Ang Lee wins for Best Director, but "Brokeback" stiffed.

[Gary Soup]

Minutes ago, "Crash" upset "Brokeback Mountain" for the Best Picture Oscar (apparently after a last minute lobbying campaign). Ang Lee won the "Best Director" award nonetheless.

[need1head]

no surprise! Crash is cutting edge....we even used it as a textbook when learnig "typing" and "stereotyping".....it definitely beat a Homi Bhabha essay!!!haha..........i think Brokeback followed the "Million Dollar Baby"routine somehow,like trying to hit you at the very last minute....apparently Oscar don't buy that again this time...

[Lu]

Except that the big difference between Million Dollar Baby and Brokeback is that the latter is a good movie. It really deserved to win an Oscar :-(

[nipponman]

Just curious and slightly off topic, why do they call him ang lee, isn't his name 安李? If I was chinese, I would hate to have my name butchered all the time...

[skylee]

nipponman, take a look at this post about Ang Lee's name -> http://www.chinese-forums.com/showpost.php?p=61391&postcount=25

[WilsonFong]

Personally I thought Crash was a good movie but in no way was it the best picture of the year. What I didn't like about the movie was that it was supposed to be about overcoming stereotypical perspectives of different racial/ethnic groups, and although it does kinda succeed in doing that, I was a bit disappointed with the Asian-American (were they Chinese-American?) characters in the movie. All they had was a stereotypical bad driver and a human trafficker, and they each had about 2 lines.

[Ian_Lee]

Even though Ang Lee is straight, he can portray gay's lonely and suppressed mentality because Lee is also always an "outsider" and an "exile" who more or less harbors that same kind of mentality:

http://hk.news.yahoo.com/060306/12/1lsz1.html

____________________________

李安能成功拍出同性戀的壓抑之情，參與改編《斷背山》原著成為電影劇本的Larry McMurtry指出，相信這與李安本身雙重「流放」及「外人」身分有關。持美國綠卡的李安，曾於敘述其電影生涯的《十年一覺電影夢》中披露，「在現實的世界裏，我一輩子都是外人。在台灣我是外省人，在美國是外國人，回大陸做台胞，其中有身不由己，也有自我的選擇，命中注定，我這輩子就是做外人……反之在電影的想像世界裏，我覓得暫時的安身之地。」

____________________________

[gato]

Crash is cutting edge....we even used it as a textbook when learnig "typing" and "stereotyping".....it definitely beat a Homi Bhabha essay!!!haha..........i think Brokeback followed the "Million Dollar Baby"routine somehow,like trying to hit you at the very last minute....apparently Oscar don't buy that again this time...

Speaking of "Million Dollar Baby," Paul Haggis, the director of "Crash," wrote the script for "Million Dollar Baby." So I'm not sure your theory of a MDB backlash works. More likely that the mostly LA voters in the Academy liked the story about LA

[gato]

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/07/movies/redcarpet/07osca.html?8dpc

Los Angeles Retains Custody of Oscar

By DAVID CARR

Published: March 7, 2006

" 'Crash' was far more representative of the our industry, of where we work and live," said David Cohen, one among hundreds of Hollywood players joining in the festivities. " 'Brokeback' took on a fairly sacred Hollywood icon, the cowboy, and I don't think the older members of the academy wanted to see the image of the American cowboy diminished."

Just as many critics were put off by the tidy interweaving of parables in "Crash" that managed to wind themselves into a neat little bow at the end of the movie, others found the pacing of "Brokeback," moved along by the pluck of a guitar, to be taxing, and its stunning visuals were lost to many members who watched it on television sets, however large.

"This is a very broad-based professional organization," said Peter Guber, chairman of Mandalay Pictures. "When it came down to the craft of filmmaking, I think the academy decided that Ang Lee deserved the director award, but in terms of the themes of the film, they were much more interested in 'Crash.' The membership is older and more conservative than some of those other groups, and I think it was reflected in the choice that they made."

John Calley, the former Sony Pictures chairman who is now a producer, discounted notions that either provincialism or homophobia played a role in the outcome.

"Nobody likes to think of themselves as being from Los Angeles," Mr. Calley said. "I don't know anybody that wants to be buried here. I think it was less about that or any problem with 'Brokeback' than in the end, it comes down to a subconscious shuffling of the pecking order and you just go with the film that was most affecting to you personally."

[need1head]

No, Wilson,they are Korean-Americans...see you fell into the stereotype taking for granted they are Chinese-Americans too....but who doesn't?....i didn't realize he's not Chinese when watching the movie until the Korean wife rushed into the hospital room.....remember the black man who've stolen the truck drove the refugees to Chinatown at last...the story followed these stereotypes in order to display them to us.....to show how it affect our social identification and functioning .....the director was just being a narrator .....i dont think he meant to deconstruct anything .....remember the robbery happened at the very beginning of the movie?that was a typical racist stereotyping and self-typing...and the white cop character,..that shows sometimes a strongly-claimed stereotype can force people to fit in their own behavior-pattern.even against their will..it can be harmful and really dangerous..but after all we cannot live without stereotyping and the annoying naming system... .this world has been structured in a way we are so familiar with....it's too late to abandon it now....btw i think thinking a yellowface in a Hollywood production must be Chinese is definitely a stereotype ....and media is helping to build it

[need1head]

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/click/author-3462/reviews.php?rid=1464931&cats=1&switches=fresh&sortby=add_date&page=

well, this review speaks for me:

This year's MILLION DOLLAR BABY, Ang Lee's BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN is a similarly plainspoken, straightforward little masterpiece of heartbreak and regret. It's a sparse, unfussy love story that epitomizes the best aspects of conventional, old-fashioned Hollywood moviemaking, and then takes a tragic turn into something even deeper and more meaningful.

and he quoted Eric Cartman!!!!!!!

[need1head]

i was talking about the" tragic turn into something even deeper and more meaningful. "

actually i think Ang Lee has done this" little tragic turn "trick already some 10years ago in Sense and Sensibility...remember the final shot when Willoughby staring his true love marrying into Brandon ? that scene let show the intricate side of Willoughby that Jane Austen never revealed.

[gato]

http://theenvelope.latimes.com/awards/oscars/env-turan5mar05,0,5359042.story

Breaking no ground

Why 'Crash' won, why 'Brokeback' lost and how the academy chose to play it safe.

By Kenneth Turan, Times Staff Writer

March 5, 2006

[nipponman]

nipponman, take a look at this post about Ang Lee's name -> [url']http://www.chinese-forums.com/showpo...1&postcount=25[/url]

Ah, thanks sky, I guess I was wrong.

[Ferno]

No, Wilson,they are Korean-Americans...see you fell into the stereotype taking for granted they are Chinese-Americans too....but who doesn't?....i didn't realize he's not Chinese when watching the movie until the Korean wife rushed into the hospital room.....remember the black man who've stolen the truck drove the refugees to Chinatown at last...the story followed these stereotypes in order to display them to us.....to show how it affect our social identification and functioning .....the director was just being a narrator .....i dont think he meant to deconstruct anything .....remember the robbery happened at the very beginning of the movie?that was a typical racist stereotyping and self-typing...and the white cop character,..that shows sometimes a strongly-claimed stereotype can force people to fit in their own behavior-pattern.even against their will..it can be harmful and really dangerous..but after all we cannot live without stereotyping and the annoying naming system... .this world has been structured in a way we are so familiar with....it's too late to abandon it now....btw i think thinking a yellowface in a Hollywood production must be Chinese is definitely a stereotype ....and media is helping to build it

what are you talking about anyway??

oh and I didn't understand the scene when the Korean guy was in the hospital - what did he want his wife to do at the end?

[Ferno]

nipponman, take a look at this post about Ang Lee's name -> [url']http://www.chinese-forums.com/showpo...1&postcount=25[/url]

I see he doesn't want to be mistaken as a "Lean" but if he's keeping the origional word order "an lee" or "an li", where is the problem?

[gato]

"An" is pronounced as "Ann." See the problem?

Could this be a reason for Ang Lee's fascination with gay themes? Hmm....

[WilsonFong]

No, Wilson,they are Korean-Americans...see you fell into the stereotype taking for granted they are Chinese-Americans too....but who doesn't?....i didn't realize he's not Chinese when watching the movie until the Korean wife rushed into the hospital room.....remember the black man who've stolen the truck drove the refugees to Chinatown at last...the story followed these stereotypes in order to display them to us.....to show how it affect our social identification and functioning .....the director was just being a narrator .....i dont think he meant to deconstruct anything .....remember the robbery happened at the very beginning of the movie?that was a typical racist stereotyping and self-typing...and the white cop character,..that shows sometimes a strongly-claimed stereotype can force people to fit in their own behavior-pattern.even against their will..it can be harmful and really dangerous..but after all we cannot live without stereotyping and the annoying naming system... .this world has been structured in a way we are so familiar with....it's too late to abandon it now....btw i think thinking a yellowface in a Hollywood production must be Chinese is definitely a stereotype ....and media is helping to build it

.......................................................yes:-?

[Ian_Lee]

Here is how Korean media perceive Ang Lee:

http://chinese.chosun.com/big5/site/data/html_dir/2006/03/08/20060308000013.html

It ranked Lee on par with William Wyler and Stanley Kubrick.

It also said that Lee is the only director in the world cinema that can direct different varieties of movie themes.

[Lu]

see you fell into the stereotype taking for granted they are Chinese-Americans too....but who doesn't?

BUT the vast majority of Asians (that you meet abroad) is Chinese, so the assumption is not entirely unreasonable.