1 The Space of Ang Lee s Pushing Hands By Christopher Heron for The Seventh Art Pushing Hands is the first film from Taiwanese filmmaker Ang Lee, though it exhibits several themes that would recur throughout his varied filmography, including the figure of the outsider and the cultural and communal function of food. The film s story modestly concerns a Taiwanese grandfather and t ai chi master, Chu, living with his son (Alex), American daughter- in- law (Martha), and grandson (Jeremy) in New York. The somewhat antagonistic relationship between Martha and Chu is central to the story, exhibiting the tensions that exist between two individuals completely rooted in separate cultures living in relatively close quarters, while Alex and his son move more freely between the two. Lee explores this tension through a series of visual motifs that pertain to space and bodies existing in that space: fluid camera movement, doorways and interior frames, sunlight and moonlight, and the movement and interaction of hands. The repetition and variation of these techniques and symbols follow the detachment between two cultures, the xenophobic hostility that occurs initially, and finally the ultimate harmony achieved through open- minded cultural communication. The opening scene of the film elegantly introduces the central characters and their conflict, and also emphasizes the importance of space to the story and the film. The importance of t ai chi to Chu is established, as is the conflict it creates for Martha s writing process. However, t ai chi is visually coded as a freeing, exhilarating experience through fluid, dramatic camera movements that are paired only with this act in the film. The cross- cutting between this and Martha trying to write exhibits the difference in culture, which is
2 further confirmed by the use of these fluid camera movements in two other instances where Chu is situated in the Chinese cultural institution. This is not to say that this freedom exists only in Chinese culture, but rather when the environment around Chu and its inhabitants consent to this use of space. When Chu elects to move out of Martha and Alex s house and take a job in the kitchen of a Chinese restaurant, there are no similar movements. It is instead present only in the hopes of or by- product of harmony with one s surroundings. Indeed, even in one of the positive instances at the cultural centre, there is a moment where Chu jeopardizes his use of the space through not appreciating the effect he has on others use of the space. When Chu is engaging in t ai chi, the space surrounding him is always visually established it requires that space. In this instance, wide shots are shown repeatedly as two students challenge the master, conveying a sense of tension with the knowledge that a group of women are sitting in the periphery. The concept of pushing hands refers to how the energy of the challenger is used against him or her in when trying to unbalance the master. This scene comically builds towards the inevitable outcome of the larger individual being pushed the farthest and into the ladies. The lack of space at Martha and Alex s home is similarly a problem and Martha s complaint of a lack of space becomes a refrain. Yet space is also a metaphor for a cultural distance, which is best conveyed in the blocking of the dinner sequence. Space is collapsed in many of the shots of this potentially happy domestic gathering, but the reality of the distance between characters is always reiterated. Following this scene, Alex pointedly acknowledges that the problem is not simply Chu, as may be believed due to Martha s role as the main character and audience avatar, but that neither Martha nor Chu will learn the other s language.
3 The difference between the two individuals and the impasse in their sharing in each other s cultures is most clearly conveyed through the use of interior frames, most significantly doorways. In these instances, the doorway signifies the threshold that exists between one space and another, which is not passed by either party. These are significantly used to establish the competition for space between Chu and Martha and the knowledge of one another s presence adjacent to the other. Chu s calligraphy is significantly set beside various opening passages, a reminder of his integration into Martha s space that extends to her son Jeremy s drawing on the fridge. Chu is forced to smoke outside, but irritatingly keeps the door open, framing him both apart and always within the world of Martha, who reads silently in the right of the frame. When Alex has his crisis in the bathroom, the fragmentation of the space through the doorway speaks to the fragmentation that is occurring within the family, manifest in the neutral Alex s breakdown. Finally, the doorways align into a single frame when Alex laments Chu s departure, recognizing the possibility for these detached spaces to form a pathway, something not realized visually prior to this point. Meanwhile, another interior frame grants access to the two diverging interests of Chu and Martha. The computer is a locus for the artistry of Martha, while the television acts as a portal to Chu s culture, including its popular genres and set pieces. Martha s argument is that the sound of the television affects her work, while her writing does not affect Chu, yet it is Chu s presence that ultimately helps solve Martha s writer s block. Martha reveals her new story idea, inspired by Chu, while also cooking in his style, indicating the
4 productivity that comes from crossing these thresholds, rather than remaining totally segregated. Before this revelation is understood, however, the desire to pursue answers outside persists: Martha s desire for Chu to leave, Martha s desire to find a bigger house, and eventually Chu s own desire to leave are all answers considered at different points in the film. This outside space is coded through light coming in through the windows, usually through blinds that mark the faces of the characters. The motif extends from the persistent light shining annoyingly on a mentally blocked Martha to shining on Chu as he imagines another time and place while singing along to the Opera, and again when Alex asks Chu to leave. Similarly, the source of this outside light is cut to at two significant moments: the moon first, when Chu goes outside to watch his family through the window, followed by the sun rising when Alex realizes Chu has left. Eventually this metaphor is extended to a different type of freedom when Chu is relegated to a solitary, windowless apartment, and again when he s in jail, where there is but a sliver of light coming from outside. The absence of light reframes its function as a metaphor, now coded as a loss of what existed before. With Alex and Martha s move to the new house and the acknowledged space for Chu, there is a significant amount of windows, one of which dominates the depiction of Chu s future room. The exterior space has gone from being a utopia that they had wished for in the hopes of moving Chu elsewhere; then to marking the absence of flexibility and joy, associated with the family and t ai chi; to the ideal domestic environment, where Chu is able to see his family and co- exist in a larger space that includes t ai chi the external coexisting with the internal.
5 The locus for cultural communication and harmony is further expressed through the motif of hands, which are seen in the context of symbolizing separate cultures, initially misunderstood collaboration to successful interaction. This trajectory somewhat matches how the camera movements and interior frames are deployed, as each pertain to the importance of space to the story and themes of the film, though it is the most privileged example due to the importance of the concept of pushing hands for t ai chi and the film. The idea is only explained at the culmination of the film, where its function as a technique that allows for either spiritual discord or harmony is understood as a metaphor that relates to the events of the film. Chu s hands are depicted generously throughout the film, as he makes food, engages in t ai chi, writes in calligraphy. Notably, there are no close- up shots of hands when Chu is working in the Chinese restaurant, revealing even less harmony than in Alex and Martha s home. The explanation of pushing hands is itself an example of cultural communication, as the metaphor has been present for the entire film, but might have been lost on Western audiences without the concluding elucidation. Similarly, though Chu is a master of t ai chi, he must learn that antagonistic outside forces are not simply due to his new environment, but also stem from how he engages with his surroundings. For instance, the Chinese restaurant was problematic and though he stood his ground, it resulted in a trip to the prison. The pushing hands conceit extols situations where the two forces are engaging positively it s t ai chi for two that is in harmony when neither side is actively trying to unbalance the other. Chu s use of it to avoid other people to expect that they want to unbalance him is something Alex recognizes as a problem and is something Alex and
6 Martha seem to understand as a means to keep their marriage balanced at the end of the film. The outsider figure is central to many of Lee s films and in his first we can see the beginning of this preoccupation, which is matched by several concurrent visual motifs that speak to the possibility of synthesis that can exist between two cultures that share a space without either losing their spiritual force.