Director: Cast:
Tony Leung Chiu Wai ... Mr. Yee
Summary:
Review:
Every time a review comes up about this movie, it centers on the explicit sex. OK, so this movie is NC-17 because Lee wasn't willing to budge on reducing the sex scenes based on the MPAA's requirements. At the same time, I didn't find them all that more shocking than what I've seen in previous R rated sex heavy movies. It's just that there are four separate heavy sex scenes put together into one movie, and I KNOW that some of the MPAA's complaints were in the non-typical sexual positions presented. They are real weird when it comes to editing sex. Like in 8mm they had someone getting humped against the wall in a club, and told them to cut the number of thrusts from eight to four to give it an R rating. Or in Basic Instinct, the opening murder had to be edited to just her STABBING him, and show her thrusting on top of him in a different shot... but they had to cut out her STABBING and THRUSTING him at the SAME TIME. With rules like this, I can't say what ultimately made this movie's NC-17 rating.
Tony Leung is once again great as the brooding non-smiling lead. If you've seen In the Mood for Love or 2046, then here he is again. He might actually be the same dude! He's got a great face. It's the kind that has a kind of sadness in the eyes all the time, yet doesn't ask for your sympathy. It's perfect for expressing the kind of hardships that Mr. Yee endures in Lust, Caution. Wei Tang was astounding. She was the anchor to the movie's success or failure. She might look like a typical, normal every day girl, but she sure has the acting chops to back up that normal appearance with just as natural of an on screen presence. I wasn't distracted by her beauty, because she's pleasant looking, but not a looker. That really helped me care about her more.
Lust, Caution is one of my favorite movies this year. I identified with the main characters, was frustrated with the bad choices made by many, and hoped for the impossible chance of a peaceful resolution. This was one of those rare occasions where I fell for the heavy handed drama. It made me think about regretful actions of my own past, and how it could have altered my future. Sometimes what seems like a simple or innocent choice at the time can snowball into a life altering event. You don't realize this until those changes have already occurred. That's what I identified with most after leaving the theater. Ang Lee managed to do right for me once again.
GRADE: A
Lee Ang
Wei Tang ... Wang Jiazhi
In Japan-occupied Shanghai during WWII, a young actress falls into a group of friends intent on joining a revolutionary underground. Over the course of a few years, Wang JiaZhi becomes more entangled into the world of espionage, leading to emotional and physical turmoil against a powerful politician.
So, over the course of the last 17 years or so, NC-17 has turned into a box office death, and most of the movies listed under this rating have not impressed me. The first movie - other than Showgirls, of course - to totally rock my world in the NC-17 listings is Ang Lee's latest release.
Lust, Caution is one of those movies that I left the theater with all kinds of thoughts and recollections flying through my brain at lightning speed, garnering more appreciation for it as the minutes ticked by. It really is a fairly predictable storyline. I mean, how many damned spy movies are there where the spies starting falling for their target and all that shit? PLENTY! However, Lust, Caution used those same conventions and incorporated it into two people who I actually saw as more than just characters in a movie that exist merely to fulfill the story arcs and plot advancements. They had depth. They were flawed and closely guarded people, neither willing to budge their trust because of course neither can be trusted. On top of that, there's the required Chinese emotional reservation which builds tension and adds even more layers of deception, requiring an understanding of what's NOT being said versus most American type movies that scream it out to the audience in every way possible. Lee's subtlety of nonverbal subtext has shown itself in the past with Brokeback Mountain, Eat, Drink, Man, Woman and The Ice Storm. Heck, there was even some of that in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon as well, but in a different Chinese flavor than Caution.
This movie is heavy on restraint. There are few times in which all hell breaks loose. I never felt bored, even though it's over two and a half hours long. That's a big bonus. Compared to the last 2 hour-plus covert spy movie I saw, the long running time is beneficial to the story that needs to be told. Even more important, the main characters' restraint and lack of emotional outburst makes more sense than The Good Shepherd's Matt Damon. My heart was wounded when one of the characters in the movie kisses Wong JiaZhi on the lips and tells her he's sorry. Her reply tells us how much things could have changed had someone not been so Chinese about things and just "went for it" a little (or a lot) sooner.
I found the sex to be a dynamic approach to the transformation these two have relationship-wise. First time around, she's basically raped by him. This showed his lack of trust in her, and he's displacing the frustration of the violent actions he has to do in his every day job. As the movie progresses, their style of sexual encounter changes drastically, and I was amazed at how much I was affected by their sexual metamorphoses. It's not merely soft-core porn - like the way I see the sex in Henry and June - it's one of those rare instances where the sex actually defines essential plot points through a visual symbolic medium.
Reviewed: 10/21/07