Review: Lust, Caution
Director Ang Lee, one of the world's most agile filmmakers, for years had a desire to win over the audience that softened the edges of excellent films such as Eat Drink Man Woman, Sense and Sensibility, and even The Ice Storm. But in 2005's Brokeback Mountain, he stuck with a chilly tale of doomed love to the end, making what in some ways was his richest movie yet.
With Lust, Caution, an erotic thriller set in 1940s Shanghai, Lee has gone farther still, creating a black hole of a film that swallows all glimmers of light. Contrary to his earlier instincts, that absolute darkness is enough to draw us in throughout Lust's roughly two and a half hours.
As imperial Japan overruns much of China, student Wang Jiazhi (newcomer Wei Tang) does her part against the occupiers by pretending to be a businessman's wife and then seducing Mr. Yee (Tony Leung Chiu-Wai) a key Chinese collaborator. But as complex as this role is for her, their relationship becomes even more complicated.
With a screenplay by Hui-Ling Wang and longtime Lee collaborator James Schamus, based on a story by Eileen Chang, Lee builds what feels like the world of a novel. The tale unfolds slowly and in subtle ways, though with a clarity that's been a hallmark of Lee and Schamus's work. This is by far their most complex and mature work. But what drives the film most are Tang and Leung's performances.
The round-faced Tang looks like a classic Chinese beauty but brings remarkable strength, along with vulnerability, to her role. Leung, who's created some of cinema's most glum male characters, seems to have wound all their disappointments into a very tight ball in the character of Mr. Yee. His malevolence is visceral and believable, never more than in the explicit sex scenes that earned Lust its NC-17 rating. They are too painful and fascinating to watch to be erotic.
As in Brokeback, Lee maintains a perfectly consistent tone throughout the film, this time one of brooding and impending doom. For Lust, he seems to have tapped into the elegant yet hard-edged imagery of Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-Hsien, with long takes of social interaction along with some bloody, realistic violence.
Lust, Caution is a movie of hard truths, using both the brutal conditions and the strange opportunities in wartime Shanghai to expose the voids in some human hearts while making us question what fills others. Though firmly centered in a Chinese world, it's a very relevant film for our American age of murky and questionable crusades.
With Lust, Caution, an erotic thriller set in 1940s Shanghai, Lee has gone farther still, creating a black hole of a film that swallows all glimmers of light. Contrary to his earlier instincts, that absolute darkness is enough to draw us in throughout Lust's roughly two and a half hours.
As imperial Japan overruns much of China, student Wang Jiazhi (newcomer Wei Tang) does her part against the occupiers by pretending to be a businessman's wife and then seducing Mr. Yee (Tony Leung Chiu-Wai) a key Chinese collaborator. But as complex as this role is for her, their relationship becomes even more complicated.
With a screenplay by Hui-Ling Wang and longtime Lee collaborator James Schamus, based on a story by Eileen Chang, Lee builds what feels like the world of a novel. The tale unfolds slowly and in subtle ways, though with a clarity that's been a hallmark of Lee and Schamus's work. This is by far their most complex and mature work. But what drives the film most are Tang and Leung's performances.
The round-faced Tang looks like a classic Chinese beauty but brings remarkable strength, along with vulnerability, to her role. Leung, who's created some of cinema's most glum male characters, seems to have wound all their disappointments into a very tight ball in the character of Mr. Yee. His malevolence is visceral and believable, never more than in the explicit sex scenes that earned Lust its NC-17 rating. They are too painful and fascinating to watch to be erotic.
As in Brokeback, Lee maintains a perfectly consistent tone throughout the film, this time one of brooding and impending doom. For Lust, he seems to have tapped into the elegant yet hard-edged imagery of Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-Hsien, with long takes of social interaction along with some bloody, realistic violence.
Lust, Caution is a movie of hard truths, using both the brutal conditions and the strange opportunities in wartime Shanghai to expose the voids in some human hearts while making us question what fills others. Though firmly centered in a Chinese world, it's a very relevant film for our American age of murky and questionable crusades.
Labels: reviews
posted by Steve at
8:16 AM
3 Comments:
Great review, but you forgot to mention the heartthrob Lee-Hom Wang. :)
Steve, I love that phrase--"creating a black hole of a film that swallows all glimmers of light"!
Thanks, Maya! I do like them dark.
As for Wang Lee-Hom, he certainly looked the part of the 20th Century Chinese Hero. That impressive nose and inspiring physique could have jumped right out of a propaganda poster. His performance, on the other hand, was up to the task but didn't steal any scenes.
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