Asia Society presents Water and Oil: The Movies of Ang Lee; a complete retrospective from February 14-23 with select appearances by the filmmaker and collaborators.
Pushing Hands
Ang Lee, USA, 1991, DCP, 105 min.
Digital Restoration.
Ang Lee’s first feature film was written during a six-year period of creative gestation while his microbiologist wife Jane Lin worked to support the family. It was submitted to a Taiwanese script competition along with The Wedding Banquet (which would become Lee’s second film)— where the scripts won first and second place. It heralded not only the beginning of Lee’s career, but also his life/career-long collaboration with co-writer/producer James Schamus, who along with Ted Hope produced the film under their storied 90s independent label Good Machine Productions.
Sihung Lung plays Mr. Chu, an elderly Chinese tai-chi master who’s just moved to suburban New York to live with his son Alex, Alex’s fiancé Martha, and their young son Jeremy. While Alex is usually away at work, Martha is a writer and works at home. She and Alex's father immediately butt heads, initiating a screwy domestic battle over cultural and generational differences. Pushing Hands is the first in Ang Lee’s self-dubbed “Father Knows Best” trilogy, a loosely-associated grouping which includes The Wedding Banquet and Eat Drink Man Woman.
Water and Oil: Pushing Hands
Host
John H.
Asia Society
Sat, Feb 15, 11:00 AM - 01:00 PM (EDT)
To be shared on approval (New York)
40 attendees
Asia Society presents Water and Oil: The Movies of Ang Lee; a complete retrospective from February 14-23 with select appearances by the filmmaker and collaborators.
Pushing Hands
Ang Lee, USA, 1991, DCP, 105 min.
Digital Restoration.
Ang Lee’s first feature film was written during a six-year period of creative gestation while his microbiologist wife Jane Lin worked to support the family. It was submitted to a Taiwanese script competition along with The Wedding Banquet (which would become Lee’s second film)— where the scripts won first and second place. It heralded not only the beginning of Lee’s career, but also his life/career-long collaboration with co-writer/producer James Schamus, who along with Ted Hope produced the film under their storied 90s independent label Good Machine Productions.
Sihung Lung plays Mr. Chu, an elderly Chinese tai-chi master who’s just moved to suburban New York to live with his son Alex, Alex’s fiancé Martha, and their young son Jeremy. While Alex is usually away at work, Martha is a writer and works at home. She and Alex's father immediately butt heads, initiating a screwy domestic battle over cultural and generational differences. Pushing Hands is the first in Ang Lee’s self-dubbed “Father Knows Best” trilogy, a loosely-associated grouping which includes The Wedding Banquet and Eat Drink Man Woman.