Ang Lee (b. 1954) has emerged as one of cinema’s most versatile, critically acclaimed, and popular directors. Known for his ability to transcend cultural and stylistic boundaries, Lee has built a diverse oeuvre that includes films about culture clashes and globalization (Eat Drink Man Woman, 1994, and The Wedding Banquet, 1993), a period drama (Sense and Sensibility, 1995), a martial arts epic (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, 2000), a comic book action movie (Hulk, 2003), and an American western (Brokeback Mountain, 2005). The Philosophy of Ang Lee draws from both Eastern and Western philosophical traditions to examine the director’s works. The first section focuses on Taoist, Confucian, and Buddhist themes in his Chinese-language films, and the second examines Western philosophies in his English-language films; but the volume ultimately explores how Lee negotiates all of these traditions, strategically selecting from each in order to creatively address key issues. With interest in this filmmaker and his work increasing around the release of his 3-D magical adventure The Life of Pi (2012), The Philosophy of Ang Lee serves as a timely investigation of the groundbreaking auteur and the many complex philosophical themes that he explores through the medium of motion pictures.
Table of Content
Conquering the Self: Daoism, Confucianism, and the Price of Freedom in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
What Do You Know of My Heart? The Role of Sense and Sensibility in Ang Lee’s Sense and Sensibility and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
The Confucian Cowboy Aesthetic
East Meets Western: The Eastern Philosophy of Ang Lee’s Brokeback Mountain
Landscape and Gender in Ang Lee’s Sense and Sensibility and Brokeback Mountain
Can’t Get No Satisfaction: Desires, Rituals, and the Search for Harmony in Eat Drink Man Woman
Paternalism, Aristotle, and Ang Lee: Does Father Really Know Best?
Lust, Caution: A Case for Perception, Unimpeded
The Power to Go Beyond God’s Boundaries? Hulk, Human Nature, and Some Eithical Concerns Thereof
Displacement, Deception, and Disorder: Ang Lee’s Discourses of Identity
Subverting Heroic Violence: Ang Lee’s Taking Woodstock and Hulk as Anti-War Narratives
Homo Migrans: De-sexualizing Ang Lee’s Taking Woodstock
Because of the Molecules: The Ice Storm and the Philosophy of Love and Recognition
It’s Existential: Negative Space and Nothingness in The Ice Storm
The Ice Storm: What is Impending?
All’s Fair in Love and War? Machiavelli and Ang Lee’s Ride With the Devil
About the author
Adam Barkman is associate professor of philosophy at Redeemer University College and is cross-appointed at Yonsei University in South Korea. He is the author of C. S. Lewis and Philosophy as a Way of Life and coeditor of Manga and Philosophy.More ebooks from the same author(s) / Editor
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