Yi Yi (2000) by Edward Yang
To understand Ang Lee's roots in the Taiwanese New Wave, you must see the work of his contemporary, Edward Yang. 'Yi Yi' ('A One and a Two') is a sprawling, yet deeply intimate, portrait of a middle-class family in Taipei. The film follows three generations,
each grappling with their own quiet crises of love, purpose, and connection. Like Lee's 'The Ice Storm' or 'Eat Drink Man Woman', 'Yi Yi' finds profound drama in the everyday. Yang’s patient, observational camera gives each character space to breathe, revealing the complex inner lives hidden behind their daily routines. It’s a three-hour film that feels as rich and detailed as a novel, a humanistic masterpiece that reminds us that we can never truly know the full story of another person's life.
Still Walking (2008) by Hirokazu Kore-eda
If Ang Lee is a master of repressed family emotion, Hirokazu Kore-eda is his Japanese counterpart. 'Still Walking' unfolds over 24 hours as a family gathers to commemorate the death of their eldest son, who drowned years earlier. The air is thick with unspoken resentments, gentle barbs, and the bittersweet pain of shared history. Kore-eda's genius, much like Lee's, lies in his subtlety. There are no dramatic blow-ups or tearful confessions. Instead, the film’s emotional power accumulates through small gestures: the preparation of a meal, a sideways glance, a story told for the tenth time. It perfectly captures the love and frustration that coexist in family life, making for a film that feels incredibly gentle yet emotionally devastating.
Call Me by Your Name (2017) by Luca Guadagnino
While 'Brokeback Mountain' is a story of forbidden love defined by a harsh, unforgiving landscape, 'Call Me by Your Name' explores similar themes of a transformative first love in a sun-drenched Italian summer. Director Luca Guadagnino fills the screen with a lush, tactile sensuality that echoes Lee’s own visual poetry. The film charts the romance between 17-year-old Elio and Oliver, an older academic staying with his family. The emotional core isn't just the passion, but the heartache and self-discovery that come with it. Like Lee, Guadagnino is less interested in plot twists than in the internal weather of his characters, capturing the terrifying vulnerability and exquisite pain of opening your heart to someone for the very first time.
A Brighter Summer Day (1991) by Edward Yang
For a film that matches the epic scope and historical weight of Lee’s 'Lust, Caution', look no further than Edward Yang’s four-hour magnum opus. Set in 1960s Taiwan, this film is a sweeping look at youth, identity, and violence, framed by the political tensions following the Chinese Civil War. The story follows a teenage boy who gets caught between rival street gangs, but the film is about so much more: it’s about a generation adrift, caught between American pop culture and the conservative values of their parents' displaced society. Yang's meticulous, wide-shot style creates a world that feels both immense and suffocating, perfectly mirroring the characters' search for belonging in a world they didn’t create. It's a demanding but incredibly rewarding film that showcases a filmmaker in total command of his craft.
Aftersun (2022) by Charlotte Wells
Ang Lee's films often haunt you with what's left unsaid, and Charlotte Wells' debut feature 'Aftersun' is a masterclass in this very idea. The film is a collection of fragmented memories as a woman looks back on a vacation she took with her father two decades earlier. The story is simple, but the emotional landscape is vast and mysterious. Wells captures the gaps in memory and the profound melancholy of trying to understand a parent as a complete person, separate from their role as a caregiver. Much like the simmering tensions in 'Brokeback Mountain' or 'The Ice Storm', 'Aftersun' derives its staggering power from the quiet moments, the loving gestures that barely conceal a world of adult pain. It’s a film that perfectly captures the idea that some of life's most important moments are the ones you don't fully understand until years later.
