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Summary Taiwanese director hopes Taiwan's film industry will benefit from working with his Hollywood crew.
I hope the Hollywood experience can take root and blossom here,” Lee said at a ceremony in Taipei prior to a special screening of his new film Life of Pi, which was mostly shot in Taiwan.Noting that 3,000 people, many of them Taiwanese, were involved in the making of the film, Lee said he is very proud of Taiwan, which has everything.This is the most difficult film I have ever made, said the director of the award-winning Brokeback Mountain and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.Life of Pi, which took four years to make, is a 3D epic fantasy adapted from Yann Martels bestseller of the same name. It tells the story of how a young man survives a shipwreck, develops a rivalry friendship at sea with the other survivor, a Bengal tiger, and is ultimately reborn from the experience.Over 70 percent of the film was shot in Taichung, central Taiwan, and in Kaohsiung and Pingtung in the south.The lead actor Suraj Sharma, 19, who is in Taiwan with Lee to promote the film, said he was very grateful that the film crew believed in him. He introduced himself in Mandarin, adding with a smile that he is a little bit Taiwanese now.Sharma said he hopes the film will inspire people who may find themselves in similar situations as the main character in the movie.The Indian actor, who made his debut in “Life of Pi,” was described by Lee as an acting genius.Calling Sharma a little Buddha, Lee said with a smile, I am his guru.
