA15+
6.00pm Fri 8 Jan 2010 / Cinema A
35MM, COLOUR, DOLBY DIGITAL, 110 MINUTES, USA, ENGLISH / DIRECTOR: ANG LEE / SCRIPT: JAMES SCHAMUS / BASED ON THE STORY BY ELLIOT TIBER AND TOM MONTE / CINEMATOGRAPHER: ERIC GAUTIER / EDITOR: TIM SQUYRES / PRINT SOURCE/RIGHTS: UNIVERSAL PICTURES
Greenwich Village interior designer Elliot Tiber returns to save his parents Catskills motel from financial ruin. Hearing that a large music festival has been rendered venueless after the neighbouring town pulled out, he offers the failing motel to the Woodstock promoters. His neighbour’s 600 acre farm becomes the venue for the festival, and half a million people descend on Tiber’s town to partake in the three day festival that will become the signifier for his generation.
