Ang Lee said he never intended his gay romance
Brokeback Mountain
to be a political statement about homosexuals, amid speculation that the movie was overlooked for the Oscar best picture because of its subject matter.
Brokeback won best director for Lee making him the first Asian winner of the prize as well as best musical score and best adapted screenplay at the Oscars ceremony over the weekend, but missed out on Best Picture, despite racking up other top film awards ahead of the Oscars.
BrokebackMountain won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, four Golden Globes and four British Academy Film Awards, including best picture.
The upset prompted speculation that the Oscars voting body, the US Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, wasn't prepared to hand its top prize to a movie about gays.
But Lee said he never approached Brokeback as a social commentary.
"For me, Brokeback isn't rebellious at all. It's a very ordinary movie. People call it groundbreaking or what not. It puts a lot of pressure on me. But I didn't feel this way when I was making the movie. This is the way gays are. It's just that they have been distorted. When two people are in love and are scared, that's the way they are," he said at a press conference held in Los Angeles.
Brokeback has received mixed responses in Asia.
{{/usCountry}}Brokeback has received mixed responses in Asia.
{{/usCountry}}Lee said earlier he believes that Asians are more tolerant of gay subject matter than Americans.