Or,
Lust, Caution. I saw it this weekend and have to disagree with Martin. I think it's an exceptionally well made, intelligent film with much to savor. It's depiction of occupied Shanghai and Hong Kong for their period rings wonderfully true. The lead performances are ferociously amazing (and probably the best reason to see the film and further proof that Lee is one of the best director of actors around). But I think the film is muddled and ends on a completely sour note that left me with an uncomfortable feeling. Perhaps that's from it's origins as a novella, but on film what worked on paper might not on screen. The film isn't coldly objective enough to leave it's characters in such a statement of being unjudged, and hence at its denoument we are supposed to feel some sort of loss and sentimentality at something quite hideous. I wonder if perhaps it's in aid to a more modern moral; perhaps the ultimate lust on display isn't purely sexual but the class divisions that separate the characters and hidden complexities in our heroine. Perhaps it's a morality tale that has a thing or two to say about what we're willing to sacrifice for lust of all things material as well as sexual. But we're left with a Kundera-esque defined level of kitsch as we are supposed to feel sad for a moral coward. And it's quite impossible to discuss in detail without getting into the end of the film, which I won't do.
It's hard to write this because I have such unreserved respect for the movie as a whole and everyone's contribution to it. Tony Leung Chiu-Wai is my favorite male actor perhaps of all time; bravely skating (remember
Tokyo Raiders - probably not) from genre to genre and always with the same relaxed charm. At 45 he's finally showing some age but he remains an actor who evokes something rare - when he smiles, I wonder what thought he's having that's making him smile, for instance. I can think of no other male actor who effortlessly displays sensitivty and vulnerability without giving an inch of his masculinity; even here he makes someone who is flat out deplorable interesting to observe and layered. Newcomer Wei Tang is unbelievably good and may have some of the most interesting eyes on actress I've seen in quite awhile - they go well with Lee's subjective camera scenes. And of course, the sex. Suffice it to say though that the sex scenes are not only important but integral and say something; when they aren't jaw dropping in their "how the hell did they shoot that" sort of way. I think the main thing is that they have emotion in them, and different kinds, which is how they are completely different than pornography. My friend who saw the movie and has seen far less porn than I agrees that it wouldn't be the same movie without them. So they are essential, and defining. But all the
discussion of that obscures how far too many interesting thematic ideas begin and eddy away like little whirlpools in a draining tub by the time the film reaches this point.
It's definitely worth watching, and at times it's a note perfect depiction of time and place long lost; but I have to say that in the end Lust, Caution deserves discussion - not a bad thing at all - but to me it deserves discussing how wrong headed some of the choices are. Thoughts, Martin, anyone?
Here's the best interview I could turn up with the coy Ang Lee. And here's
another good one that sticks out as Lee says: "When I think about it: Who’s occupying who? At the end of that scene, when she gives that wicked smile, she looks back at him, like, "Is that all you can deliver?" It’s very hard to tell who’s manipulating who in that position."
Here's a story about it playing the final show at the legendary Queen's Theater in Hong Kong, which I have a vague memory of seeing when I was 12.
