IN SIGHT/DVDs: Taboo tales, early endeavors and a difficult, if genius, architect
10/27/2006
BY PHILIP BRASOR, CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Last December, everyone was talking about Ang Lee's "Brokeback Mountain," the "gay western" that was going to break the taboo on serious homosexual themes in mainstream movies. The fact that it eventually made money seemed to support the claim, and then it lost the Best Picture Oscar to "Crash," a lesser movie in every way but one whose theme of liberal guilt was more palatable to Hollywood.
It's easier to appreciate Lee's accomplishment without the media distraction. "Brokeback" is a quiet movie in which strong emotions are hidden under the surface.
Ennis Del Mar (Heath Ledger) and Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal) take jobs watching sheep in Wyoming. It's a boy's life in the mountains--camping out under the stars, shooting deer. The slow pace adds to the tension, and when Ennis and Jack fall into each other's arms it feels inevitable.
But the real point of the movie is that their love withstands the test of time, and in that regard, Lee proves he was the best person for the job. People who complain that "Brokeback" is too slow prefer their love stories to be uncomplicated. I'd like to think that Lee won the Best Director Oscar for his ability to express the ineffable with such clarity.
"Brokeback" wasn't Lee's first experience with homosexual characters. His second feature, "Hsi Yen" (The Wedding Banquet, 1993) is about a Taiwanese man named Wai-Tung (Winston Chao) who lives in New York with his lover Simon (Mitchell Lichtenstein). His traditional parents back in Taiwan don't know he's gay. When they start talking about an arranged marriage, Wai-Tung offers to wed a female acquaintance from Shanghai who needs a green card, and the parents fly over for the wedding.
Conceived as a farce, "Wedding" could use more screwball comedy of the Preston Sturges variety. The anarchic banquet itself is brilliantly staged, but the bulk of the movie is a little too sweet. Given Lee's own emigre status, the movie is obviously a work of personal empathy, and its most winning aspect is its affection for all the characters, regardless of their shortcomings.
Whatever its own shortcomings, "The Wedding Banquet" is superior to Lee's first feature, "Tui Shou" (Pushing Hands, 1992). Again, the plot deals with an Asian man living in the United States with his American mate--this time a woman--and his father, a tai chi master from Beijing, who comes to live with them.
The movie describes the culture clash between the Chinese father and the American daughter-in-law in the broadest terms. It's a typical first effort, earnest and sentimental, but the patience and humanity that characterize Lee's later work are already evident.
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http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200610270117.html
