Ang Lee admitted that he broke every rule in
the book with Life of Pi. “There are a few classic advices in movies:
never make a movie featuring animals, kids, water or 3D…We ignored all
of them,” the Taiwanese-born American director has said at the premiere
at the New York Film Festival in Manhattan.
If you are ever shipwrecked and get into a lifeboat, desperately searching for land, it’s hard not to lose hope if you were to share your boat with a large dangerous carnivore. Ang Lee’s magnificent new film Life of Pi, adapted from Yann Martel’s Booker prize-winning novel penned under the same name, revolves around a young shipwrecked boy’s voyage in a lifeboat with a Tiger.
In the movie version Ang Lee introduces a Canadian author, not included in the book, who is told by an Indian that there is a man in Montreal called Pi who has a story which will restore his faith in God. Pi or Piscine Molitor Patel (Irrfan Khan), who survived a shipwreck, is now a philosophy teacher. He relates his incredible story of his own extraordinary experiences, beginning as the son of a zookeeper in Pondicherry, the French enclave in India that wasn’t ceded until 1954.
The movie’s two central characters both obtained their names by humorous accidents. Piscine (played by Gautam Belur at five, Ayush Tandon at 12 and Suraj Sharma at 16) was named after his uncle’s favorite swimming pool, the Piscine Molitor in Paris, but changed his name to the Greek letter and numinous number Pi after fellow schoolboys makes a joke about ‘pissing’. He later became mesmerized by a Bengal Tiger in the zoo caught by the English hunter, Richard Parker who called him Thirsty. On delivery to the zoo their names were accidentally reversed and the Tiger became Richard Parker.
Growing up, curious Pi becomes attracted to religion and the meaning of life. The boy embarks on a spiritual journey as he rejects his father’s rationalism and follows Hinduism, Christianity and Islam at the same time. His faith is tested as an adolescent when his father is forced to give up the family zoo, where Pi realizes he has been as much a captive as the animals themselves.
In
the film, Pi is too busy thinking about a girl he met at a dance class,
who is not mentioned in the book. He fails to notice the troubles his
father is facing with the zoo. This makes Pi’s travels away from his
home and in India a far more painful separation when his father decides
to move away from India and sell the animals. A Japanese ship becomes a
temporary ark on which the Patel family takes the animals to be sold in
Canada. But it’s caught in a storm above the Mariana Trench, the deepest
part of the Pacific. Pi becomes an orphan captaining a lifeboat with
only a zebra, hyena, female orangutan and the gigantic Bengal Tiger.
Finally he is stranded alone with the Tiger after the other animals die.
He confronts thirst and starvation, struggles with the fierce tiger, endures a mighty storm, comes across a squadron of flying fish, a humpbacked whale, a school of dolphins and experiences a night illuminated by luminous jellyfish. A young Chilean director of photography, Claudio Miranda has created these amazing magical visions in the movie. In the movie, Pi never really manages to tame Richard Parker. In Martel’s book, Pi uses his zoo knowledge and understanding of circus practices to train the large adult Bengal tiger. But in the movie the boy and the tiger maintain a wary distrust of one another and the Tiger doesn’t seem to let Pi truly take control over him.
Both the book and the movie express a great deal of suffering during the voyage. And both the writer and director haven’t forgotten to add merely a few moments of beauty and glory which amazes the readers and viewers, especially in the lightning storm that appears in both the book and the film. However, Ang Lee’s vision of Pi’s journey is breathtaking, which makes you feel that Pi’s journey is worth all the suffering. The story does not seem to fulfill its promise in the beginning. Though Pi survives at the end, we cannot come to a conclusion whether to believe in God or not.
The end of the story is twisted. Pi’s adventure concludes in a Mexican hospital bed where he is interviewed by a pair of Japanese officials. The agents tell Pi that his story is too unbelievable for them to report, so Pi has to come up with a different version of the story which makes darker and disturbing variation of events. After both stories have been shared, Pi leaves it up to the audience or reader to decide which version they prefer. This makes the reader and the viewer both question Pi’s first story of his adventure.
Canadian Writer Yann Martel won the Booker prize for Life of Pi in 2002. In an interview, Martel said his inspiration was to find something that would direct his life. He spoke of being lonely and needing direction in life. He has authored six more books including We Ate the Children Last (2004) and Beatrice and Virgil (2010) which were not as notable as Life of Pi.
On the other hand, Ang Lee is one of the greatest contemporary filmmakers. Lee was best known for the directions of Brokeback Mountain, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Finding Neverland and Sense and Sensibility, which proves it is no surprise why Life of Pi was able to win four Academy awards last year (Original Music Score, Best Director, Best Cinematography, Visual Effect). So far the movie has won over 12 international awards.Many film critics’ say that Ang Lee’s adaptation of Life of Pi helps the viewers to restore their faith in cinema. However, the story of this young Indian boy and the Bengal Tiger is a story which shouldn’t be missed by any animal lover, nature lover, atheist or theist.
March 31,2013
Link : http://www.nation.lk/edition/feature-eye/item/16883-a-director-who-ignored-all-taboos-regarding-filmmaking.html
If you are ever shipwrecked and get into a lifeboat, desperately searching for land, it’s hard not to lose hope if you were to share your boat with a large dangerous carnivore. Ang Lee’s magnificent new film Life of Pi, adapted from Yann Martel’s Booker prize-winning novel penned under the same name, revolves around a young shipwrecked boy’s voyage in a lifeboat with a Tiger.
In the movie version Ang Lee introduces a Canadian author, not included in the book, who is told by an Indian that there is a man in Montreal called Pi who has a story which will restore his faith in God. Pi or Piscine Molitor Patel (Irrfan Khan), who survived a shipwreck, is now a philosophy teacher. He relates his incredible story of his own extraordinary experiences, beginning as the son of a zookeeper in Pondicherry, the French enclave in India that wasn’t ceded until 1954.
The movie’s two central characters both obtained their names by humorous accidents. Piscine (played by Gautam Belur at five, Ayush Tandon at 12 and Suraj Sharma at 16) was named after his uncle’s favorite swimming pool, the Piscine Molitor in Paris, but changed his name to the Greek letter and numinous number Pi after fellow schoolboys makes a joke about ‘pissing’. He later became mesmerized by a Bengal Tiger in the zoo caught by the English hunter, Richard Parker who called him Thirsty. On delivery to the zoo their names were accidentally reversed and the Tiger became Richard Parker.
Growing up, curious Pi becomes attracted to religion and the meaning of life. The boy embarks on a spiritual journey as he rejects his father’s rationalism and follows Hinduism, Christianity and Islam at the same time. His faith is tested as an adolescent when his father is forced to give up the family zoo, where Pi realizes he has been as much a captive as the animals themselves.
In
the film, Pi is too busy thinking about a girl he met at a dance class,
who is not mentioned in the book. He fails to notice the troubles his
father is facing with the zoo. This makes Pi’s travels away from his
home and in India a far more painful separation when his father decides
to move away from India and sell the animals. A Japanese ship becomes a
temporary ark on which the Patel family takes the animals to be sold in
Canada. But it’s caught in a storm above the Mariana Trench, the deepest
part of the Pacific. Pi becomes an orphan captaining a lifeboat with
only a zebra, hyena, female orangutan and the gigantic Bengal Tiger.
Finally he is stranded alone with the Tiger after the other animals die.He confronts thirst and starvation, struggles with the fierce tiger, endures a mighty storm, comes across a squadron of flying fish, a humpbacked whale, a school of dolphins and experiences a night illuminated by luminous jellyfish. A young Chilean director of photography, Claudio Miranda has created these amazing magical visions in the movie. In the movie, Pi never really manages to tame Richard Parker. In Martel’s book, Pi uses his zoo knowledge and understanding of circus practices to train the large adult Bengal tiger. But in the movie the boy and the tiger maintain a wary distrust of one another and the Tiger doesn’t seem to let Pi truly take control over him.
Both the book and the movie express a great deal of suffering during the voyage. And both the writer and director haven’t forgotten to add merely a few moments of beauty and glory which amazes the readers and viewers, especially in the lightning storm that appears in both the book and the film. However, Ang Lee’s vision of Pi’s journey is breathtaking, which makes you feel that Pi’s journey is worth all the suffering. The story does not seem to fulfill its promise in the beginning. Though Pi survives at the end, we cannot come to a conclusion whether to believe in God or not.
The end of the story is twisted. Pi’s adventure concludes in a Mexican hospital bed where he is interviewed by a pair of Japanese officials. The agents tell Pi that his story is too unbelievable for them to report, so Pi has to come up with a different version of the story which makes darker and disturbing variation of events. After both stories have been shared, Pi leaves it up to the audience or reader to decide which version they prefer. This makes the reader and the viewer both question Pi’s first story of his adventure.
Canadian Writer Yann Martel won the Booker prize for Life of Pi in 2002. In an interview, Martel said his inspiration was to find something that would direct his life. He spoke of being lonely and needing direction in life. He has authored six more books including We Ate the Children Last (2004) and Beatrice and Virgil (2010) which were not as notable as Life of Pi.
On the other hand, Ang Lee is one of the greatest contemporary filmmakers. Lee was best known for the directions of Brokeback Mountain, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Finding Neverland and Sense and Sensibility, which proves it is no surprise why Life of Pi was able to win four Academy awards last year (Original Music Score, Best Director, Best Cinematography, Visual Effect). So far the movie has won over 12 international awards.Many film critics’ say that Ang Lee’s adaptation of Life of Pi helps the viewers to restore their faith in cinema. However, the story of this young Indian boy and the Bengal Tiger is a story which shouldn’t be missed by any animal lover, nature lover, atheist or theist.
March 31,2013
Link : http://www.nation.lk/edition/feature-eye/item/16883-a-director-who-ignored-all-taboos-regarding-filmmaking.html
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