The Cinema of Ang Lee: The Other Side of the Screen (Directors' Cuts) [Hardcover]

Whitney Crothers Dilley (Author)

Book Description

Series: Directors' Cuts | Publication Date: August 24, 2007

Born in Taiwan, Ang Lee is one of cinema's most versatile directors whose ability to traverse cultural, national, and sexual boundaries has gained him worldwide recognition. His astonishingly diverse résumé shows him tackling culture clashes and globalization ( Eat Drink Man Woman, 1993), period drama ( Sense and Sensibility, 1995), blockbusters ( Hulk, 2003), and gay romance ( Brokeback Mountain, 2005). In this book, the first full-length study of Ang Lee's work, Whitney Crothers Dilley uses suggestive readings of gender and identity to uncover the enormous international appeal of this acclaimed contemporary director.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"An excellent and incisive overview of the career of one of contemporary cinema's most fascinating and acclaimed figures. As passionate as it is erudite, this is a welcome volume for both film students and those with an interest in the director's work." -- Ian Haydn Smith, editor of The Cinema of China and South East Asia

"The first major study of a director who deserves much more attention ... Essential reading for any scholar of either contemporary Chinese or American film." -- Chris Berry, Goldsmiths College, University of London --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

About the Author

Whitney Crothers Dilley is assistant professor of English at Shih Hsin University in Taipei, Taiwan. She is the editor of Feminism/Femininity in Chinese Literature, and has contributed to The Tamkang Review and The Free China Review.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Wallflower Press (August 24, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1905674090
• ISBN-13: 978-1905674091
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.7 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,723,484 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ang Lee Explained, September 7, 2007

By 

Jane Bowling (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Cinema of Ang Lee: The Other Side of the Screen (Directors' Cuts) (Paperback)

This is must reading for film buffs.

This book is no less than a terrific synopsis of Ang Lee's life and filmmaking motivations plus a thorough review of the common themes that surprisingly link Lee's amazingly diverse films.

Whitney Crothers Dilley's much-anticipated book provides the first in-depth look at one of the most heralded creative film directors still active today. A true auteur, Ang Lee has taken on the challenge of almost all the classic film genres and done them all marvelously.


From his early Taiwanese-themed social comedies through his Chinese/American and American and even British mainstream films to The Hulk (his only commercial failure) to the colossal last two released films, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Brokeback Mountain, no film director has ever generated an oeuvre of such range.


With a new Ang Lee film in yet a new genre coming out later this year (this time a film noir set in 1940's Shanghai), The cinema of Ang Lee ... the other side of the screen is the perfect read for all the relevant background on this astonishing director before seeing it.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Inside Ang Lee's World, November 4, 2007

By 

Kevin Healam (Spokane, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Cinema of Ang Lee: The Other Side of the Screen (Directors' Cuts) (Paperback)

This scholarly treatise of director Ang Lee by Whitney Crothers Dilley is a thoroughly engaging, in-depth study of this iconic and enigmatic filmmaker. Logically organised and richly researched, The Cinema of Ang Lee shows great insight on the many influences which impacted Mr. Lee's directorial vision: born in Taiwan, to parents who escaped Mainland China following the 1949 Civil War, his cultural identity further diluted when he came to the U.S. at age 23 in his yearning to break free of parental control to pursue his artistic and cinematic dreams.

Ms. Crothers Dilley astutely shows us that Ang Lee's directorial range cannot be confined to a single culture or genre, and while films such as Eat Drink Man Woman, Sense and Sensibility, The Ice Storm, and Hulk appear to be thematically disparate, common threads course throughout his filmography. Globalisation / cultural identity, family ritual, intergenerational conflict, dialogue-free visual metaphors, cultural codes of behavior, and above all the inherent diaspora brought to bear stemming from his personal history bring a unique perspective to each of his films.

Serious students of film as well as casual fans of Ang Lee's body of work will love this book. Take the time to go on a wonderful journey as each film is dissected in order to find, in Ang Lee's words, "'The Juice', the thing that moves people, the thing that is untranslatable by words".

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Must Read for Ang Lee fans, September 7, 2007

By 

D. Gelin (NC, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Cinema of Ang Lee: The Other Side of the Screen (Directors' Cuts) (Paperback)

This book is an extraordinarily thorough and well-written account of Ang Lee's career. Anybody interested in the director's work would be fascinated to read it. I highly recommend it.