The Cinema of Ang Lee: The Other Side of the Screen (Directors’ Cuts)
. The first full-length study of its kind, the book investigates recurring themes and motifs across Ang Lee’s astonishingly diverse range of works. From the blockbuster, Hulk, to the period drama, Sense and Sensibility, each film is studied in depth to reveal Lee’s interest in gender, cultural identity, family ritual and social duty.
The volume not only investigates Lee’s greatest successes - Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon (2000), which transformed the status of Chinese martial arts films across the globe, and Brokeback Mountain (2005), which challenged the reception and presentation of homosexuality in mainstream cinema - it also discusses his earlier works, such as Eat Drink Man Woman (1994) and The Wedding Banquet (1993). By looking at the beginnings of Lee’s career, Whitney Crothers Dilley positions the filmmaker’s work within the roots of the Taiwan New Cinema movement, as well as the larger context of world cinema. Accessible, lively and incisive, this new addition to our Directors’ Cuts series not only provides a valuable academic resource but also an enjoyable read for anyone interested in this acclaimed director.
Chris Berry, Goldsmiths College, University of London
“The first major study of a director who deserves much more attention … Essential reading for any scholar of either contemporary Chinese or American film.”
Ian Haydn Smith, editor of The Cinema of China and South East Asia
“An excellent and incisive overview of the career of one of contemporary cinema’s most fascinating and acclaimed figures. As passionate as it is erudite, this is a welcome volume for both film students and those with an interest in the director’s work.”
Bradley Winterton, Taipei Times, December 2007
‘’This new book’s essential characteristics are clarity, perceptiveness, sympathy and thoroughness. This is no coterie text for cineastes or crabbed work for academics. Instead, it’s eminently clear-headed and lucid, covering all his films in detail, but also containing a perceptive and even profound overview of the inner nature of Lee’s achievement… It’s an understanding of the deep nature of her subject that makes Dilley’s groundbreaking and comprehensive book such a rewarding read, and such a very fine achievement.’
Brian Hu, Asia Pacific Arts, October 2007
‘Dilley’s book provides an essential overview of the debates surrounding Ang Lee and his films… Dilley [displays] analytic strength, particularly in her exploration of the use of language throughout Lee’s films. The clash of languages is an important narrative element of Lee’s immigrant stories, Pushing Hands and The Wedding Banquet. In The Ice Storm, Ride with the Devil, and Brokeback Mountain, language is rightfully seen as one of the films’ key sources of audience pleasure, so her analysis of their words, phrasings, and deliveries is most welcome. In Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, language is the site of cultural translation, given the film’s unique writing and subtitling process.
Dilley’s book also collects great insights into the production and reception of Lee’s cross-cultural films. The discussion of the Taiwanese reception to the overly-”Western” Eat Drink Man Woman provides a nice antecedent to what would happen years later with Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. And the section on Sense and Sensibility includes wonderful quotes and anecdotes by the film’s British cast and crew about working with a “foreign” director.’
