CNN talkasia 李安專訪 - 李安

專訪的文字部分
http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/10/08/talkasia.anglee/
index.html#cnnSTCText

block a、b、c
配合 http://edition.cnn.com/ASIA/talkasia/ 左下方的三段影片


AS -- Andrew Stevens
AL -- Ang Lee


BLOCK A

AS:
Hello I'm Andrew Stevens. Our guest today is one of the world's most
successful film directors, the Academy Award-winning Ang Lee. This is Talk
Asia.

Ang Lee, thanks very much for joining us. In 2005, you won Best Director and
it was said that you had the cinematic world at your feet -- you could do
anything you liked, anywhere in the world. So what drew you to "Lust,
Caution"?

AL:
I had thought about "Lust, Caution" for a while, I'd been resisting it
like "Brokeback Mountain." I thought it was taboo to portray female, the
psychology of female sexuality against the backdrop of the war against Japan.
It's just as scary, if not more, than portraying American gay cowboys. So
I've been thinking about that, working with the script for a bit, when I was
done Oscar-campaigning and everything, fulfilled my duty, I just couldn't
wait to jump into this film.

AS:
Had you not won the Best Director Oscar, do you think you still would've
made "Lust, Caution"? Or do you think that gave you the confidence or the
backing to do it?

AL:
It's more backing than confidence, and this was a regime that had never
been filmed before. And I got all the support and allowance I wanted, to make
it properly in China and Hong Kong. I think the Academy Award was the
backbone, so to speak.

AS:
Definitely propelled you. You mentioned taboo subjects, taboo subjects
like "Brokeback Mountain" and now "Lust, Caution." Do you see a lot of
similarities between these two films?

AL:
Mostly I would say, I was in the mood of love, romantic love, for this
period of my career, of my life. Something after my mid-life crisis, I think
I want to get into something I feel I missed in portraying or in going
through myself personally. I don't know what it is, they attract me, they
draw me to make a movie. I was dealing with prohibited romantic love,
something that is yearning, something impossible, something that is so
difficult to portray, to put a word... definition on.

AS:
Well, "Lust, Caution" is set in wartime Shanghai. Why did you decide to
come back to Asia and Asian themes?

AL:
After I done some American film dealing with different subject matter,
texture, work with people, polish my skill, whatever, I always feel the need
to come back to my cultural root to re-examine, and also use the skill and
the resources, so to speak. It's harder for me to make Chinese films, because
first of all, psychologically, it's more personal, the texture is more
personal to me, it just hurts more.

AS:
Let's talk about the newcomer in this film, Tang Wei. She beat out a
handful of A-list well-known Chinese actresses...

AL:
Ten thousand newcomers.

AS:
...She's been described as a revelation in this film. How... Why did you
choose her? What drew you to her?

AL:
First of all, like I cast anybody, a gut feeling. When she walked into
the room, you have a sense... She's Wang Jiazhi, yeah.
Then you have to prove that your instinct is right, many layers of tests,
screen test, talking to her...
In short, she had a disposition that reminded me of like my high school
teacher, my parents, of that generation. I reckon that she must be a
fish out of water in today's society, among her peers. She was not popular,
she didn't get a lot of work in television, what have you, but she, just the
way her figure, look, and her disposition, feel right to me about that
generation.

AS:
Let's just talk about that intimacy in the film, because there's been a
lot of talk about the sex scenes in the film. You refused to cut any scenes
in the U.S. release, but you cut 20 minutes out of the...

AL:
That's a rumor. It's much less than 10 minutes, 7 or 8 minutes or
something.

AS:
From the Chinese?

AL:
Yeah, I think some Chinese press saw the film in Venice -- they were
shocked such a movie can be made, in a good way, and put almost an
exclamation mark: "Are they going to cut out 30 minutes to be shown in
China?" And then it was quoted all over the world. But it's much less than 10
minutes.

AS:
Do you worry that that changes the essence of the film? Losing those
scenes?

AL:
Big or small audiences, I would rather show that version, but there's no
such system in China, so I give them a version that's my own cut. You don't
lose the essence, it flows, and nobody sees that the scenes are cut, but it
will weigh differently.

AS:
Talking about those scenes, are they at the very center, do you think, of
this film?

AL:
I think so. This is old-fashioned film noir, which in a romantic and
mysterious ways toward the end, or certain part of the movie, you'll think
you get lost in the mystery of the core of darkness. That's what those things
are for me, that is not speakable. It's very hard, you can only sense it, and
you can get lost in there. People call it espionage or thriller, but I think
it's a mixed genre, perhaps most close to old-fashioned film noir. And I
think for the actors, it's their ultimate acting role. For her to withstand
his scrutiny as an interrogator, to earn his trust and therefore they unleash
some chemistry of perhaps love, feeling of love. And then they have to deny
it, it's in a way what the film's about. It's also difficult for me, because
it's almost the ultimate exposure of myself, so to speak. So it was really
uncomfortable to shoot them. Perhaps uncomfortable to watch.

AS:
How difficult was it for you? I mean it was a closed set, it took 12
days...

AL:
I've never experienced such film experience before in my career.
Something I was dreaming about, but then when I actually touch it, it is more
nightmare than a dream. I think expose yourself, whether it's nakedness or
spiritually, your desire exposure... For some people it's very comfortable,
for me it's not -- like for most people, it's private, it's uncomfortable,
and you have to battle with your psychological barriers. I think that takes a
lot of energy.



BLOCK B

AS:
"Brokeback Mountain" has never been shown in China, but when you won Best
Director in 2005 for that film, the Chinese media said, and I quote: "You are
the pride of the Chinese people all over the world." Do you find that a
little hypocritical, the fact that you are fated by China, yet your film is
not allowed to be shown there?

AL:
It was, I wouldn't say hypocritical. I think they are genuinely happy to
see a Chinese director win an Academy Award with good artistic value. I think
that pride is genuine, so I would not think that's hypocritical at all. Not
only in my judgment, I literally meet people who are genuinely happy. No, no,
I don't think so, it's just like they don't want homosexual movie shown in
the movies, it's hard to put American logic... It's just something else. I
don't know how to describe it, it's just something else. So what can I say?

AS:
I told a friend of mine today I was interviewing you, and we were talking
about "Brokeback Mountain," and he is from Wyoming, from the area where the
film was... And he said he was shocked, in other words, he was shocked when
he found out you had directed the film. And I asked him why, and he said,
because a Chinese guy had come in there and perfectly caught small-town
little-known America, the clothes, the conversations, the whole essence of
what that place was. How do you create that sort of authenticity?

AL:
It took a while, but I think it's possible. I think a movie is a media
that is evoking feelings. It's a media. What I made is not equivalent to what
exactly is in Wyoming but evoked viewers' feelings. I think something evoked
from your friend and somebody else from LA, a Valley girl, it will be
something different. But I think I get the pulse, so to speak.

AS:
Ok, by the same token, do you think a Western, an American, U.S.-trained
director could step into a movie in Shanghai, reasonably contemporary
Shanghai or Beijing, and do the same sort of thing you could do, capture the
nuances?

AL:
Absolutely. I think doing period piece is easier, because after a certain
distance, everybody is equal, I think. The relative contemporary is harder. I
think that's the way it is. I remember I was a lot more nervous about doing
"The Ice Storm" in 1973, which was the nearest, newest period drama back then
in '97. I was more nervous about that movie than doing "Sense & Sensibility,"
because it was closer to us, and people live through it, they have opinions.
People sometimes ask me, would you do something differently now? Sometimes, I
think I should know better for that shot, for that take, for that moment, but
I never really give that a thought.

AS:
But it's an interesting point you raise,: Is the director ever fully
satisfied with a film?

AL:
Again, I don't think that way. I think each movie-making process is a
very exhausting and satisfying and fulfilling experience for me. That's why,
when it's done, I am looking for a new subject matter to explore. So hundred
percent, I'll do hundred percent with no reservation. It's not like I have a
chart, by this year I do this genre, I move on. It's not like that. I give
everything I have to do that movie.

AS:
Your body of film is certainly eclectic: "Sense & Sensibility", "The Ice
Storm", you've mentioned, "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", "Brokeback
Mountain." You look at that as a body of work -- is there a thread there? Is
there something that says these are all Ang Lee films, do you think?

AL:
I like to do drama, something about life that could be disappointing. Not
necessarily sad, just the fact that humbles you, that make you respect life,
so to speak, even more and more after watching the movie. I think that's just
the way I'm learning about life, I see life and respect it.



BLOCK C

AS:
You grew up in Taiwan. Your upbringing is described as modest. Did you
though, have big ambitions? Did you expect that you would be as successful as
you have become?

AL:
It's hard to say, it's a dream. I dissociate it with reality. It's a
dream. But over the years, it seems like I'm moving closer and closer to that
dream. Sometimes I'm in it, in and out. Like growing up in Taiwan you watch
Academy Awards. You can dream about if I stood there, how would I thank
people? I think, not just me, a lot of people have that fantasy. But then I
was there some 30 years later, 40 years later. "I would like to say thank you
for your support, people from Taiwan." It's like déjà vu. So it's very hard
to describe whether it's an ambition or a dream.

AS:
Your father was an academic and he, I understand, wanted you to become a
professor. You were more interested, obviously, in arts. Was that a cause for
friction in the family?

AL:
I think the way we grow up, being in the movie business is almost like a
shame for him. It's not like he think that being professor, teaching, is the
highest I could go, but if I like drama, the least embarrassing thing would
be teaching drama at university. I think that's all there is. Not that he
wants me to be an academic, it's just most tolerable. I think after "The
Hulk," for some reason he gave up. And I said, I wanna give up, I can't go
anymore, I'm exhausted. He said to me, so do you want to teach? I said no, I
don't feel like teaching. Then he said go ahead and make a movie. What are
you gonna do, you're only 49. Then I went on to make "Brokeback Mountain."

AS:
Was that an important moment though, in your life, when your father said
to you, well, go ahead, go make a movie?

AL:
Yes, it meant a lot to me. Um, it's a funny thing, two weeks later after
he said that sentence, he passed away. So it was something in my life I'll
always remember. The way, the day he said to me. He said, "Put on your
helmet! Go make another movie." I was like, shocked. It was like when I was
20, the first time he gave me a cigarette. We didn't say a word. He was
preaching me, talking to me, and he took out a cigarette and just gave one to
me. I didn't know what to do with that cigarette... Ok. That day was like a
Bar Mitzvah for me. The day when he said, "Go ahead, make a movie," it was a
blessing. I felt finally the conflict, the macho to macho, the whole
conflict, sort of, we got over such a significant part of our lives.

AS:
Let's just go back a few steps. When you went to the U.S. as a struggling
actor who was not fluent in English, you had some pretty tough years. What
was the big break?

AL:
The break, the profound break, never really come. It has never come, I
don't know if it will ever come. The break that finally I find my identity
and am comfortable. That never occurred to me. It's always a struggle in
making movies, particularly English-language films, because there's the
unfamiliarity I have to adapt, have to make judgments. When I'm off the set,
it's hard for me to carry a conversation. That's more difficult for me than
making a movie. 'Cause making a movie, I have plans in my head somehow, one
way or another I manage to roll the camera and get something in the can. But
off the set, in the dining table, throw me to a party, it's still awkward for
me.

AS:
Why do you think that is?

AL:
Familiarity with material to talk about, social life, life in general,
language, knowledge.

AS:
Where do you feel at your most comfortable socially?

AL:
When we talk about movie in a party, in an occasion, it could be
comfortable momentarily, so that's kind of about it.
It's hard for me to feel comfortable socially.
I'm always shy, it's just part of my character.

AS:
Do you want, or do you like being considered as the torchbearer of
Chinese movies on the global stage?

AL:
No, it's uneasy. As a matter of fact, it's very uncomfortable for me. I'd
rather not carry the torch, I'd rather be watching somebody else carry the
torch. It's an incredible burden on my shoulder. But I'm passionate about
making movies, so as far as I'm concerned, that's the duty I have.

AS:
You haven't directed many films. You don't have a huge number of films
under your belt, but many of the films you have directed have received
prizes, awards. So in a nutshell, what is the secret, do you think, of your
success?

AL:
There's no secret. When I make a movie, I'm passionate about it. I feel
the need for doing it. It's never in my mind, if I do this, I can win Venice,
or Cannes, or the Oscar or Golden Awards in Taiwan. It never occurred to me.

AS:
Do the prizes you win then don't actually mean that much to you?

AL:
Well, it means something, you get a lot of attention, and when you hold
that, it's not nothing, when you hold it on stage. But I will tell you,
there's only one time when I won a prize, a major prize, that I feel
comfortable about -- like hey, that was pretty good -- that was for
"Brokeback" when winning the Venice. There was no jealousy, no argument, it
was just at ease, everybody smiling at me. That was the only time I could
remember I was happy winning an award. It's a mixture of excitement for
myself, for the effort put in, for the filmmakers that worked along with me,
there was a great pride in it, the happiness about it's easier to release the
film, everything, honor. But then also a hint of discomfort about being
watched.

AS:
Ang Lee, thank you very much.



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