To kill the enemy, she would have to capture his heart....and break her own.
Frustrated in his attempts to assassinate Yee, who is an important official in Japanese-ruled Shanghai, Old Wu, who has lost his wife and two sons as well as two women who had attempted to seduce Yee, now recruits Kuang, Mai Tai Tai, and their troupe of drama students from Hong Kong University in yet another attempt to do away with Yee. Mai Tai Tai is chosen to befriend Yee, which she does by posing as the wife of Mak, befriending Yee's wife and her female friends, and then eventually befriending Yee himself. Even though both get together, they do end up going separate ways, only to meet again four years later. This time Mai is all set to entrap Yee at Chandni Chowk Jewellers which is owned by an East Indian man named Khalid Saiduddin. The question does remain: Will she and her troupe succeed?
Genre(s): Drama, Romance, Thriller, War
Runtime: 157 minutes
Rating: 7.7/10 (13,421 votes)
Release Date: 30 August 2007
Country: USA, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong
Languages: Mandarin, Japanese, English, Hindi, Shanghainese, Cantonese
Company: Hai Sheng Film Production Company
Sound: DTS, Dolby Digital
MPAA: Rated NC-17 for some explicit sexuality; Rated R for strong sexual content and a scene of brutal violence (edited version).
Director(s): Ang Lee
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Producer(s):
Lloyd Chao - associate producer
William Kong - producer
Ang Lee - producer
David Lee - co-producer
Er-Dong Liu - line producer
Zhong-lun Ren - executive producer
James Schamus - executive producer
Darren Shaw - executive producer
Dai Song - executive producer
Doris Tse - co-producer
Writer(s):
Eileen Chang - story
James Schamus - screenplay
Hui-Ling Wang - screenplay
Cast:
Tony Leung Chiu Wai - Mr. Yee
Wei Tang - Wong Chia Chi / Mak Tai Tai
Joan Chen - Yee Tai Tai
Lee-Hom Wang - Kuang Yu Min
Chung Hua Tou - Old Wu
Chih-ying Chu - Lai Shu Jin
Ying-hsien Kao - Huang Lei
Yue-Lin Ko - Liang Jun Sheng
Johnson Yuen - Auyang Ling Wen / Mr. Mak
Kar Lok Chin - Tsao
Music: Alexandre Desplat
Lloyd Chao - associate producer
William Kong - producer
Ang Lee - producer
David Lee - co-producer
Er-Dong Liu - line producer
Zhong-lun Ren - executive producer
James Schamus - executive producer
Darren Shaw - executive producer
Dai Song - executive producer
Doris Tse - co-producer
Writer(s):
Eileen Chang - story
James Schamus - screenplay
Hui-Ling Wang - screenplay
Cast:
Tony Leung Chiu Wai - Mr. Yee
Wei Tang - Wong Chia Chi / Mak Tai Tai
Joan Chen - Yee Tai Tai
Lee-Hom Wang - Kuang Yu Min
Chung Hua Tou - Old Wu
Chih-ying Chu - Lai Shu Jin
Ying-hsien Kao - Huang Lei
Yue-Lin Ko - Liang Jun Sheng
Johnson Yuen - Auyang Ling Wen / Mr. Mak
Kar Lok Chin - Tsao
Music: Alexandre Desplat
Posted on: October 9, 2008
October 1st, 2008
On the plus side, this film had beautiful cinematography, historicalrelevance and good acting. The story was gripping, but it all fellapart in the end. We were set up to root for the heroes of theresistance. The suspense came from wondering what would happen to theheroine and her comrades. Would they succeed? Would they nobly fail?Who would die and who would live? OK HERE'S THE SPOILER: The end madethe "heroine" look like either a whore, or a disturbed individual. Thismade me feel cheated. What were we supposed to feel? I got theimpression we were supposed to believe she fell in love with the manshe was supposed to be entrapping. But he was a vicious, amoraltraitor. What does that make her? It wasn't believable in any case. Hebasically raped her and only liked her for her sex appeal. We'resupposed to believe she fell in love with someone like that? I reallyended up thinking this was a MISOGYNIST film.
November 7th, 2008
Ang Lee certainly has a talent for directing unconventional lovestories. First there was Brokeback Mountain and now we are gifted withhis very next film, Lust, Caution.
The story takes place in China over a three year period, ending in1942. At the beginning, the scene is in Japanese occupied Shanghaiwhere we find Mrs. Mak playing mahjongg with three other socialitewives. These women seem to be far removed from the chaos of war andoccupation that surrounds them. Mrs. Mak, a guest of Mr. and Mrs. Yee,leaves the game to go on an errand which is perceived by the viewer assomething covert. During her errand, Mrs. Mak stops at a restaurant andmakes an enigmatic phone call.
The scene shifts to Hong Kong three years earlier where we see Mrs. Makas student, Wong Chia Chi. Wong and her girlfriend meet Kuang Yu Minwho invites them to join his theater group. Kuang is a politicallyoriented young man who has written a nationalistic play dealing withthe freedom of China for the grasp of outside influences. Wong, whojoined the group somewhat as a lark, has flowered into the lead femalecharacter. There is definitely an attraction between Wong and Kuang,but he is such an intense young man devoted to his causes that he doesnothing to foster the development of their romantic relationship.
Instead, Wong finds that the main agenda of the group is deadly -mainly the assassination of Mr. Yee who is a collaborator with theJapanese. During a break in classes, the group rents a house in awealthy area of the city and begins a deception – actually a play inreal life – in order to meet the hated Mr. Lee. Wong and another of thestudent actors pose as Mr. and Mrs. Mak in order to enter the socialsphere of the Lee's and to, eventually, murder Mr. Lee.
However, murdering Mr. Lee is not that easy as he is not only heavilyguarded but also an enigmatic, psychologically closed man. But, being apowerful man of powerful desires, he cannot resist the wiles of theenchantingly beautiful Wong.
Events occur that prevent the group from carrying out their plan. Theseevents are so repugnant that Wong separates herself from the group.
The scene shifts to three years later in Shanghai where Kuang and hiscompatriots seek out Wong in order to resurrect the plan. By this time,conditions under the Japanese occupation have become so unbearable thatWong agrees.
A good part of the rest of the film concerns the relationship thatdevelops between Mr. Lee and Wong posing as Mrs. Mak. This relationshipleads to some of the most beautifully, erotic sex scenes I have everseen in a film. They are brutally frank and extraordinary. A caution:this film is rated NC-17, and it earns it.
The excellent extras on the DVD give the Western audience insight tothe three actors who play the major parts. Mr. Lee is played by TonyLeung Chiu Wai who is known for much lighter roles in China. He issuperior as the extremely dark Mr. Lee who is a brutal, yet very human,man.
The two young people who play Wong and Kuang are first-time actors butyou certainly wouldn't know it from their performances. Wei Tang as thebeautiful Wong is hypnotic. You can't keep your eyes off of her. Kuangis played by Lee-Hom Wang who is actually a rock star in China. He isperfect as a young man filled with ideals and emotions.
One of the reviews of this film that I read said that no one underthirty could possibly understand the complex emotional tie thatdevelops between Mr. Lee and Wong. That may be very true for there arefew traditional – especially in younger Western eyes – bonds that socement the two in a passion destined for destruction.
As far as I'm concerned, Lust, Caution is a must-see film.
November 8th, 2008
Three things worth noting in this.
First of course is the sheer excellence of the film itself. Lee's firstimpulse is always to express cinematically. So the acting is placedwithin the film rather than the other way around. He worries abouttextures, textures of the place of course (lipstick on a coffeecup) buttextures of time (the shuffling of Mahjong tokens) and emotion. This iswhat film-making is at the start; using the vocabulary. If we hadnothing else at all, we would still have the pleasure of an artistcomfortably in his medium.
The second notable thing is a narrative device I study: folding,especially folding associated with new noir. The instance here is thatwe have an actress playing an actress. She plays on stage and in reallife, and naturally the two blend. Artists use this device becausethere is a subtle but powerful dynamic at work: as we see the fictionand reality converge in the story, we internally blend the fiction onthe screen with the reality of our lives. It happens that Lee'scinematic skills are tuned to emphasizing this dynamic. Its a wonderfulexample and one that works to a clearly noticeable degree.
He casts this "play" within a situation of Mahjong, where fakes andbluffs are expected. Western viewers like myself will miss the fulleffect of this, not knowing the scheming in the game that — in thefirst few minutes — we have conflated with how the women we see are thereal hidden power behind the men. And then we move into the noirelement, the third notable feature.
The hidden power behind the (Chinese) men we see are Japaneseoccupiers. But diffused through all this is the simple, overwhelmingurge to belong — belong to a country, a movement, a man. Many movieshave this feature, and as here conflate the personal conflict withsurrounding political ones. Many also show passion and sex. But Lee hasfound a new way, made available by simply showing things as they reallyare, not as homogenized to satisfy some cultural need to hide ourhumanness.
This passion is real enough, what we see is real enough that we see itimmediately as something we have all experienced. That puts us in theinnermost seed of this narrative at the same time that Lee has uspenetrating from the outside by his folding dynamics.
Simple noir is the situation of an average person being manipulated byforces that are connected to the fact that a viewer is involved. Oddcircumstances appear to drive the story that would never happen ifthere were not the invisible force of the narrative demands of theviewer. This transforms the viewer into an agent of the story. Ithappens here of course: we are denoted on-screen as members of thetheater audience, as watchers (and controllers) of the resistance cell,and finally at the end as the off-screen watchers of the Japaneseoverlords. (Skilled viewers will note that most of the techniques Leeuses are from the Japanese cinematic vocabulary.)
And then there are the sex scenes. Instead of overtly recognizing thepresence of the viewer by carefully posing and framing to hide thereality of the act, we have the opposite: revealing of the moist,rushed details.
This, I think is a must see. Only the score is less than perfect.
Ted's Evaluation — 3 of 3: Worth watching.
November 20th, 2008
It must have been tempting for Ang Lee to give up Hollywood altogetherbefore he made this glorious film. "Hulk" was a bit of a disaster,winning neither fans nor critics while his Oscar-winning "BrokebackMountain" quickly gained notoriety as the gay cowboy movie. But Leespecialises in telling wonderful stories in beautiful frames – one onlyneeds to recall "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" to understand what I'msaying – and here, he delivers a powerful and tragic love story setagainst a brilliantly realised vision of 1940's Shanghai.
Debutant Wei Tang plays Wong Chia Chi, a young woman attending schoolin 1938 where she meets handsome political idealist Kuang Yu Min(Lee-Hom Wang). Stirred by his desire to fight for the resistanceagainst the Japanese, Wong finds herself and her friends plotting toassassinate the enigmatic Mr Yee (Tony Leung Chiu Wai). After the planfails, four years pass before they get the chance to finally completetheir mission. But as she gets closer to Mr Yee, her feelings for himthreaten not only their mission but their lives as well.
Having watching the similarly themed "Black Book" the other week, I wassurprised at how little action there is compared to Paul Verhoeven'sWW2 film. "Lust, Caution" is a very slow movie, taking its time ingetting going but at no point do you feel bored not distracted and thisis largely down to the exceptional performances from the leads. TonyLeung Chiu Wai breathes life into a disturbingly complicated character,both gentle and horrifyingly brutal in equal measures. Wei Tang, in herfirst movie, has had the debut of a lifetime and matches her moreexperienced co-stars every inch of the way. But this is ultimately AngLee's film and despite the pace, you still enjoy this wonderfully epictale of this doomed romance. If anything, the explicitness of thecontroversial love scenes surprises more than they shock but they don'tdistract from the overall picture in the same way that they did in"Monsters Ball". The only real criticism I have is a bit more backstory would have been nice but I can't really hold that against amovie. It's unfair to mark a movie down because of my ignorance of thesetting.
"Lust, Caution" (or if you prefer, "Se, Jie") is a brilliant movie,full of tension and passion and a perfect reminder of a director's realstrengths. Ang Lee is a true cinematic icon and one of the bestdirectors out there at the moment and this is easily his best effortsince "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon". There's none of the visualgimmicks of that oft-copied martial arts epic but this is no less epicfor it, filled with all the ingredients required to make a simple storybecome a great movie. It looks the business, is wonderfully performed,has a soundtrack which perfectly captures the mood of every scene andnever becomes complicated or boring at any point. This is a sublimemovie and all it needs is for you to give it a chance.