The Philosophy of Ang Lee

Displacement, Deception, and Disorder: Ang Lee’s Discourse of Identity

177 dIsPlaCeMent, deCePtIon, and dIsorder Ang Lee’s Discourse of Identity Timothy M. Dale and Joseph J. Foy Authentically Being Oneself Ang Lee is a director known for adapting complex and sophisticated narratives into traditional film genres. Through a distinct filmmaking style, Lee’s movies simultaneously take advantage of the tools available in each genre while also challenging, expanding, and transcending the genres themselves. This chapter examines three of Lee’s notable contributions to genre films, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000, martial arts), Hulk (2003, superhero– action), and Brokeback Mountain (2005, western), arguing that Lee transcends the genres in part by presenting a consistent philosophy of identity across the films.1 Specifically, through these movies a philosophy of identity emerges that is skeptical of the social implications of authentic identity. In each film, the primary characters hide significant parts of their identities, which leads them to a dislocation from society, and, when exposed, their identities produce disorder and tragedy. Lee’s heroes are limited by context, the social and political world unable to incorporate their distinct ways of being. His depiction of identity is a pessimistic one, suggesting that authentic identity is ultimately irreconcilable in the social and political world. In Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Lee’s warrior character, Yu Shu Lien, gives familiar advice to Jen, another young female warrior, when she recommends , “Whatever path you take in life, be true to yourself.” This advice echoes a common ethical refrain that personal integrity is an essential element of happiness and fulfillment. Being true to ourselves implies that acting in accordance with our true nature is the best way to interact with others 178 Timothy M. Dale and Joseph J. Foy and represent ourselves in the world. It also means that there is an authentic identity at the core of every human being, and that our obligation is to discover this identity and act according to its precepts. Being true to ourselves also requires trust that others will respect our authenticity. There is a great deal of dissonance, however, between this understanding of individual identity and the realities of the social world. Moral norms exist that tell us which identities are acceptable and which are not, and revealing identities that are unacceptable in a society can lead to tragic consequences.2 Authentically being oneself, then, is more complicated in practice than merely expressing the essence of one’s identity to an accepting social world. The social world can be a hostile place for authenticity, and being oneself is usually a negotiation between self-understanding and the external pressures of social expectations. Who Am I? I Am the Invincible Sword Goddess In terms of Western philosophy, identity typically refers to the essence of the self that subsists over time and experiences the world. The modern notion of identity is rooted in an individualistic conception of the self and is captured by Descartes’ observation, “I think, therefore I am.” Here, the individual experience of reason is asserted as the core of identity. The condition of authenticity pushes a notion of identity even further to suggest that there is substance to the self that is a way of being all its own, and implies that the self exists in a binary where it must choose either to be authentic (what it is) or inauthentic (what it is not). This notion of choice at the center of the experience of identity is noted by Søren Kierkegaard (1813–1855), who believed that the individual subject always chooses for itself what it wants to be and how it interprets the world. The most important choices for the subject , according to Kierkegaard, are acts of faith (religious belief or romantic love) that connect the individual to the world. Authenticity in this view is thus a consequence of choice and results in a kind of relationship between the self and the world.3 Martin Heidegger (1889–1976) is another philosopher who offers a detailed depiction of authentic identity. In Being and Time(1927), Heidegger refers to the human being as dasein, the being with experience of itself that is located at a finite point in time. In contrast with Kierkegaard, Heidegger’s dasein has an identity that is an articulation in the present of a connection betweenourhistoryandwherewechoosetoprojectourselves intothefuture. Displacement, Deception, and Disorder 179 An authentic existence is one in which identity chooses things for itself, free from the determination of external forces. For Heidegger, however...