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I Basically Made The Movie From The Crew's Suggestions. For One Scene, I Wanted Some Kids' Toys Against The Wall In Mikey's Room, To Give The Scene Texture, And We Tried A Field Hockey Stick. It Looked Really Good To Me, Until Someone Had To Say That In America, Field Hockey Is More Of A Girl's Game. Gradually I Got Tuned Into The World - That Happens On Every Movie.

-Ang Lee

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I Basically Made The

Ang Lee

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I Basically Made The Movie From The Crew's Suggestions. For One Scene, I Wanted Some Kids' Toys Against The Wall In Mikey's Room, To Give The Scene Texture, And We Tried A Field Hockey Stick. It Looked Really Good To Me, Until Someone Had To Say That In America, Field Hockey Is More Of A Girl's Game. Gradually I Got Tuned Into The World - That Happens On Every Movie.

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San Francisco Is One Of My Favourite Cities In The World...i Would Probably Rank It At The Top Or Near The Top. It's Small But Photogenic And Has Layers...you Never Have Problems Finding Great Angles That People Have Never Done.

A Lot Of People Will Think I Changed The Book: ‘so You’re The Tiger Instead, You’re The Tiger Who Ate The Cook.’ That’d Be Totally Expository, Like In The Book, ‘you’re The Tiger’ And Then It Stops There. That Seems To Have The Magic Touch. I Bring Everything Together. That’s Why He Made Up The Story, The Whole Thing Becomes Internalized. That Might Be The Magic, But All I Did Is Not So Much Interpreted, But Try My Best To Keep Everybody Still Staying In The Movie. And I Was Like, ‘god, It’s So Hard To Do.’ I Make Movies For A Long Time. It Doesn't Get Easier.

I Like To Think I'm Un-categorisable.

In Taiwan, I'd Be Like Michael Jordan Walking Down The Street.

I Think For Most People, The Audience Probably Couldn't Tell The Difference, But I Know They [shots Of Visual Effects] Can Be Better. And The People Working Know They Can Be More Precise. I'm Still Doing Another Round Of Sound Mixing And Color Timing, Pretty Technical Stuff. I Think The Movie [life Of Pi] Is Really Presentable, Nothing Was Left Out That Would Take You Out Of The Movie. I Just Need To Perfect The Job And I Still Have Two Weeks To Go [to Deliver Final Cut To Fox].

Mostly It's Like, I Get Inspired By Something And I Want To Learn That Part Of Filmmaking, I Want To Delve Into That Kind Of Depth. And Leading, Also, A Lot Of People. A Lot Of People, For Two Years Of Their Life They Follow Me, And They Believe What I Believe In. So That's Some Responsibility And I'd Like To Make It Worth The Effort.

I Wanted To Shoot Straight, Mainstream, Somehow Off-beat. Not Only Realistic West, Which Is Quite Unfamiliar To The World's Population - Even To A Lot Of Americans.

I Think, If Allowed, 3d Is A New Film Language. I Can Have More Adventure Exploring A New Media, That's Very Exciting. 2d We Know Most Of It, Things Haven't Changed For Decades; It's The Same Principles, So 3d's More Exciting.

My Father's Family Were Liquidated During The Cultural Revolution In China Because They Were Landowners. He Was The Only One To Escape. I Was Born And Brought Up In Taiwan. But You Absorb The Trauma. My Parents Had No Sense Of Security.

The L.a. Weather Is A Lot Like Taiwan's, Where You Don't Observe Four Seasons, So The Years Can Pass And You Don't Feel A Thing.

I Have A Lot Of Repression. So Repression Is What I Make Movies About.

3d Is Quite A Lot More Advanced In Animated Movies; For Live-action Movies We're Just Taking Baby Steps, We're Just In The Beginning. So When I Think Of Doing That I Was Very Excited. It Didn't Go As Far As I Think It Should, I'm Still A Novice, But I Think It's Fair To Say It's A New Cinematic Medium, Experience.

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 See A Movie As A Way Of Learning About The World, About Myself, And Learning About My Relationship With People And Art.

When You Talk About God, The First Thing That Comes Along Is Not Love, It's Fear. You Have To Fear, And Be In Awe. You Have To Be Scared. Any Religion, It's Like First Thing.

To Me, Ennis Stands For The Conservative Side Of America. He's The Biggest Homophobe In The Whole Movie - Culturally And Psychologically - But By The Time He Admits His Feelings, It's Too Late.

I Feel Like All Of My Characters Now Take This Congested Situation, They Clash, And From There You Purge Yourself.

I Had To Find My Way Of Translating The Excitement You Get When You're Reading Comic Books To The Big Screen.

With 3d You're Right There Immersed In The World.

In My Culture, There's A Tradition That When You're In An Overwhelming Situation And You Don't Know What To Do, You Put Yourself In A Woman's Shoes.

Depending On The Budget [whether To Use 3d On Future Movies]. I Think I Prefer 3d To 2d Now. Also, Because Of 3d I Have To Use A Digital Camera, Which Is The Way It's Going Anyway. That Still Confuses Me, A Digital Camera Versus Film.

Making Movies Is A Way Of Understanding Myself And The World.

There's A Certain Time In The Core Of Making A Movie From Pre-production To Halfway Through Post-production I Don't Read Any Project, My Agent Will Tell People That "he's Not Reading." And Then When I Know How The Movie's Probably Gonna Work Halfway Into Post-production, I'll Come Along.

I'm Just A Pretty Regular Dad.

So Anything That's Not Absolutely Needed, We Would Cut It [footage] Out, Which Would Make Me Very Insecure; Everything Has To Work, And It's A Water Movie In 3d With A Kid, Animals. So The More I Do That, The More I'm Scared Of "what If It Doesn't Go The Way We Want It?" But We Had To Do That To Meet The Budget, Otherwise We Wouldn't Even Have A Start-date.

When Something Possesses Me, I Go Ahead And Do It.

First We Pre-visualized It [the Flying Fish Scene In 'life Of Pi'] So The Actors Could Act. It Took A Long Time To Get That To Come To Life And To Design Those Coming Out Of The Screen. We Had Great Fun With That. It Takes A Long Time, A Year Maybe.

If It Was A Choice Between Making Movies And Doing Nothing, He'd Probably Still Wish Me To Make Movies, So He Made Me Keep Going.

In The Past I've Made Movies That Were Pretty Universally Liked. You Can't Really Hate Them. You Can Discard Them, But You Can't Really Hate Them.

I Basically Made The Movie From The Crew's Suggestions. For One Scene, I Wanted Some Kids' Toys Against The Wall In Mikey's Room, To Give The Scene Texture, And We Tried A Field Hockey Stick. It Looked Really Good To Me, Until Someone Had To Say That In America, Field Hockey Is More Of A Girl's Game. Gradually I Got Tuned Into The World - That Happens On Every Movie.

I Find It Hard To Deliver Straightforward Things.

Straightforward

Basically The Movies I Make Are My Life, So I Choose How I Want To Live My Life For The Next Two Years. So That's A Decision I Have To Make. At Some Point If I Feel There Are Enough Elements - It Doesn't Even Have To Have Great Characters Or Great Stories - It's Just Elements That Can Get My Excitement And Curiosity For One Or Two Years, Then I'll Jump In And I'll Find Out What That Is. Then I Have To Do [interviews Like This] And Rationalize Why I Do This.

Meanwhile, The Ice Storm Was Still In Development, And That Was Something I Really Wanted To Do, And Frankly I Don't Think I Was Ready To Do A Big Production Like This.

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I Don't Have A Checklist. Whatever Material Excites Me, They'll Call For A Certain Genre Or Combination Of Genres. It'll Come Naturally And I'll Be Eager To Learn How That Thing Works. I Learn The Rules, And I'll Probably Break Some Of Them.

You Have To Know The Rules, Otherwise You Have No Tools To Communicate To The Audience, But To Keep It Fresh You Have To Break Some. I Don't Choose Genres As The Element, But The Material Itself Is The Element, Then I'll Decide What Genre I Need. That's Just How I Work.

I Think A Lot Of People Do Big Movies Not Because They Are Talented Artists But Because They Can Function In The Circumstances.

Over The Years Woodstock Got Glorified And Romanticised And Became The Event That Symbolised Utopia. It's The Last Page Of Our Collective Memory Of The Age Of Innocence. Then Things Turned Ugly And Would Never Be The Same Again.

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Symbolic Meaning

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When There Is A Strong Woman Character In A Story - That Always Grabs Me

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I'm Not A Romantic. In Life I Didn't Have Much Experience With Romance.

Fighting For Identity Is Something That Is Very Much In My Life.

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I Took The Name Green Destiny From - Well There Is Such A Sword Called Green Destiny. It Is Green Because You Keep Twisting It, It's An Ancient Skill, You Keep Twisting It And Knocking It And Twisting It Until It Is Very Elastic And Light.

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I Don't Think The Hulk Is A Superhero. He's The First Marvel Character Who Is A Tragic Monster. Really An Anti-hero.

I Look At American Movies, The Big Muscles, And Try To Apply That To Chinese Film-making.

I Think Great Romance Needs Great Obstacles And Textures.

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I Just Did A Dramatic Love Story. Whether It's A Cultural Phenomenon Is Not For Me To Say.

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If You Try To Act, You're Going To Look Like You're Acting. So Don't Act.

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The Thing We Call Critics Are Not Really Reviewers, They Are Not Really Critics. They Don't Have The Discipline To Write What We Would Term As Critique - It's Really Just Reviewers. They Have A Common Man Kind Of Taste. If You Watch Them Overall, They Are Not Different From The Box-office. That's My View.

You Can Get Rich Or Famous By Doing The Same Thing.

I Think The American West Really Attracts Me Because It's Romantic. The Desert, The Empty Space, The Drama.

I Have Two Sons In America, And All They Care About In Chinese Culture Is Jackie Chan And Jet Li.

Sensitivity And Money Are Like Parallel Lines. They Don't Meet.

I Think People Are Universal.

I Like To Go Back To Chinese Film-making From Time To Time. I Don't Think I Can Make Chinese Films Back To Back; It's Such A Big Effort. I'd Have To Take A Very Long Break.

Beautifully-acted And Precisely Observed, Ilo Ilo Is An Amazing Debut, Full Of Heart And Intelligence.

You Become The Movie You Are Making.

On A Chinese Film You Just Give Orders, No One Questions You. Here, You Have To Convince People, You Have To Tell Them Why You Want To Do It A Certain Way, And They Argue With You. Democracy.

Even The Favorite Reviews, The Audience Response Is The Movie Is Too Slow, Deliberately Slow. But For The Chinese Audience, The Biggest Complaint Is It Happens Too Quick. I Think The Historical Background That Build Into Our Genes Is Different. American People Has Never Been Occupied. The Deep Sadness And Sentimentality, The Cultural Background That Relates To Melodrama That We Relate To And Grow Up With, The Propaganda, I Didn't Imagine The Difference Is So Big. It's A Very Interesting Cultural Phenomenon.

These Days I'm Mostly Familiar With Two Parts Of L.a.: One Is Movie Culture, And The Other Is Asian Culture. The Westside Is Work, And The Eastside Is Chinese - Which Means My Friends.

When I See Something I Like, That's All That Counts. What They Use, How They Get There, I Never Bother Them.

American Films Are Less American Every Day, Because You Have To Please A World Audience. There's Less Authenticity, So It's More Accessible.

Kids Don't Even Read Comic Books Anymore. They've Got More Important Things To Do - Like Video Games.

As Artists, We Like Night More Than Day Sometimes.

My Father Was The Center Of The Family, And Everyone Tried To Please Him.

So I'm A One Movie At A Time Person, I Don't Develop. Normally We Do A Movie Then One Thing Leads To Another. If Something Pops Up That Catches My Attention, Then I'll Decide.

When You Go For Something Because You're Curious About It, You Get Psyched Up About The Chance Of Getting Into It. It's Like An Actor Meets A Role, And You Slip Into That Body And See What Happens, To Experience Certain Conditions, To Adopt A Certain Character. Even Shooting Is A Study Of The Character. I Think Both The Character And The Actor, And Eventually The Filmmaker - Myself - Are Finding A Way To Accept Their Environment And Being Accepted And Feel Comfortable Of Themselves.

When I Sent Those Scripts, That Was The Lowest Point Of My Life. We'd Just Had Our Second Son, And When I Went To Collect Them From Hospital, I Went To The Bank To Try And Get Some Money To Buy Some Diapers, The Screen Showed I've Got $26 Left.

Sexuality Is A Big Issue, But There Are Others - How Much You Commit To A Relationship, To Social Obligation, To Honesty And Being Honest With Yourself.

Sometimes Films Ignore Other Points Of View Because It's Simpler To Tell The Story That Way, But The More Genuine And Sympathetic You Are To Different Points Of View And Situations, The More Real The Story Is.

I'm A Drifter And An Outsider. There's Not One Single Environment I Can Totally Belong To.

I Like To Do Drama, Something About Life That Could Be Disappointing.

When I Started Out, Nobody Gave Me Scripts, So I Had To Write...

We Need Storytelling. Otherwise Life Just Goes On And On, Like The Number Pi.

I Think It[3d] Should Be Used As A New Artistic Form, Not As A Gimmick, Not To Impress You But The Existence Of An Environment That You View As A Theatrical Dramatic Experience Is - You Don't Just Have The X-y Axis, You Have The Z And That Makes A Difference. You Still Have The Framing, You Still Use Lenses, So Most Of The Cinematic Rules And Languages Still Apply But I Think It's A Different Existence.

So There Was One Point I Thought I Was Gonna Lose It, But Once I Get On Something I Have To Finish It; I Just Kept Persuading Them And They Turned Around. One Good Thing Was The International Guys Really Stood Behind This Movie, They Thought They Could Support This Film. So These Guys Step Up And That's Really Good, And Then They Turned Around.

A Movie Is Really Provocation. It's Not A Message, It's Not A Statement.

Thinking Back To Those Earlier Days, I Felt I Was Weak When I Wasn't Making Movies, And Then When I Was, I Thought I Was Weak As A Family Member.

I Try To Be A Partygoer. But At Some Point I Don't Know Why I'm Doing It And Fall Back. I've Been Using Repression, The Struggle Between Behaving As A Social Animal. You're Seeking To Be Honest With Your Free Will, Less Conflict. I Think That's An Important Subject With Me. That's Who I Am, How I Was Brought Up. I Think I Use That A Lot. I Mistrust Everything I Think. Things You Think You Can Trust, Believe In, Or Hang On To, Changes. That's The Essence Of Life.

There's A Level Of Sophistication Of Filmmaking That's Mind-boggling. Anything You Need For Your Movie, There's An Establishment That Can Make It Happen Really Fast.

What Is Really A Stretch To Me Is To Make Quick Decisions.

Quick Decisions

The Fear Factor Actually Brings The Genuineness.

Americans Are Hidden Dragons To Me.

Directing, I Get All Kinds Of Inspiration. It's Working With People. It's A Lot More Fun.

Things That Don't Have A Big Impact Seem To Be Crucial. Always When You Go Out To Make A Movie You Have Questions, "what If This Doesn't Work? What If That Doesn't Work?" You Want To Cover Yourself, You Want To Bring Back Enough [footage] So You Can Do Something.

Now I'm Kind Of Established As A Director, I Much Prefer Directing To Writing.

So It [3d] Is Something I'm Still Learning, It's Fresh, So If The Budget Allows I'll Do It Again And Just See How Far It Goes Because It's The Frontier, It's More Interesting. It's Still Expensive, The Projection System Can Be Annoying Sometimes, It's Not Really Regulated Or Perfected Yet, So It's Still Expensive. If I Do A Lower Budget I'll Just Do 2d, But If The Budget Allows I Think I'll Try 3d.

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