Lee hailed as ‘pride of Taiwan’ after 2nd Gold Lion

The government said Lee was the “pride” of Taiwan and decided to offer him and the film company NT$300,000 each in grants from a fund designed to help the island’s movie industry.

“We feel very proud of him... because this award shows Taiwan is able impress the world, not only with its economic achievements and democracy, but also with its artistic achievement,” said government spokesman Shieh Jhy-wey.

Upon receiving the Golden Lion in Venice, Lee said he was accepting the award in the shadow of two late great directors, Michelangelo Antonioni and Ingmar Bergman. He said he would dedicate his victory particularly to Bergman, who died this year.

The winning movie, called “Se, Ji” in Chinese, is a tense drama set in Japanese-occupied Shanghai in the 1940s, and based on a novel by Chinese-born female writer Chang Ai-ling, written decades ago.

It centers on a group of revolutionary students bent on killing a powerful political figure who collaborates with the occupying Japanese forces during the Sino-Japanese war, and features Tony Leung, one of Asia’s biggest screen stars, playing the villain.

In the movie, new actress Tang Wei plays a resistance spy who slowly lets her target — a powerful political figure played by Leung — take over her heart.

The spy thriller also features long and sometimes violent sex scenes that Lee has hinted were uncomfortable to shoot.

Shieh said the film would be entered in the foreign-language category at next year’s Oscars.

He also offered his congratulations to Taiwan’s new-generation director, Lin Jing-jie, who won the Best Film prize offered by the International Week of Film Critics at the same film festival Saturday for his feature film, “Most Distant Course.”

Lee, a second-generation immigrant to Taiwan from China’s Jiangxi Province, completed his study in filmmaking at the National Taiwan University of Arts before pursuing advanced studies in New York.

He won both the Golden Lion and an Oscar for his ground-breaking 2005 gay cowboy movie “Brokeback Mountain.”

His credits also include Oscar-nominated “The Wedding Banquet,” Oscar winner “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” “Sense and Sensibility,” “Pushing Hand,” and Hollywood action flick “Hulk.”

Lee, 47, was splashed on the front page of major Taiwan newspapers, calling him “the glory of Taiwan” after he won his second Golden Lion.

Legislator Kao-Chin Su-mei, an aboriginal Taiwanese actress, offered her congratulations to Lee, who also directed “The Wedding Banquet,” in which the retired actress played a major role. The lawmaker said she heard the news while she was visiting with indigenous constituents in deep mountain areas.

She said the government should recognize the fact that Taiwan can still cultivate outstanding achievers in the arts and sport, such as Lee and Ho Hsiao-shien, another film director, as well as New York Yankees baseball pitcher Wang Chien-ming.

But the government’s support has been too meager, she said, suggesting the government cut overseas aid and divert more resources to people on the island, including art and sports talents, as well as the large number of people still struggling for their daily livelihood.

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