By David Li, bostonese.com
Boston, Oct. 21, 2013, — Later this week, Ang Lee, Oscar winning director of Life of Pi, Brokeback Mountain and Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, will visit Boston and appear in a few local events. Local fans of Ang Lee have reserved many of these events weeks ahead, and the best chance you have to meet director Ang Lee maybe the Oct. 26 event at Wellesley College.
The Wedding Banquet, a 1993 Ang Lee movie.
In the evening of Oct. 24, at the opening ceremony of 2013 Boston Asian American Film Festival (BAAFF), Ang Lee will be on hand to introduce his Oscar and Golden Globe nominated film The Wedding Banquet. A screening of this 1993 classic Ang Lee film will be part of the opening ceremony. Tickets to this event at Brattle Theatre have been sold out. The 2013 BAAFF runs from Oct. 24 to 27, and is a production of the Asian American Resource Workshop. Please check baaff.org for the festive film lineup, including introductions of Wedding Banquet and Linsanity.
“The Wedding Banquet stands the test of time, and is still a touching must-see film that speaks to the experience of many gay Asian Americans in both a sincere and comedic way,” says Susan Chinsen, BAAFF Director, “I can’t think of a better honor for our 5th anniversary, than to have Ang Lee here with us to celebrate this milestone here in Massachusetts, the first state to uphold equal marriage rights.”
Lust Caution, the 2007 movie was adopted from Eileen Chang’s 1979 novel with the same title.
On Friday, Oct. 25, Ang Lee will attend The Art of Transnational Cinema: A Conversation with Ang Lee and James Schamus event at Harvard from 2:00 PM to 5:00. According to Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies’ website, Eileen Cheng-yin Chow (Duke University) will engage director Ang Lee as well as producer and screenwriter James Schamus in a conversation that will also open up to a public Q&A. The event has been fully reserved.
In the evening of Oct. 25, Ang Lee will attend the screening of Lust Caution at Harvard Film Achieve. The novel Lust Caution was written by Chinese writer Eileen Chang, and was first published in 1979. The movie features Asian movie stars Tony Leung Chiu-Wai, Tang Wei, Joan Chen and Chinese American actor/singer Leehom Wang. In her email to me last week, Brittany Gravely of Harvard Film Archivethe wrote: “The only way to reserve tickets in advance is to become a member of the HFA, and right now, we are preparing to cut off member reservations soon.”
So, the talk by Ang Lee and James Schamus on Saturday, Oct. 26, from 10:30 AM to 12:00 PM at Wellesley College is likely to be your best bet to meet Ang Lee. According to Prof. Mingwei Song, who will host the talk at Wellesley, the Alumnae Hall is big enough, and no reservation is required.
