Houston Community News >> Taiwanese Yang Dies at 59
7/1/2007 HONG KONG - Edward
Yang, who won best director in 2000 at the Cannes Film Festival and was known
for his realistic portrayals of modern Taiwan, has died of complications from
colon cancer, a film industry consultant said Sunday. He was 59.
Yang, an American citizen, died at his home in Beverly Hills, Calif. on Friday,
Norman Wang told The Associated Press. Wang said Yang's family asked him to
release the information to the media.
Yang had been battling colon cancer for seven years but kept his illness
private, Wang said.
Born in Shanghai in 1947, his family moved from mainland China to Taiwan amid
civil war waged by the communists following the retreat by the ruling
Nationalists, according to his biography in the book "Speaking in Images:
Interviews with Contemporary Chinese Filmmakers."
The multitalented Yang took a convoluted path to filmmaking.
Pursuing what was considered a prestigious career in Taiwan, he studied
engineering on the island, received a master's degree at the University of
Florida and worked as a computer engineer before becoming a filmmaker.
"On my 30th birthday, I suddenly said to myself, 'Damn, I'm getting old!' I
realized that I had to change my life. I needed to start doing something that I
could enjoy and through which I could feel fulfilled," he once said in an
interview.
Yang favored stories set in the Taiwanese capital, Taipei. Among his works are
"A Brighter Summer Day," a 1991 film set in 1950s Taipei about Elvis-worshipping
teenage boys who get involved with gangsters.
The film was viewed as a major incubator of Taiwanese movie talent and an
important documentation of the island's history under authoritarian Nationalist
rule. One character is shown being questioned by Taiwanese police in the middle
of the night, common treatment at the time for locals suspected of communist
sympathies.
Among the many first-time movie professionals who worked on "A Brighter Summer
Day" was Taiwanese actor Chang Chen who went on to star in "Crouching Tiger,
Hidden Dragon," the Ang Lee kung fu hit.
"He was my inspirational teacher in performance and one of the directors I
respect the most," Chang was quoted as saying on Sunday by the Chinese news Web
site Sina.com.
Yang won best director at Cannes in 2000 for "Yi Yi (A One and a Two)," about a
Taiwanese family that copes with the serious illness of their elderly mother.
He is survived by his wife, concert pianist Kaili Peng, his 6-year-old son Sean,
a younger sister and a brother.
(Contributed by AP)