---
name: "Ang Lee"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/ang-lee"
fi1m_id: "ang-lee"
imdb_id: "nm0000487"
tmdb_id: 1614
wikidata_id: "Q160726"
roles: ["Director","Producer","Writer"]
born: "23 October 1954"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 9
average_fi1m_score: 82
average_as: "director"
average_over: 9
updated: "2026-10-05T03:00:13.400088+00:00"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Ang Lee

## Identity

Ang Lee

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/ang-lee
- **Type:** Person
- **Fi1m ID:** ang-lee
- **IMDb ID:** nm0000487
- **TMDB ID:** 1614
- **Wikidata ID:** Q160726
- **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ang_Lee, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q160726, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000487/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/1614

Director and producer. Born 23 October 1954 in 臺灣屏東縣潮州鎮.

## Details

- **Work:** Director, Producer, Writer
- **Born:** 23 October 1954, 臺灣屏東縣潮州鎮
- **Active:** 1993–2012
- **Also known as:** آنگ لی, An Li, Энг Ли, 이안, アン・リー, อังลี
- **Frequently works with:** [James Schamus](https://film.one/person/james-schamus.md), [Sihung Lung](https://film.one/person/lung-sihung.md), [Wang Hui-ling](https://film.one/person/wang-huiling.md), [Hsu Li Kong](https://film.one/person/hsu-li-kong.md), [Ted Hope](https://film.one/person/ted-hope.md), [William Kong](https://film.one/person/bill-kong.md)
- **Academy Awards:** 2 Oscars (2 won · 3 nominated)
- **Average Fi1m score:** 82, as director, over 9 titles
- **Fi1m score by decade:** 1990s 83 (4), 2000s 82 (4), 2010s 78 (1)
- **Fi1m against the critics:** 82 to 77 across 9 titles
- **Score spread:** 6 at 80+, 3 at 60–79, 0 under 60
- **Genres:** Drama 9, Romance 6, Action 3, Adventure 3, Comedy 2, Fantasy 1
- **Screen time:** 19 hours of reviewed films
- **Box office:** $1,512m across 9 films with figures
- **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ang_Lee, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q160726, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000487/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/1614

## Streaming the US now

- **Tubi:** [*Eat Drink Man Woman*](https://film.one/film/eat-drink-man-woman.md) (82), [*The Wedding Banquet*](https://film.one/film/the-wedding-banquet.md) (81)
- **Amazon Prime Video:** [*Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon*](https://film.one/film/crouching-tiger-hidden-dragon.md) (90)
- **HBO Max:** [*Life of Pi*](https://film.one/film/life-of-pi.md) (78)

For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country.

## Fi1m on Ang Lee

> Ang Lee makes the pressure to keep other people happy painfully easy to understand. We rate his patient attention to concealed feelings highly, though his broader comedy can try our patience.

In *The Wedding Banquet* (1993), an awkward look can do more than a prolonged joke. A gay Taiwanese property agent in New York arranges a marriage of convenience, and Lee watches the effort of keeping everyone satisfied. He lets us understand the deception before he starts finding comedy in it. We were moved by those uneasy exchanges because the younger people's fear of disappointing their parents carries such affection. This is Lee at his most persuasive: funny, attentive and unwilling to make anyone merely ridiculous.

That concern with family expectations runs through the early films, from *Pushing Hands* (1991) to *Eat Drink Man Woman* (1994), with *The Wedding Banquet* between them. The screenplay for the latter, written with James Schamus and Neil Peng, makes the marriage serve two practical purposes: pleasing the parents and securing the tenant a green card. Neither obligation is treated as a trivial excuse for farce. Lee can then make trouble without pretending that anyone involved is particularly foolish.

The move to English-language filmmaking with *Sense and Sensibility* (1995) puts his attention to unspoken feelings to work in period drama. *Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon* (2000) takes him into larger-scale genre filmmaking without losing the emotional focus. In *Brokeback Mountain* (2005), directing actors to convey inner conflict through restraint remains a particular strength. These changes of setting make sense for a director interested in the limits that families and cultures place on what people can admit.

His later interest in technology becomes prominent in the visual effects-driven *Life of Pi* (2012), followed by the experiments of *Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk* (2016) and *Gemini Man* (2019). There is curiosity here that we would not wish him to lose. But *Gemini Man* is also a warning that technical ambition can leave the drama struggling to hold our attention.

Our reservation about *The Wedding Banquet* is smaller and more revealing. Lee keeps some of the broader farce going after the characters' awkwardness has already made the point, and cultural misunderstanding sometimes makes them too predictable. The quieter exchanges are sufficiently funny and affecting that the extra insistence feels unnecessary. Start there, with the caveat that the wedding reception goes on longer than it needs to.

## Biography

Ang Lee is a Taiwanese film director, screenwriter and producer. He was born on 23 October 1954 in Pingtung County, Taiwan. He studied at the National Taiwan University of Arts, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and New York University.

Lee gained recognition in Taiwan with the 'Father Knows Best' trilogy of films exploring family and cultural themes: *Pushing Hands* (1991), *The Wedding Banquet* (1993) and *Eat Drink Man Woman* (1994). His first English-language feature was *Sense and Sensibility* (1995). Subsequent films include *The Ice Storm* (1997), *Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon* (2000), *Brokeback Mountain* (2005), *Lust, Caution* (2007) and *Life of Pi* (2012). He has received Academy Awards for best director for *Brokeback Mountain* and *Life of Pi*.

*Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com, britannica.com.*

## On Fi1m (9)

- *Life of Pi* (2012), Fi1m 78, Director, Producer — [page](https://film.one/film/life-of-pi.md)
- *Lust, Caution* (2007), Fi1m 76, Director, Producer — [page](https://film.one/film/lust-caution.md)
- *Brokeback Mountain* (2005), Fi1m 92, Director — [page](https://film.one/film/brokeback-mountain.md)
- *Hulk* (2003), Fi1m 72, as Hulk (voice) (uncredited) — [page](https://film.one/film/hulk.md)
- *Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon* (2000), Fi1m 90, Producer, Director — [page](https://film.one/film/crouching-tiger-hidden-dragon.md)
- *The Ice Storm* (1997), Fi1m 85, Producer, Director — [page](https://film.one/film/the-ice-storm.md)
- *Sense and Sensibility* (1995), Fi1m 85, Director — [page](https://film.one/film/sense-and-sensibility.md)
- *Eat Drink Man Woman* (1994), Fi1m 82, Director, Screenplay — [page](https://film.one/film/eat-drink-man-woman.md)
- *The Wedding Banquet* (1993), Fi1m 81, as Guest at the Wedding Banquet (uncredited) — [page](https://film.one/film/the-wedding-banquet.md)

## Complete filmography (27)

Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page.

- *76 Days Adrift* (2025), Executive Producer
- *The Wedding Banquet* (2025), Original Film Writer
- *Gemini Man* (2019), Director
- *Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk* (2016), Producer, Director
- *Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: A Retrospective* (2016), Actor
- *Life of Pi* (2012), Director, Producer — Fi1m 78, [page](https://film.one/film/life-of-pi.md)
- *Taking Woodstock* (2009), Director, Producer
- *Lust, Caution* (2007), Producer, Director — Fi1m 76, [page](https://film.one/film/lust-caution.md)
- *Brokeback Mountain* (2005), Director — Fi1m 92, [page](https://film.one/film/brokeback-mountain.md)
- *Hulk* (2003), as Hulk (voice) (uncredited) · Director — Fi1m 72, [page](https://film.one/film/hulk.md)
- *Tortilla Soup* (2001), Original Film Writer
- *The Hire* (2001), series, Director
- *Chosen* (2001), Director
- *Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon* (2000), Producer, Director — Fi1m 90, [page](https://film.one/film/crouching-tiger-hidden-dragon.md)
- *Ride with the Devil* (1999), Director
- *The Ice Storm* (1997), Director, Producer — Fi1m 85, [page](https://film.one/film/the-ice-storm.md)
- *Sense and Sensibility* (1995), Director — Fi1m 85, [page](https://film.one/film/sense-and-sensibility.md)
- *Siao Yu* (1995), Writer, Producer
- *Eat Drink Man Woman* (1994), Director, Screenplay — Fi1m 82, [page](https://film.one/film/eat-drink-man-woman.md)
- *The Wedding Banquet* (1993), as Guest at the Wedding Banquet (uncredited) · Director, Producer, Writer — Fi1m 81, [page](https://film.one/film/the-wedding-banquet.md)
- *Pushing Hands* (1991), Director, Writer, Editor, Executive Producer
- *Of East and West* (1989), Actor
- *Fine Line* (1984), Director, Writer, Editor
- *Joe's Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads* (1983), Assistant Camera
- *I Wish I Was by That Dim Lake* (1982), Director
- *Gold Mountain*, Director, Producer
- *Untitled Bruce Lee Biopic*, Director, Producer

## Gallery

- ![Ang Lee](https://film.one/media/person/83365/gallery-92a0cef0f756.jpg) Ang Lee — nicolas genin, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/44/Ang_Lee_-_66%C3%A8me_Festival_de_Venise_%28Mostra%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled)
- ![Caption: SMPTE President, Robert Seidel; Ang Lee; SMPTE Executive Director, Barbara Lange, and conference chair Rich Welsh at the 2016 NAB Show's The Future of ](https://film.one/media/person/83365/gallery-985a8dccae53.jpg) Caption: SMPTE President, Robert Seidel; Ang Lee; SMPTE Executive Director, Barbara Lange, and conference chair Rich Welsh at the 2016 NAB Show's The Future of  — The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers from White Plains, NY, USA, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e2/2016_NAB_Show%27s_The_Future_of_Cinema_Conference%2C_produced_in_partnership_with_SMPTE_%2826717112630%29_%28cropped%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled)
- ![Caption: Doug Trumbull, Ang Lee, and Julia Trumbull at the 2016 NAB Show's The Future of Cinema Conference, produced in partnership with SMPTE Photo Credit: Rob](https://film.one/media/person/83365/gallery-79276006aa76.jpg) Caption: Doug Trumbull, Ang Lee, and Julia Trumbull at the 2016 NAB Show's The Future of Cinema Conference, produced in partnership with SMPTE Photo Credit: Rob — The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers from White Plains, NY, USA, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/64/2016_NAB_Show%27s_The_Future_of_Cinema_Conference%2C_produced_in_partnership_with_SMPTE_%2826990953205%29_%28cropped%29.jpg/1280px-2016_NAB_Show%27s_The_Future_of_Cinema_Conference%2C_produced_in_partnership_with_SMPTE_%2826990953205%29_%28cropped%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Ang Lee](https://film.one/media/person/83365/gallery-8df3f84952a3.jpg) Ang Lee — Image via TMDB
- ![Ang Lee](https://film.one/media/person/83365/gallery-3e36c1e7d39d.jpg) Ang Lee — Image via TMDB
- ![Ang Lee](https://film.one/media/person/83365/gallery-cacd6aef9981.jpg) Ang Lee — Image via TMDB
- ![Ang Lee](https://film.one/media/person/83365/gallery-89c617c1b153.jpg) Ang Lee — Image via TMDB
- ![Ang Lee](https://film.one/media/person/83365/gallery-e863267b183a.jpg) Ang Lee — Image via TMDB

## Awards

### Academy Awards — 2 won, 3 nominated

- 2013: Best Director (won), for *Life of Pi*
- 2013: Best Picture (nominated), for *Life of Pi*
- 2006: Best Director (won), for *Brokeback Mountain*
- 2001: Best Director (nominated), for *Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon*
- 2001: Best Picture (nominated), for *Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon*

### BAFTA Film Awards — 3 won

- 2006: Best Direction (won), for *Brokeback Mountain*
- 2001: Best Direction (won), for *Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon*
- 2001: Best Film Not in the English Language (won), for *Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon*

### Golden Globes — 1 won, 1 nominated

- 2012: Best Motion Picture – Drama (nominated), for *Life of Pi*
- 2005: Best Director (won), for *Brokeback Mountain*

### Venice Film Festival — 1 won

- 2007: Golden Lion (won), for *Lust, Caution*

### Berlin International Film Festival — 2 won

- 1996: Golden Bear (won), for *Sense and Sensibility*
- 1993: Golden Bear (won), for *The Wedding Banquet*

### Other awards — 7 won, 2 nominated

- Asia's Most Influential Taiwan 2021: Asia's Most Influential Taiwan (won)
- Knight of the Legion of Honour 2021: Knight of the Legion of Honour (won)
- Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres 2012: Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres (won)
- Golden Horse Award for Best Director 2007: Golden Horse Award for Best Director (won), for *Lust, Caution*
- Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association Award for Best Director 2005: Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association Award for Best Director (won), for *Brokeback Mountain*
- European Film Award for Best Non-European Film 2005: European Film Award for Best Non-European Film (nominated), for *Brokeback Mountain*
- Hugo Awards 2001: Best Dramatic Presentation (won), for *Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon*
- European Film Award for Best Non-European Film 2000: European Film Award for Best Non-European Film (nominated), for *Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon*
- Golden Horse Award for Best Director 1993: Golden Horse Award for Best Director (won), for *The Wedding Banquet*

*From Wikidata, which records wins more completely than nominations.*

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/ang-lee