50 Fun Facts About Ang Lee

Ang Lee was raised in which Taiwanese city, where his father was a school principal and where he says he spent the happiest eight years of his life?

He was born in Pingtung County in 1954 to a family that had come from mainland China in 1949.

Which Ingmar Bergman film was a formative experience for the young Ang Lee?

He had failed Taiwan's university entrance exam twice before entering the National Arts School.

Lee earned his BFA in theatre in 1980 at which American institution?

He wanted to act but his English held him back, so he turned to directing; he met his wife Jane Lin there.

At NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, Lee worked on the thesis film of which classmate?

The film was Joe's Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads.

After graduating from NYU in 1985, how did Lee spend the six years before his first feature?

Jane Lin, a microbiologist, supported the family while he wrote screenplays.

Lee's break came in 1990 when two of his screenplays finished first and second in a competition run by which body?

The scripts were Pushing Hands and The Wedding Banquet; producer Hsu Li-kong took notice.

Lee's 1991 feature debut, Pushing Hands, is about a Chinese master of which discipline living in New York?

It earned three Golden Horse Awards; the title refers to a two-person tai chi training routine.

Which Taiwanese actor plays the father in all three films of Lee's Father Knows Best trilogy?

The three films show the Confucian family at risk, caught between tradition and modernity.

The Wedding Banquet (1993) won which top prize at the Berlin International Film Festival?

It was also nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar and Golden Globe.

Winston Chao, the debut star of The Wedding Banquet, was doing what job when Ang Lee met him?

Chao played a gay Taiwanese immigrant who marries a mainland woman to placate his parents.

On a budget of about $1m, The Wedding Banquet earned what distinction in 1993?

Its return ratio even beat that of Jurassic Park, the year's overall top grosser.

Eat Drink Man Woman (1994) opens with a widowed chef preparing an elaborate meal for his three daughters on which day of the week?

The opening sequence took over a week to film with a real master chef doubling for the actor's hands.

Eat Drink Man Woman inspired which 2001 Mexican-American remake?

Joyful Reunion and a stage musical also drew on it.

Lee's first English-language film, Sense and Sensibility (1995), was written by and starred which actress?

She spent five years drafting the screenplay and won the Adapted Screenplay Oscar for it.

How many Academy Award nominations did Sense and Sensibility receive?

It also took the Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture - Drama and Lee's second Golden Bear.

The star and screenwriter of Sense and Sensibility said Lee was taken aback when the actors did what?

She said such behaviour was uncommon in Chinese culture; once bridged, she found his notes "so brutal and funny".

The Ice Storm (1997) is set over which holiday weekend in 1973?

Two Connecticut families experiment with adultery and substances; the notorious "key party" swaps partners by drawing car keys.

Who wrote the novel The Ice Storm was based on and, separately, which frequent Lee collaborator adapted it?

Schamus won Best Screenplay at Cannes for it.

Ride with the Devil (1999), Lee's Civil War western, follows pro-Confederate guerrillas known as what?

It was a box office bomb; the singer Jewel made her acting debut in it.

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon revolves around the theft of which fabled 400-year-old sword?

Li Mu Bai asks Yu Shu Lien to deliver it to Sir Te in Beijing, and it is promptly stolen.

Crouching Tiger is based on a novel by which author, the fourth of his Crane-Iron series?

It was serialised in 1941-42.

How many Academy Award nominations did Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon receive?

A record for a non-English film at the time, later tied by Roma and broken by Emilia Pérez; it won four.

Crouching Tiger grossed how much in the United States, making it the highest-grossing foreign-produced film in American history?

Its Best Foreign Language Film Oscar was presented to Taiwan, though it was a co-production across four regions.

Which three stars headlined Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon?

Lee assembled a team from the US, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaysia and mainland China to fulfil a childhood dream of making a wuxia film.

Who played Bruce Banner in Lee's 2003 film Hulk?

It grossed over $245 million despite mixed reviews; Lee considered retiring afterwards until his father urged him on.

Brokeback Mountain was adapted from a 1997 short story by which author?

Screenwriter Diana Ossana found the story days after publication and adapted it with McMurtry.

Which two actors played Ennis Del Mar and Jack Twist in Brokeback Mountain?

Anne Hathaway and Michelle Williams played their wives.

Brokeback Mountain is set in Wyoming but was filmed mostly in which Canadian province?

Filming began in 2004, a year after the casting was announced.

Brokeback Mountain lost Best Picture at the 2006 Oscars to which film, in a famous upset?

Lee still won Best Director, becoming the first non-white director to do so.

Who composed the Oscar-winning score for Brokeback Mountain, writing it before filming began?

He based it on the story and a single conversation with the director.

Brokeback Mountain won which festival's top prize, the Golden Lion?

Lee won the same prize again two years later for Lust, Caution, joining a group of just four directors with two.

What was Lee's much-quoted rhetorical question when he took on Brokeback Mountain?

Despite the distance from the subject, the film became a cultural phenomenon and won 71 awards.

Lust, Caution (2007) was adapted from a novella by which Chinese author?

The story was loosely based on real events in Japanese-occupied Shanghai in 1939-40.

Lust, Caution received which restrictive US rating for its explicit sex scenes?

Lee declined to appeal, and cut nine minutes to get the film shown in mainland China; it became the highest-grossing NC-17 film ever.

Why was Lust, Caution disqualified as Taiwan's Best Foreign Language Film submission?

The Academy ruled the participation insufficient; the film received no other nominations.

Which actress was propelled to stardom by Lust, Caution but then banned for two years by the Chinese government?

The film grossed $67 million on a $16 million budget.

Taking Woodstock (2009) is based on the memoir of which man, whose parents ran a rundown motel in Bethel, New York?

James Schamus wrote the screenplay; the film premiered on the Croisette.

In Life of Pi, what is the name of the Bengal tiger stranded with Pi on the lifeboat?

Pi and the tiger drift for 227 days after the shipwreck.

Life of Pi's ocean scenes were shot in a giant wave tank built at what kind of site in Taiwan?

The crew filmed in Taiwan for five and a half months, including at Kenting National Park in the county where Lee was born.

Which visual effects house created the tiger for Life of Pi?

It spent a year on research and development to build the animal.

How many Oscars did Life of Pi win from its 11 nominations?

Best Director for Lee was among them, his second in the category.

Who wrote the novel Life of Pi, once considered impossible to film?

Lee persuaded 20th Century Fox to invest $120 million and leaned heavily on 3D effects.

Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk (2016) was the first feature shot at what extra-high frame rate?

It was also 3D and 4K; critics disliked the look and the film flopped.

Gemini Man (2019) starred which actor in a dual role opposite a de-aged clone of himself?

It grossed $174 million against a $138 million budget and Paramount lost an estimated $111 million.

Lee has won the top prize at both Berlin and the Lido twice. How many Academy Awards has he personally won?

Two for Best Director plus Best Foreign Language Film for Crouching Tiger, from nine nominations.

Which honour did Lee receive from the British Academy in 2020?

He was also made a Knight of the French Legion of Honour in 2021.

In November 2022 Lee announced a biopic of which martial-arts icon, to star his son Mason?

His long-planned Thrilla in Manila film about Ali and Frazier was still on hold at the time of the announcement.

Lee served as president of the jury at the Lido's film festival in which year?

He sat on the Cannes main competition jury in 2013.

After his 2006 Best Director Oscar, Taiwan's government awarded Lee which honour, its second-highest civilian award?

It came with Grand Cordon.

Lee's 1984 NYU thesis film, which won the Wasserman Award for direction and was broadcast on PBS, was called what?

Shades of the Lake, a 16mm short from 1982, had earlier won a Taiwanese short-film award.