Lust, Caution (2007)

Someone pointed out to me that on this date, July 7, 1937, the Japanese attacked Nanjing, murdering 300,000 civilians. This was the beginning of the Japanese war on China. I reflected on this and thought back to those hours in a movie theater on Houston Street in NYC where Ang Lee was attending a screening of his new film, Lust/Caution. I remembered the opening scene, a group of women sitting around a table playing mah jongg, and immediately knew I was watching a master work by this director. Not a note of the film was out of place, not the direction, cinematography, editing, performances. Not the devastating conclusion. Though years have passed, the film remains in my memory much the way my first viewing of La Strada or The Seventh Seal do. It is a film anyone who appreciates master work by a great filmmaker should see in their lifetime, uncut. It is a film as well that captures the essence of the atrocities of that war, the sacrifices, the brutalities. It is a heartbreakingly skewed love story and war story that will resonate long after you experience it. I do believe it should enter the recognized canon of greatest films ever made.

Directed by Ang Lee, 'Se, Jie' AKA Lust, Caution is based on the novella of the same name by Chinese author Eileen Chang which is in turn based on a short story called The Spyring. The film adaptation and the novel are loosely based on events that took place during the Japanese occupation of Shanghai during World War 2, where a group of Chinese university students plot to assassinate a high-ranking special agent/recruiter of the puppet government Mr. Yee (Tony Leung) by using an attractive young woman, Wong Chia Chi (Tang Wei) to lure him into a trap. Interestingly, the story is closely rendition that of Eileen Chang's own real love life. In which she fell in love with a Chinese traitor during WW2. Like the story, their separation fell apart due to the betrayal. Chang wrote the book in 1950's Shanghai, not long before she fled China for fear of political persecution. The film has many modifications by Ang Lee for example, the explicit sex scenes that cause the movie to be rated NC-17 in the US markets. Being NC-17, cause many theaters not to carry the film, and limited the access to the viewing public. I wouldn't say, this movie doesn't belong in the NC-17 field, but for the most part. I have saw, much worst from other strong 'R' films; that clearly deserve to be NC-17. I wouldn't say this movie is for anybody would get uncomfortable about the topic of sex, nor do I think it's for any love story romantic lovers. The movie focus more on dangerous and painful of intimacy. This movie has some scenes that will be disturbing to certain people such as violent rape, S&M, and others. If the sex scenes were more passion based on love, maybe I would say, put the film with a title of R, but since most of the sex scenes are violent and graphic. I think NC-17 is what this movie deserves. The sex sequences could had been taking out or been cut down. This movie would just fine without them. There is a lot of erotic espionage thrillers films that work without going to the extremes. A good example is Alfred Hitchcock's 1946's film 'Notorious' that has a similar plot or better yet 2006's German film, Black Book. While, the sex scenes are explicit; it's not borderline useless filler porn. It only makes up about ten minutes of total screen time. Altogether there are only three or four scenes that contain sexual content or nudity within this two and a half hour movie. I think the violence mixed with the sex is hard to watch. It does do tell a lot about the characters. The cruel actions tells how terminally paranoid the man is. Chi shows, how mentally disturb, Chi is, by enjoying the sexual abuse cause against her. Some critics might hate the film due to the fact, that Chi falls in love with the man she's supposed to kill to the point that. The movie has this wonderful suspense, making you wonder if Chi will go on, with the assassinating plot or not. The movie does kinda drawn out the pace, but it did lose my interest, a bit between the time in Hong Kong and then the time in Shanghai. The violent in the film for one pervasive murder sequence is pretty bloody. It just as disturbing as the rape scenes. The acting in this movie is pretty good. Wei is just great, playing, both the innocent country girl with little sexual experience, and later as the sexy seducer. Tony Leung pretty much born to play dark brooding characters, so in this film. He doesn't really bring anything new with this role. I don't see him playing against type. Tony Leung portrays someone completely opposite of his usual characters. I doubt that. The sets are beautiful and looks like the time in which the story is place. The camera work by Rodrigo Prieto is amazing. The music by Alexandre Desplat's has this East meet West dramatic tone to it. While the movie isn't dub into English. The subtitles work with understanding the Chinese culture as a whole during this brutal realism period. The movie also hints a brief reference of a play by Doll's House by Henrick Ibsen of the dark times for women rights, then. In the play, a woman is unable to find herself, due to being control in a male domination world. The character of Wong Chia Chi is somewhat like that. She was abandoned by her father-figure, then forced by war into service by whoring by a mostly male patriotism companionship. She was already self-defeat before she met Mr. Yee. Then in the end, tragedy hits when she tries to choose her own path. The ending is shows the tragic consequence of how lust can made a person forget about their own safety and not focus on caution. The China version is a little bit, different than the American one in the ending. Make sure to look for the 2008 DVD with the NC-17 version, which includes ten minutes of footage not allowed by the MPAA to run during the original theatrical run. It's hard to watch, at first, but after multiple views, you can see that there is more to the film than a graphic controversial well-publicized sex scenes.

I have seen some comments that say this is a very Asian film and wonder what exactly that means? It could equally be very French, particularly the older man with younger lover aspect and the absolute perve-fest of soft-lit slo-mo romps through the sexual positions, seemingly to my mind stuck into the movie like an intermission (ha ha). These scenes are a right turn-off for me and just don't sit with the rest of the movie. Ang Lee auditioned thousands of girls and spent eleven days on a closed set for his 'love' scenes. This is sounding a bit mid-life crisis territory to me. Why didn't he (the director) just stick these on as extras on the CD and let the rest of the movie take it's course? Th remainder is quite watchable and some nice work has gone into the costume and cinematography. Not up to his usual standard though.

Ang Lee is no mouse when tackling seamy issues, and when he set out to create this sexual thriller, he tossed in the biggest kitchen sink ever. From the sex scenes to the production set, every single thing was done in a cyclopean magnitude. A racy little NC17 number, this one fully exposed the, er, many talents of Asia. The story itself was a simple one, allowing for an authentic time period ambiance. The lead actress, picked from a posse of around ten thousand hopefuls, had never been in a full production movie. Ang Lee spent 3 months training her for the role. It worked, and her lead role was phenomenal. Old hand Tony Leung's talents were used to create perfectly subdued character whose intensity shot out his eyes like elephants on a trampoline. As expected, the direction and camera work were sublime. The movie was rather long at 2 hours and 37 minutes, but not one scene was superfluous or gratuitous. In other words, this epic was worth every minute.Evil Eye Reviews