The Films of 李安

Happy Birthday, Ashley!

Celery,

Here is your birthday present, a blog (with love) from me. It's a collection of all of 李安's movies that are available online and with Chinese subtitles that I could find. They also come with some introductions, because some are sort of obscure. The versions are selected for the quality of the picture and sound, as well as for their convenience in watching.

Start at the bottom for his first movies, and work your way to the top!

Love,

C

Taking Woodstock

Taking Woodstock is Mr. Lee's latest film. It's a comedy about the planning of the 1969 Woodstock concert (a link to more information here), and it's currently unavailable online. I will update this blog when I find it.

Anyway, the movie has had mixed reviews and has done poorly at the box office. Of course, all this means is that his next movie will be hugely successful, as that seems to be the pattern.

Well, I hope you enjoyed your birthday present. Buying music and movies just doesn't make much sense anymore, does it? Especially when you can create something like this for free! Enjoy, and I love you and happy birthday, cutie!

Lust, Caution

We saw this one in the theaters. Like Brokeback Mountain, I thought it was deeply tragic and moving. And there was a whole lot of sex! Apparently Mr. Lee wanted there to be 10 minutes of sex in the movie, and that 10 minutes took 100 hours of shooting to get.

And it's lucky we live in Taiwan, because here we got to see ALL 10 minutes LOL.

Anyway, like Hulk I couldn't find the movie online. I'm sure it will be available soon.

In fact, the only part of the movie I could find online was...the sex, of course!

Part 1 of some of the sex.

Part 2 with more sex.

Brokeback Mountain

Mr. Lee's 2005 Brokeback Mountain was probably his most critically acclaimed film. The movie is about two cowboys who fall in love while working together in the country, and the social issues and problems they encounter afterwards in the midwestern U.S.

For Brokeback Mountain Mr. Lee won Best Director at the Academy Awards. The film got 8 nominations that year (more than any other film), and won a total of 3 awards. As you remember, the film was very controversial.

From Wikipedia, a convincing argument that the film should have won the award:

"Some critics accused the Academy of homophobia for failing to award the Oscar for Best Picture to Brokeback Mountain and instead giving it to a rival nominee, Crash. Michael Jensen notes that prior to the Oscar ceremony, Brokeback Mountain became "the most honored movie in cinematic history",[71] winning more Best Picture and Director awards than previous Oscar winners Schindler's List and Titanic combined, and pointing out that prior to Brokeback, no film that had won the Writer's Guild, Director's Guild, and Producer's Guild awards failed to win the Academy Award for Best Picture, and that only four times in the previous twenty-five years had the Best Picture winner not also been the film with the most nominations. He also notes that only once before had a film not even nominated for the Golden Globe's Best Picture (Crash) go on to win the Academy Award."

And here it is, with Chinese subtitles!

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Hulk

"Hulk" came out in 2003 and got mixed reviews. It was definitely different from and more intellectual than any comic book movie ever to come out before it. Mr. Lee tried to deal with Hulk's emotional issues and family history in a different way. Some audiences liked it, some didn't.

Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find the movie online. But my favorite part of the movie is the scene in which he fights the U.S. army in the desert. It's a climactic action scene, where Hulk is trying to escape from the Army testing lab and the Army is just trying to kill him and study him while he is big and mean and green.

At the time of watching this action sequence, I honestly thought that it was one of the best action scenes I had ever seen (until I saw Kill Bill, that is). And I've seen a lot of action movies...

Here's the 90 second tank scene.

Cool!

The Chosen (from "The Hire")

Soon after Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, BMW films made an 8 part movie/advertisement for their cars. Each part was about 10 minutes long and made by a different director.

BMW asked Mr. Lee to direct the second part, called "The Chosen". It's 10 minutes long, and by the end you will probably be trying to figure out how you can buy the next BMW that comes out...just warning you!

"The Chosen" (part 2 of "The Hire")

For more information about the BMW movie/advertisement, click here.

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

This film needs no introduction. The movie came out in 2000 and has several big Asian stars. It was a huge success everywhere, both financially and with critics and awards circles. In fact, it was the most financially successful foreign language film in American cinema history. It won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film, along with Golden Globe and BAFTA nominations.

So without further delay, here it is!

The English dubbed version.

And below are the three parts to the Chinese version with Mandarin audio and Chinese subtitles, in widescreen and good quality:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Ride with the Devil

"Ride with the Devil" is an American Civil War drama that starred Spiderman again.

The 1999 movie was based on a novel, but it did very little at the box office and was not noted by critics. It lost a lot of money, apparently. However, you can decide if it deserves to be re-considered, as was the case with "The Ice Storm" and a lot of other intellectual movies.

The Ice Storm

The Ice Storm wasn't a big hit when it came out, mostly because the plot and themes were difficult and intellectual, and I think it was a tragic movie as well. It has become successful on DVD and on cable TV, as audiences seem to have discovered it over time (it was a popular movie in college when I was at Rutgers).

It's about living in suburbia in the northeast U.S. in the 1970's, and it has both Spiderman and Frodo, so that's cool.

The Ice Storm

Sense and Sensibility

Lee's success with "Eat Drink Man Woman" drew Hollywood's attention, and soon after he was given the opportunity to direct an adaptation of Jane Austen's classic British novel "Sense and Sensibility", starring Emma Thompson, Hugh Grant, and Kate Winslet. It came out in 1995.

The film was nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards, and won the Golden Globe and BAFTA awards for Best Picture.

What's it about? Well, I hate to keep referring to "Sex in the City"...but it really IS a "Sex in the City" for people in England in 1811!!! (But without too much sex, I think. Not sure about that, though.)

Anyway, here it is!

Eat Drink Man Woman

This was his third film, and it is all about life and culture in Taipei, Taiwan. Think of it almost like "Sex in the City"...in Taipei and involving 3 Taiwanese sisters.

He made this movie in 1995 and it was very successful, getting an Academy Award nomination for best foreign language film and drawing attention from Hollywood studios.

Here is the film, in 6 parts:

Winning the Competition

As you know, Mr. Lee got his start by winning a Chinese Government screenplay competition 6 years after finishing film school at NYU. The screenplays he submitted for the competition got 1st and 2nd place.

The first place film was "Pushing Hands" (推手) . The second place film was "The Wedding Banquet" (喜宴). The screenplays were so good that the studios eventually decided to let Mr. Lee make both films.

In "Pushing Hands" an elderly Chinese man moves from Beijing to New York and tries to adapt as best he can to the different culture.

"The Wedding Banquet" is a comedy about a gay Taiwanese man who marries a Chinese woman so he can get a green card and live in the U.S.. The plan seems to work until his parents come to America to help with the wedding...

Since they were both created at the same time and for the same purpose, I thought it was appropriate that they be presented together. So here they are! The beginning of Mr. Lee's career, linked below.

Pushing Hands

The Wedding Banquet