Ang Lee, Taiwanese to the Core: "Lust Caution" and the Golden Horse Awards
Monday December 10, by Jerome F. Keating Ph.D.
This past weekend the 44th Golden Horse Awards were held at the Taipei Arena and Ang Lee's film "Lust Caution" won in eight categories including best director and best film.
If you hear film critics describe Ang Lee as a Chinese director, you know they are either in the pay of Beijing or totally ignorant of affairs in this part of the world. Ang Lee always specifies that he is and always will be a Taiwanese director. An extremely versatile director Lee also stresses how the "liberty and culture embedded in us" (i.e. he and other Taiwanese artists)is what gives them a distinct identity.
I recommend the film which captures well the flavor of Hong Kong and Shanghai during World War II and how naivete linked with blind patriotism and emotional need can be exploited and bring deadly results when it meets reality.