Of dreams and the ‘Golden Age’

Recent Manila visitor Ang Lee is the first Asian to win two Oscar awards, one for Life of Pi in 2013 and the other in 2006 for Brokeback Mountain. But it was not easy for him to get into the world of filmmaking. He had to suffer countless defeats and rejections. He had to strain personal relations with his father. In a word, one could say that Lee’s passion drove his artistry in filmmaking.

Another Asian filmmaker visited the Philippines, and that was the 29-year old Singaporean-based Anthony Chen who wrote and directed ‘Iloilo.’ He based his first feature film on his childhood memories of their Filipino house helper in Singapore. Like Lee, Chen worked intensely on his screenplay for three years, and success has followed him ever since.