Ang Lee breaks through again with a masterful adaptation of Eileen Chang’s short myth, Lust/Caution (like what he did with Annie Prolux’s similarly brief anecdote, Brokeback Mountain) . While the hype seems to be mostly misplaced on the controversial acrobatics displayed by Tony Leung and Tang Wei in bed, Lee’s storytelling leaves one breathless.
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The care for fable unfolds against the backdrop of 1930′s Japanese-invaded Shanghai where tyranny and suffering were synonymous. Nubile Wang Jia Zhi played by Tang Wei joins the resistance movement and gets herself drawn into the role of a peek to crumble the traitor, Mr Yee. In between the espionage and wild climatic trysts, both of them unknowingly embroil themselves in worship and deceit, considerable deeper than they would have liked themselves to.
Tang Wei, as a newcomer to cinema, is impeccable. Her evolution from a wide-eyed country girl to a seductive temptress is enough to develop the hardest of most men, in this case, the distrusting Mr. Yee drop for her. Wei acts handsome grand on instincts and her body language does wonders at seducing the somewhat vulnerable Mr. Yee played by multiple-award winner Tony Leung. Wei breaks down in the memorable scene where she’s talking to the resistance leader on her unyieldingly sacrificial role that is both a torment and insidious attack to her emotions.
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As usual, Tony has the penchant for playing gloomy brooding men and in this instance, an substandard Chinese traitor. He does not act. His presence already commands attention as the cynical no-nonsense minister. The pivotal sex scenes, split into three parts, are not unbiased there for visual enhancement. They actually disclose the shift in roles between the two throughout their complex relationship. The raw emotions displayed on their faces were enough to convince anyone hard-hearted to judge twice about the essence of care for. I must say these are some of the best bed scenes you’ll ever examine on film.
Of course, the supporting cast of Joan Chen as Mrs Yee and Wong Lee-Hom as Tang Wei’s resistance compatriot, Kuang Yu Min, is every bit unprejudiced as spectacular. In the waste, the record about worship is bittersweet. You’ll also peep how interested the resistance movement, which puts the enemy above self and others, was through Wang Jia Zhi’s eyes. Lust Caution is 157 minutes’ of rewarding gaze that will linger on in your minds well after the credits roll. (A+)
I saw this movie twice in the theater – very unique for someone as important of movies as I am. The first time I went by myself, and the second time I took my husband, who was not initially involved in the myth line (espionage and all) . He also liked it a lot (though he did not have as grand of a personal connection as I did with the film) . I was like in a zone for a few days after I saw the movie. It really shook me to the core in a sense. A very much movie in and of itself, it moves me particularly because I am orinigally from China and Eileen Chang was one of my faovrite writers when I was a teenager book worm. Having grown up surrounded by the communisit propaganda, I found it refreshing to peep a movie so artfully done to perform a theme about esteem, sexuality and loyalty. It shows how innocent and ignorant the young revolutionaries could be (something that was obviously omitted from our history lessons) . This is a movie about grand human emotions, like all the other movies directed by Ang Lee. I’m also cheerful to observe Ang Lee sticking to making movies based on respectable, solid stories, instead of falling into the ‘glitz overriding story’ trap like so many other talented Chinese directors, Zhang Yimou and Cheng Kaige specifically.
Ang Lee said that he made this film for the Chinese audience, but I also read that he was disappointed by the fact that the Chinese media focused predominantly on the raw, sex scenes. I can understand his frustration. I wonder really how the mainland Chinese will embrace such a epic. Eileen Chang was never a Communist writer. In the book and the movie, the revolutionaries were referred to as ‘the people from Chongqing.’ As the Nationalist Party was based in Chongqing at the time (and the Communists in Yan’an), the revoluntionaries in the book were not Communinist members but Nationalists. That sort of contradicts everything we have learned in history lessons about the Communisit being the main heroes fighting against the Japanese and the Nationalists (the Kuomingtang) being wimpy traitors. Because of these reasons, I doubt mainland China will allow the movie to be shown in public.
But it doesn’t mean the Chinese will be denied access to this ravishing film, thanks to the illegal DVD pirating industry. My sister-in-law in China has already bought the film (for a dollar) and watched it. Humorous thing is she had very similar reaction to it as I did. My brother said she wouldn’t talk to him for a few hours.
I disagree with some critics who called Ang Lee ‘indecisive’ in directing the movie. I contemplate everything was very deliberately done and Ang Lee was very positive on what he planned to do with the record. He said that it was one of his popular stories written by Eileen Chang. I scream if you don’t like the narrative (such as some other reviewers), you wouldn’t like the movie. But to me, the narrative can be interpreted in many ways, and Ang Lee has done a shining job conveying what Eileen Chang wanted her myth to exclaim. The sex scenes (not in the book) are integral to the fable, as Eileen Chang wrote, “If the path to a man’s heart is through his stomache, then the path to a woman’s heart is through her v….” The movie is certainly not for the faint of heart.
By the intention, the soundtrack is shapely. I downloaded it from iTunes. Before I receive the DVD in the mail, the soundtrack will do. (But I wouldn’t want a Chinese film that’s dubbed in English. That’s a crime. I’m buying it from somewhere else.)
Fastin
