Oscar-winning director Ang Lee expressed his gratitude Nov. 7 for the support Taiwan offered during the production of his latest 3-D film, “Life of Pi.”
“I’m very happy to bring this movie back to Taiwan,” Lee said at a news conference in Taipei City ahead of the local premiere Nov. 21. “This is the hardest film I’ve ever shot, with water, children, animals and 3-D effects, but the most comforting thing to me was that 90 percent of the work was shot in Taiwan,” he said. This allowed “thinking outside of the Hollywood box.”
Lee pointed out that the main scene with a pool of water was taken in central Taiwan’s Taichung Shuinan Airport, which halted commercial operations in 2004, while the boat in the story was made in southern Taiwan’s Kaohsiung City. “Taiwan had everything we needed,” he said. “‘Life of Pi’ could not have been filmed anywhere but here.”
Every member of the team of 150 people from 24 countries felt the nine-month stay in Taiwan was substantial and delightful, Lee said. “I’m very proud of Taiwan, my homeland.”
Lee said he hopes that through the crew he brought to Taiwan, local moviemakers can have a chance to learn from their Hollywood counterparts, thus injecting more energy into the sector and helping Taiwan’s film industry get better and better.
Suraj Sharma, who plays Pi in the movie, said he never dreamed he would be a lead actor and thanked Lee for choosing him out of more than 3,000 who auditioned for the role. “I learned from Lee that no matter how great your achievements are, what matters most is to keep your feet on the ground.”
The film is based on Yann Martel’s fantasy adventure novel “Life of Pi,” first published in 2001. It describes how Piscine Molitor “Pi” Patel survives while stranded on a boat in the Pacific Ocean with a Bengal tiger. (THN)
Write to Grace Kuo at mlkuo@mofa.gov.tw