Lust, Caution by Ang Lee (2007)
20 June 2008I had been excited to see this film since long before it came out, and agian have had the DVD since it was released, but can you believe I just watched it now? I can’t either, but it is the truth. And after seeing it I wish I hadn’t waited because this is a sumptuous and erotic epic set during the one of the darkest times in Chinese history, it’s occupation by the Japanese. Everything about this film is gorgeous, the luscious cinematography, the stunning visual effects, the sets and the costumes. And of course Tony Leung Chu Wai is amazing, but so Tang Wei in her debut role, and what a role. Tang Wei is really amazing here, torturted and forced to endure way too much until it pushes her just too far. This almost 3 hour epic is a must see. Ang Lee has proven himself once again to be one of the top directors the not just now, but ever.
This film starts with the modernist take, starting at the end, with Wong Chia Chi aka Mak Tai Tai (Tang Wei) entering a cafe and calling her revolutionary friends, setting up a hit of some sort. This is in Shanghai during the Japanese occupation of China during World War II. We then move back 4 years in time. We see the younger Wong Chia Chi on her way to Hong Kong to escape the occupation. Her father has already left for England, but did not take her when her mother died, so she is going to Hong Kong to go to school. She quickly falls for Kwang Yu Min (Wang Lee Hom) an older student who directing a nationalist play, and somehow as a freshman she becomes the lead, bringing the audience to tears and bringing in donations for the cause of liberating China. Kwang doesn’t think that plays are enough though, and decides to turn his group into revolutionaries targeting Chinese collaborators. Through his cousin Tsao (Chin Kar Lok, this guy rules, and I hope he made some good money doing this) they are able to infiltrate Wong Chia Chi as Mak Tai Tai, a woman married to an import and exporter. She goes in and becomes friends with Yee Tai Tai (Joan Chen) and her husband (Tony Leung Chu Wai). Things go well for a while, but Yee is too cautious and won’t enter their apartment so they can kill him, and they realize Mak Tai Tai will have to seduce Yee. And since Kwang isn’t experienced, the duty falls to the one of them who has been with hookers, and Mak Tai Tai is forced to have sex with him again and again. Then they learn that the Yee’s are leaving for Shanghai, and they won’t see them again. Tsao then shows up confronting them, as he has been left behind, and now wants in on their action, and they stab and kill him, and Wong runs out and runs away. We cut to 3 years later in Shanghai, Wong Chia Chi has been left by her father who has remarried, and goes to Japanese school while living with her aunt, and is just a shell of a woman, having giving everything for the man she loved, and accomplished nothing but making her a fallen woman.
REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…
Eventually Kwan finds Wong, and tells her that the resistance came to them and helped them clean up and drafted them, and that Yee is now the head of the intelligence in the government, and they can’t even get close, so they want her to become Mak Tai Tai again and seduce him, so they can get close. She can’t say know to Kwang, though she knows she has already fallen too low to ever have him.
Mak Tai Tai gets close to Yee Tai Tai again, playing (and losing) mah jong with her and her friends, and ingratiating herself all she can. And trying to get closer to Yee.
Eventually Yee has her taken to a hotel, and he comes, and rapes her, being as brutal as she can be. And from that point on he does all he can with her, making love with her and brutalizing her as well. And yet the resistance still won’t make a move.
Kwang wants to do something soon, but the resistance leader waits, even when many of their members are taken in by Yee’s people and killed.
Finally Yee gives Mak Tai Tai a letter to deliver, and she takes it to Kwang to open it, and it only has his business card in it. They think it is a trap, but the resistance wants her to go. She does explain that is too much for her, as she is falling in love with Yee as she is forced to be with him, and make love to him all the time. Before she leaves Kwang kisses her, but she breaks away, and asks why he couldn’t have done that 3 years ago.
She goes to the place and learns it is a jeweler, and she is to pick a diamond and have a ring made for herself. When the ring is done, we go to beggining, and she calls Kwang to set the raid, then gets Yee to go with her to the jeweler. When she gets the ring, she realizes she can’t do it, and tells Yee to run, and he manages to get out and escape.
We see Yee in his office, and he learns that others kneww who Mak Tai Tai actually was, and they were worried he was a traitor, but they have taken her and all her friends. The man wants Yee to interogate her, but he refuses, but is given back his ring.
Wong Chia Chi, Kwang and all their friends are taken out and shot. And Yee returns to his house, and sits on the bed that Mak Tai Tai (Wong Chia Chi of course) stayed in, and when Yee Tai Tai comes in, he tells her to lie and tell people that Mak Tai Tai had to leave.
We see that they both loved each other. Wong Chia Chi so much she was willing to sacrifice her life, and all her friends for him. And Yee couldn’t do anything to save her even though he knew that since the Americans had entered the war that the Japanese and he would lose.
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Wow. Ang Lee is such an incredible director (with the exception of his terrible HULK). And it is so great to see him back to making Chinese films. H ei sreally one of the greatest directors the world has known.
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