50 free Ang Lee trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Ang Lee trivia quiz covers the director who went from six years as a stay-at-home father in New York to two Best Director Oscars. The easy questions are the ones any film fan knows: where he was born, which Jane Austen adaptation was his first English-language film, which wuxia epic won Best Foreign Language Film, which two cowboys he put on Brokeback Mountain and what the tiger in Life of Pi is called. From there it moves into the Father Knows Best trilogy with Sihung Lung, the Golden Bears in Berlin and Golden Lions in Venice, and the Oscar night when Crash beat Brokeback. The hard end covers the details: the screenplay competition that launched him, the flight attendant he cast in The Wedding Banquet, the master chef who doubled for Sihung Lung's hands, the NC-17 rating and the Taiwan disqualification for Lust, Caution, the wave tank at a disused Taichung airport, Rhythm & Hues, the 120-frames-per-second experiments and the two flops that followed. There are also questions on The Ice Storm, Ride with the Devil, Hulk and Taking Woodstock. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on Ang Lee and his films, and each question links to the page that establishes it. Fifty questions, free, with an explanation after every answer.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Ang 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?
Hualien
He was born in Pingtung County in 1954 to a family that had come from mainland China in 1949.
Q 02Which Ingmar Bergman film was a formative experience for the young Ang Lee?
The Virgin Spring
He had failed Taiwan's university entrance exam twice before entering the National Arts School.
Q 03Lee earned his BFA in theatre in 1980 at which American institution?
Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
He wanted to act but his English held him back, so he turned to directing; he met his wife Jane Lin there.
Q 04At NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, Lee worked on the thesis film of which classmate?
Spike Lee
The film was Joe's Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads.
Q 05After graduating from NYU in 1985, how did Lee spend the six years before his first feature?
As a stay-at-home father supported by his wife
Jane Lin, a microbiologist, supported the family while he wrote screenplays.
Q 06Lee's break came in 1990 when two of his screenplays finished first and second in a competition run by which body?
Taiwan's Government Information Office
The scripts were Pushing Hands and The Wedding Banquet; producer Hsu Li-kong took notice.
Q 07Lee's 1991 feature debut, Pushing Hands, is about a Chinese master of which discipline living in New York?
Tai chi
It earned three Golden Horse Awards; the title refers to a two-person tai chi training routine.
Q 08Which Taiwanese actor plays the father in all three films of Lee's Father Knows Best trilogy?
Sihung Lung
The three films show the Confucian family at risk, caught between tradition and modernity.
Q 09The Wedding Banquet (1993) won which top prize at the Berlin International Film Festival?
The Golden Bear
It was also nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar and Golden Globe.
Q 10Winston Chao, the debut star of The Wedding Banquet, was doing what job when Ang Lee met him?
Working as a flight attendant
Chao played a gay Taiwanese immigrant who marries a mainland woman to placate his parents.
Q 11On a budget of about $1m, The Wedding Banquet earned what distinction in 1993?
Most profitable film of the year by ratio of return
Its return ratio even beat that of Jurassic Park, the year's overall top grosser.
Q 12Eat Drink Man Woman (1994) opens with a widowed chef preparing an elaborate meal for his three daughters on which day of the week?
Sunday
The opening sequence took over a week to film with a real master chef doubling for the actor's hands.
Q 13Eat Drink Man Woman inspired which 2001 Mexican-American remake?
Tortilla Soup
Q 21Crouching Tiger is based on a novel by which author, the fourth of his Crane-Iron series?
Wang Dulu
It was serialised in 1941-42.
Q 22How many Academy Award nominations did Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon receive?
Ten
A record for a non-English film at the time, later tied by Roma and broken by Emilia Pérez; it won four.
Q 23Crouching Tiger grossed how much in the United States, making it the highest-grossing foreign-produced film in American history?
$128m
Its Best Foreign Language Film Oscar was presented to Taiwan, though it was a co-production across four regions.
Joyful Reunion and a stage musical also drew on it.
Q 14Lee's first English-language film, Sense and Sensibility (1995), was written by and starred which actress?
Emma Thompson
She spent five years drafting the screenplay and won the Adapted Screenplay Oscar for it.
Q 15How many Academy Award nominations did Sense and Sensibility receive?
Seven
It also took the Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture - Drama and Lee's second Golden Bear.
Q 16The star and screenwriter of Sense and Sensibility said Lee was taken aback when the actors did what?
Asked questions or made suggestions
She said such behaviour was uncommon in Chinese culture; once bridged, she found his notes "so brutal and funny".
Q 17The Ice Storm (1997) is set over which holiday weekend in 1973?
Thanksgiving
Two Connecticut families experiment with adultery and substances; the notorious "key party" swaps partners by drawing car keys.
Q 18Who wrote the novel The Ice Storm was based on and, separately, which frequent Lee collaborator adapted it?
Rick Moody; James Schamus
Schamus won Best Screenplay at Cannes for it.
Q 19Ride with the Devil (1999), Lee's Civil War western, follows pro-Confederate guerrillas known as what?
Bushwhackers
It was a box office bomb; the singer Jewel made her acting debut in it.
Q 20Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon revolves around the theft of which fabled 400-year-old sword?
The Green Destiny
Li Mu Bai asks Yu Shu Lien to deliver it to Sir Te in Beijing, and it is promptly stolen.
Q 24Which three stars headlined Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon?
Chow Yun-fat, Michelle Yeoh and Zhang Ziyi
Lee assembled a team from the US, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaysia and mainland China to fulfil a childhood dream of making a wuxia film.
Q 25Who played Bruce Banner in Lee's 2003 film Hulk?
Eric Bana
It grossed over $245 million despite mixed reviews; Lee considered retiring afterwards until his father urged him on.
Q 26Brokeback Mountain was adapted from a 1997 short story by which author?
Annie Proulx
Screenwriter Diana Ossana found the story days after publication and adapted it with McMurtry.
Q 27Which two actors played Ennis Del Mar and Jack Twist in Brokeback Mountain?
Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal
Anne Hathaway and Michelle Williams played their wives.
Q 28Brokeback Mountain is set in Wyoming but was filmed mostly in which Canadian province?
Alberta
Filming began in 2004, a year after the casting was announced.
Q 29Brokeback Mountain lost Best Picture at the 2006 Oscars to which film, in a famous upset?
Crash
Lee still won Best Director, becoming the first non-white director to do so.
Q 30Who composed the Oscar-winning score for Brokeback Mountain, writing it before filming began?
Gustavo Santaolalla
He based it on the story and a single conversation with the director.