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Searching for the Hidden Dragon:
An Evening With Ang Lee
A scene from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. (Photo: Chan Kam Chuen/Sony Pictures Classics)
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On December 5, 2000, one day before the West Coast premiere of Ang Lee's latest opus, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, the newly formed DGA Asian-American Committee (AAC) presented Lee's film to a full house at the Directors Guild Theatre in Los Angeles.
"This is the Asian-American Committee's inaugural event," DGA President Jack Shea told the crowd. "The Committee was formed just last March, and, judging from tonight's wonderful turnout, I think we're in for great successes."
Wenda Fong, host for the evening and one of the three Co-chairs of the AAC, explained, "DGA formed AAC in recognition of the growing presence and influence of Asians in the Entertainment Industry. It is our mission to promote and serve our members in achieving the highest possible level of success and recognition."
Michael Baker, Co-president of Sony Pictures Classic, which provided the print, congratulated the DGA on creating the AAC. "I think now is the right time," he commented, "considering Asian films are the very key to my livelihood."
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is an epic fantasy/martial arts film. It contains both jaw-dropping, Matrix-like fight sequences incorporated within the traditional intimate drama that has become one of the trademarks of a film by Ang Lee.
After the film's screening, Lee, who earned a DGA Award nomination this year for directing Crouching Tiger, shared his wisdom and experience with the audience in a filmmaker Q&A moderated by Fong.
He told war stories from the laborious five-month shoot, including the now humorous tale of how he lost his crew in the Gobi Desert. "I'm used to company moves that take two hours. But there, a company move means five or seven days!"
Lee directed both A and B units, which shot around the clock. After a 12-hour day with the A unit, Lee would forgo sleep and move on to the B unit.
Director Ang Lee (right) on the set.
(Photo: Chan Kam Chuen/Sony Pictures Classics)
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"Sometime it takes hours for one wirework," he explained. "I'd be there just before they shoot. I'd do the final tuning. I'd see most of the shots until 5 a.m. or 6 a.m., until I just couldn't take it anymore. Then, I'd leave and prepare for the 8 a.m. shoot."
One question on everyone's mind after the screening was how Lee shot those incredible fight sequences.
"The fighting is really an extension of characterization and relationship development," he said. "You don't just stop the movie and watch the fight for four minutes. I don't want that to happen. For example, the rooftop chase scene, it's about Yu Shu Lien (played by Michelle Yeoh) chancing something that symbolizes her future, her happiness. She's a pragmatic person, so she's more grounded. The other girl, Jen (played by Ziyi Zhang) is an aristocrat. She's rebelling against society and therefore flying weightlessly in a graceful, slow motion sort of fashion. They make a great match. The [physical and thematic] principle [of the scene] is about Yu Shu Lien trying to keep Jen on the ground."
Lee didn't watch any martial arts movie to inspire his fight sequences because he wanted his to be different. He prepared instead by reading fantasy martial arts novels. "I pick the paragraph I like, the description, the phrases, and try to translate that onto the screen."
In order to intensify the fight scenes, Lee decided to under-crank the camera. "Anything above the knees, we don't need to under-crank, cause they look very fast already. Sometimes we have to slow it down, especially for tighter shots. But for full body shots, I usually go to 22 fps. I didn't crank as much as 21 or 20, because it's a dramatic piece and if it starts to jitter it doesn't look good. I like 22 fps. It's slightly quicker but it's still realistic and it gives everything an ever so slight jerk, which gives it strength."
Responding to Fong's question about working with choreographer Woo-Ping Yuen, most noted from his work on The Matrix, Lee said, "This guy is pure cinematic energy. He doesn't do a lot of rehearsals. We shoot all the fight scenes in sequence. One shot may take 36 takes and maybe the 17th is the best but there's a flaw at the end, so we'll just take it from there. It's very organic. Of course the cameramen just hate that. I think it takes a Hong Kong cinematographer to cope with that kind of filmmaking and manage to still make it look good."
Host Wenda Fong with Lee.
(Photo: Robert Hale)
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When asked if he storyboards his films, Lee's answer was a short "No." Fong probed further, asking, "How do you approach your shoot, then?"
"I just go out there and say, 'Do this and that.'" This got a laugh from audience. "I do a shot list," Ang confessed. "I was dutifully doing storyboards until my second year of film school. Then, it stopped making sense to me. Why would you make a motion picture to fit a still picture? We have a saying in China, why would you cut your foot to fit the shoe? I think a good film should have a life of its own and you should respect it. You're an observer as a filmmaker. What's happening, who is there, what's the situation? I think this way, it makes the story come to life."
Lee did not storyboard even for the most elaborate or complicated shots. "I think complicated things cannot be storyboarded. It's moving. How do you storyboard that? You spend hours and hours storyboarding. You should be spending hours shooting. Sometimes, when I do a big film, I'll be required to storyboard. They'll hire me a first-rate storyboard artist, and I work with him. We produce pictures, but I never follow them on the set. You've got to deal with the real thing instead of pictures."
Lee sees his role as a director as a "seducer. People like me, who don't know everything, our job is to seduce the best out of everyone who works with us. You have to make yourself clear. I think that's half of a director's work. The other half is to stand there and look miserable. I can't yell at people so that's what I do."
On directing actors, he said, "You have to watch their strength, their weakness, both externally - how you photograph and treat them - and internally - how you direct them. I think it's a journey all the way to editing where you're still directing them."
Explaining how he gets genuine performances out of movie stars like Chow Yun-Fat, Lee said, "It's important to earn their trust. Sometimes, to get genuine performances, you have to break that trust. I'm not the kind of director who would do that throughout a film. But for a few moments I'll ask them to do something so they will not be acting."
(Back row, from left) Brian Fong, Michael Uno, Gary Shimokawa, Stephen Lim. (Front row, from left) Victor Ho, Wenda Fong, Ang Lee, Henry Chan, Lucille Ou Yang.
(Photo: Robert Hale)
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As an example, he mentioned an instance from another film and working with actor Hugh Grant, who Lee described as "very smart and [who] knows camera angles better than any of us." To get a genuine moment, Lee said he "spoke English with Chinese grammar while rolling the camera so [Grant] would respond genuinely. And that was the take."
About rehearsing, Lee said, "I wouldn't refine it like stage rehearsing, but I would get the taste and the sound of a character, like how someone would draw a gun or hold a sword. Sometimes I'll pick a certain crucial scene or a few lines. For example, Kevin Kline in The Ice Storm. He plays a father who doesn't have a clue what to do. So the whole purpose of rehearsing is to defeat his confidence. We'd pick a line like when he says to his daughter, 'Go to bed by ten. I mean it, young lady.' and analyze what he says and keep telling him it's not right, until he says the line so the girl won't go to bed by ten. Then, he finds the voice."
Music plays a major role in Crouching Tiger. The score was composed by Tan Dun who suggested renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma to Lee as someone to bridge the divide between East and West. When asked about his musical choices Lee explained, "There are certain pieces where I have very set ideas, like the drum beats for the fight scenes. And I know I want to treat the film like an opera, because after shooting it I realized the genre is closer to musicals than to action movies." In the recording process, Lee directed Yo-Yo Ma as if he were an actor. "He liked that," Lee explained. "It's no different than directing an actor, except it's music so I have to use different terminology."
Perhaps one of Lee's most insightful comments came when Fong asked what he learned making this film. Lee responded, "I began to believe that a good movie should make the audience work as hard as you do."
Wenda Fong wrapped up the Q&A by asking Lee what he liked the most about directing. His answer was, "Editing. If I compare filmmaking to cooking, shooting would be like buying the ingredients and the real cooking is on the editing table."
At the end of the evening, fellow AAC Co-chairs, Henry Chan and Victor Ho, came up to the stage and presented Lee with a director's chair with his name and a certificate of appreciation. The certificate read, "The DGA AAC recognizes Ang Lee for his high achievements and continuing efforts to elevate the stature of our community and the entertainment industry."
-Frank Lin
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