Taiwanese veteran cinematographer Mark Lee (李屏賓) is being spotlighted by the New York City movie theater, Metrograph, in its film show titled “Daring Motion: The Films of Mark Lee Ping-bing” from Friday last week to Sept. 29.
Best known for his collaboration with Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-hsien (侯孝賢), Lee, 70, is “one of the most formidable cinematographers” and “a genius of the long take with an uncanny ability to coax indelibly composed images out of the most unpromising low-light conditions,” the event page said.
Lee attended the Saturday screening of Millennium Mambo (千禧曼波), a 2001 Taiwanese romantic drama film directed by Hou, after which he received a standing ovation from a full house during a symposium.
Photo: CNA
After more than 20 years since the movie debuted, Lee spoke about his and Hou’s creative process at the symposium.
“Our original aim was having a young heart: a trembling, unstable heart. So, we chose camerawork in which everyone can feel instability, with tight images, a very unclear future and expectations for life changes,” he said.
Lee recalled looking forward to the digital era with Hou, even though they did not fully grasp what “digital” meant at the time.
“So, we tried to capture a sense of digitality in Millennium Mambo while anticipating that new era,” he said. “Do you think you felt that sense of digitality while watching the film?”
In the past few years after the digital era was ushered in, Lee embraced small and simple cameras and filming gadgets after initial misgivings.
“I have recently learned how to take pictures with a mobile phone,” Lee said, adding that he used to dislike doing so because it felt “too cheap and easy.”
“Just a click and several shots would be taken, and the photography process is lost, [but] now I am practicing taking one picture at a time, and I think I do quite alright,” he said.
There was no turning back after stepping into the world of cinema, he said.
“Filmmaking is a lifetime pursuit,” he said. “So, this is where I’m at, with 120 or so films at the age of 70.”
The month-long show is being sponsored by the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in New York. Eleven films by Lee as well as Let the Wind Carry Me (乘著光影旅行), a documentary featuring Lee, is to be screened, according to the Metrograph Web site.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
RSS