LUST, CAUTION
Director: Ang Lee Stars: Tony Leung, Tang Wei, Joan Chen, Chu Chih-ying, Wand Lee-Hom
Reviewed by GREG KING
Ang Lee is one of those directors who can not be easily pigeonholed, as he never repeats himself. In his career he has moved effortlessly between genres, going from intimate and insightful dramas in his native Taiwan to big budget special effects driven mainstream Hollywood epics, like The Hulk (one of the few mistakes of his career). His credits include gentle comedies like The Wedding Banquet, the spectacular martial arts action film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, insightful dramas about dysfunctional families with The Ice Storm, westerns like Ride With The Devil, set during the Civil War, and his heart-wrenching, beautiful “gay cowboy” movie Brokeback Mountain. His latest film Lust, Caution marks yet another change of direction for this masterful filmmaker.
Adapted from Eileen Chang’s novella and co-written by Lee’s regular collaborator James Schamus, Lust, Caution is a provocative erotic World War II thriller set in Japanese-occupied Shanghai in 1942. It has picked up a number of major awards at international Film Festivals. But its torrid sex scenes have also caused controversy in the US, where it has been hit with the restrictive NC-17 rating, and in China, where it has been heavily censored. Despite the frankness of some of these scenes, though, Lust, Caution is an intelligent film, less tacky and prurient than Showgirls or Larry Clark’s as yet locally unreleased Ken Park and their ilk.
The essence of plot at times is a throwback to some of the classic spy movie of the ‘40’s. A group of university drama students secretly set up a resistance group, and hatch an elaborate plot to assassinate Mr Yee (Tony Leung), a collaborator who is the head of the puppet government’s secret service and responsible for the deaths of a number of Chinese rebels. The shy virginal Wong Chia Chi (played by newcomer Tang Wei) is supposed to get close to Mr Yee’s inner circle, seduce him, find his vulnerable areas and set him up for the rest of the group. She joins Mrs Yee’s regular Mah-jong group and becomes a familiar presence in the Yee household. She soon finds herself having to deal with the predatory Mr Yee’s advances, and eventually she succumbs. Eventually, the question arises of whom is actually seducing whom, as the sexually naïve Wong falls under Yee’s spell and becomes emotionally conflicted. Can she complete her mission?
In her first film, Wei gives a wonderfully complex and astonishingly assured performance that combines touches of vulnerability, worldliness, and sensuality. Leung, who is normally cast as the romantic hero, also gives a superb and subtly nuanced performance, making his villainous character more three-dimensional.
Lust, Caution is a long and slow-moving film, and its much-talked about explicit sex scenes come late in the piece. They are carefully and deliberately choreographed to represent the power play in the relationship between the cold, manipulative Yee and the naïve young mistress. But this is also a very tense and atmospheric film, due to the meticulous attention to period detail that recreates the look and feel of 1940’s Shanghai. The evocative cinematography from Mexican Rodrigo Prieto, who also lensed Lee’s Brokeback Mountain, and Alexandre Desplat’s music also enhance the mood of this tense story of love, sacrifice and betrayal in a time of war.
***
Reviewed by PETER MALONE
Lust, Caution is a fine film from Ang Lee. Ang Lee has never repeated himself in his genres; comedy in The Wedding Banquet, English sensibilities and Jane Austen in Sense And Sensibility, American morals in The Ice Storm, the civil war in Ride With The Devil, Chinese martial arts with Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, comic strips with The Hulk, sexual issues in Brokeback Mountain.
He returns to China with Shanghai and Hong Kong settings. The film is set during the Japanese occupation of Japan, beginning in 1942, arousing audience curiosity about the central character, a young woman (a powerful performance from Tang Wei) who plays Mah Jong with a group of matrons, wives of men who have collaborated with Japanese. It then goes back to 1938 and builds up a story about the resistance to Japanese occupation. It focuses on a group of young students who form a drama company. The young woman is chosen to become the mistress of their main target. When he moves from Hong Kong back to Shanghai, their plans collapse - and are reinstituted.
The film design is excellent, one feels that one is in Shanghai and in 1942. There is a meticulous attention to detail from the smallest interior to the trams in the streets.
The film is interesting in terms of audience knowledge of Japanese occupation, of the Chinese resistance during the war, of the Japanese occupation.
The focus of the title is gradual. However, it is only after 90 minutes that the film moves to 'full on' in explicit lust sequences, with Ang Lee portraying the raw passion of the two people concerned, sadomasochistic touches. Some audiences will find these sequences too explicit. However, this also helps us to understand the psychology of what happens when the assassination attempt occurs.
The performances are excellent. The film shows Lee's strengths in storytelling, eliciting performances, creating a world and a mood as well as raising moral issues. Winner of the Golden Lion in Venice, 2007.