SEE Magazine
Issue #393: June 14, 2001
Copyright © 2001. All Rights Reserved
On Screen
BIVOUAC
by Alex J. HowardNow that Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, last year’s non-Hollywood blockbuster and the most successful foreign language film in history, has made it onto video, I can truly say, with the greatest confidence: you shoulda seen it in the theatres. As a video junkie, I don’t advocate that often, but let’s face it: the combination of subtitles and high speed martial arts isn’t something that compacts easily onto a TV screen. The pan-and-scan doesn’t help much, either.
The good news is, director Ang Lee has a phenomenal pre-Tiger filmography, and most of it works dandily at home. It’s an impressively varied little body of work, and only half the films are in Mandarin, so those of you with subtitle-itis can still get something out of it.
Working backwards: in 1999, Lee released Ride with the Devil, a Civil War drama with a short career in theatres. It’s worth revisiting now for two reasons: to see a great performance by the future Peter Parker, Tobey Maguire; and to see whatever happened to Jewel’s acting career (she’s actually pretty good). It’s gritty and lacks Hollywood turbo-pacing, but that’s part of its charm.
Before Devil, Lee did The Ice Storm, a 1997 drama that has nothing to do with Canada’s Ice Storm. It’s actually set in the ’70s, stars Kevin Kline, Sigourney Weaver, and Maguire again, and is one of the smartest portraits of a collapsing family since Ordinary People. Character-driven until the last 20 minutes, when it becomes a feat of cinematic poetry.
In ’95, Lee broke into English language cinema with Sense and Sensibility. All I can say about this film is, it’s about as good as a film that’s based on a Jane Austen novel and stars Hugh Grant can be. Lee’s Chinese repertoire is less varied than his English work, but his character studies and attention to detail are more refined and heartfelt. There’s Eat Drink Man Woman (1994), another wonderful family portrait that revolves around patriarch Si-hung Lung’s weekly family dinners. Fans of Babette’s Feast or Like Water for Chocolate will eat this up.
They may also devour The Wedding Banquet (1993), about a gay man who marries a female friend to satisfy his conservative parents. Here we have the formula for a Hollywood farce (Threesome, Three to Tango) without the audience-insulting jokes or plot contrivances. It actually becomes an incisive exploration of cultural, sexual, and generation gaps. And it’s still funny.
And finally, we have Pushing Hands (1992), which brings us full circle from Crouching Tiger. Here the martial art of choice is actually tai chi, and the practitioner is an elderly Chinese immigrant who clashes with his more acculturated son and his Caucasian daughter-in-law. Lee’s most intimate family portrait is a far cry from the spectacular breadth of Crouching Tiger, but in some respects, it’s more honest. And it fits quite comfortably into your TV screen.
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