Right on, Ang Lee!

When Ang Lee raised his hand and looked skyward as soon as he got his Best Director trophy (for Life Of Pi) at the 85th Oscars yesterday (Sunday night in the US), I found it very touching, although not surprising because from my two interviews with him (first years ago in LA for the Erik Bana starrer Hulk and then in December last year in Taipei for Life Of Pi), he impressed me as a highly spiritual person besides being down-to-earth and having no airs nor star complex.

Some people might have been surprised that Ang Lee beat favorites like Steven Spielberg (Lincoln) and Tom Hooper (Les Miserables), but I knew deep in my heart that the so-called “dark horse” had a big chance, especially after he beautifully hurdled the challenge of wrapping up Life Of Pi, based on Yann Martel’s best-seller, to the tune of $120M because the novel was dismissed as “un-filmable.” But Ang Lee made possible the impossible --- in 3D at that, a technology new to him, predating by four years James Cameron’s Avatar.  

“20^th Century Fox broached the idea to me five years ago,” Ang Lee told The STAR during that interview, with Indian student Suraj Sharma (picked from more than 3,000 who auditioned) in the titular role of Pi who survives adrift on a small boat at the Pacific Ocean with only a fearsome Bengali tiger onboard following a shipwreck. “If something looks impossible, you have to find some ways to make it possible. I used 3D even if I didn’t know what 3D was,” added Ang Lee who first won a Best Director Oscar (for Brokeback Mountain) in 2006.

And he had to have what he called a huge “new wave tank” built in Taichung, his birthplace, where most of the 10-month shoot was done. On screen, that set appeared so overwhelmingly real and frighteningly so, making you feel like Pi lost at sea (water, water everywhere but not a drop to drink, see!).

The Asian journalists and I were brought to Taichung to witness the mayor honor Ang Lee (who was with Jane Lim, his wife of almost three decades) in an afternoon event capped by the presentation of a painting of a scene from the movie which should be displayed at a museum there by now.

Earlier, we were treated to lunch at what appeared to be Taichung’s most famous and most popular restaurant which turned out to be Ang Lee and his family’s favorite. Pictures of Ang Lee with his family and friends were plastered all over the walls, evidence how revered he is.

Asked what he found interesting in that “unfilmable” novel, Ang Lee said in a low tone that sometimes sounded like a whisper, a smile forever lighting up his face, “It is a great adventure story — you know, a boy and a tiger on a small lifeboat drifting across the Pacific after a shipwreck. It’s interesting how the boy survives his own sanity and how faith carries him through the ordeal which is both symbolical and exciting. I found the book both fantastical and mind-boggling, so I was challenged to film that story. I had to rely more on illusion than on books. How you examine the illusion while you are at it and how you get out of it.”

And how did Suraj Sharma find being directed by a man perceived to be far bigger than his image?

“Yes,” admitted Suraj who planned to take up Philosophy  and a course in filmmaking in college, “I was so scared of him that on our first meeting for the audition my hands were shaking and I was feeling cold. Then, I soon discovered how humble the man is besides being an amazing director and a genius at that. He’s so simple and so down-to-earth, so very humble that he doesn’t make you feel how big he really is. And he’s very meticulous. During dinner, he would rearrange the spoons and forks when they got out of place. He pays attention to small details.”

More than a boy’s struggle to survive at sea, Life Of Pi is also about search for the self and finding meaning in life. It’s important, according to Ang Lee. Otherwise, life would be like sailing on a rudderless boat going nowhere.

When Ang Lee looked heavenward during his thank-you speech at the Oscars, I remembered what he said at the end of our interview.

“We have to find meaning in life, but I cannot tell you what that meaning is. I’m not a priest. I’m Chinese and I believe in Taoism — you know, there’s no meaning and if there’s a meaning that’s artificial, that’s temporary, that’s bias. It’s up to us to find a meaning, otherwise we go crazy. There’s God who created us but we must also create God.”

I left Taipei trying hard to decipher what Ang Lee meant by that.

To quote Yul Brynner in The King And I, “It’s a puzzlement!” Isn’t it?

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