I’m just a pretty regular dad.
If it was a choice between making movies and doing nothing, he’d probably still wish me to make movies, So he made me keep going.
I like to go back to Chinese film-making from time to time. I don’t think I can make Chinese films back to back; it’s such a big effort. I’d have to take a very long break.
Making movies is a way of understanding myself and the world.
I just did a dramatic love story. Whether it’s a cultural phenomenon is not for me to say.
With 3D you’re right there immersed in the world.
Many times when you make a movie, it feels like your biggest mistake. But even if a film isn’t a hit, you shouldn’t view it as a mistake.
I’m not a romantic. In life I didn’t have much experience with romance.
My cultural roots are something illusive.
If there’s something that can be formulated, regulated, give you security, then nobody would lose money. Every movie would be successful. And that’s certainly not the case.
My father’s family were liquidated during the Cultural Revolution in China because they were landowners. He was the only one to escape. I was born and brought up in Taiwan. But you absorb the trauma. My parents had no sense of security.
American films are less American every day, because you have to please a world audience. There’s less authenticity, so it’s more accessible.
If the movie is quiet I generally feel the audience is busy. That’s when they’re working.
Sexuality is a big issue, but there are others – how much you commit to a relationship, to social obligation, to honesty and being honest with yourself.
I’m a drifter and an outsider. There’s not one single environment I can totally belong to.
There’s only one movie in my career I’ve had regrets with cutting it shorter, and I think some scenes maybe I shouldn’t have cut.
My first instinct was to cast as close to the short story as possible, but then I realized that I needed actors who could go for it and that they had to function well as a couple in a love story.
There’s a certain time in the core of making a movie from pre-production to halfway through post-production I don’t read any project, my agent will tell people that “he’s not reading.” And then when I know how the movie’s probably gonna work halfway into post-production, I’ll come along.
3D is quite a lot more advanced in animated movies; for live-action movies we’re just taking baby steps, we’re just in the beginning.
After making several tragic movies in a row, I was looking to do a comedy, and one without cynicism.