Director: Ang Lee
Award: Golden Lion Award in Venice Film Festival
"To me, no writer has ever used the Chinese language as cruelly … and no story of hers is as beautiful or as cruel as ‘Lust, Caution."
Lust, Caution is not for the faint hearted. The story is full of suspense and cliff-hanging moments, together with brutal sex scenes that actually made me have goosebumps. It was really brave for Ang Lee to be able to produce such a film where beneath every layer of the film there lies guiltiness. Even though as part of the audience, we see the truth, that Tai Tai was sent to assassinate Mr Yee, and that each had suspicion of each other, it turn out to be more engaging for me because while I was watching the film I too had the same kind of fear that Tai Tai would've have when she's on the mission (well, probably the degree of fear is not as much). Mr Yee being a ruthless kind of person who is indifferent to an emotionless person, he is sure on dangerous man to sit next to, or even to have sex with.
Lust, is where both of Tai Tai and Mr Yee share throughout the whole film. As I'm sure of Mr Yee's action, he really wants to own and dominate Tai Tai. But for the female protagonist, I'm not quite sure. She is brave yet vulnerable. But her performance in doing her mission was spectacular, yet so surreal. For the first time they did it, she gave a smile even after Mr Yee had put her through so much emotional and physical pain. Did she really like it? Or she felt that she performed her mission with a good start and is feeling satisfied. Yet, I'm quite sure, from a girl's point of view that her heart was totally broken. In contemporary China, a woman's virginity can only be given to either her husband, or the one she loves. Chia Chi must have felt that she has betrayed herself, but at the same time done honour to her country. But nobody told her that she might fall in love with him during the missionary plan.
What really amazed me was how Tang Wei can switch interchangeably the two different characters that she play in Lust, Caution, as Tai Tai and Chia Chi. When she was Chia Chi, she was so innocent with her hair let down and without make up. Even her expression is gullible. But when she transformed into Tai Tai, we could see her giving out a different seductive aura from before. Her gaze is sharp and full of intent. No wonder it had the emotionless Mr Yee, hooked on her. It was quite weird to see the change of roles of Tony Leung especially after watching In The Mood For Love. He was gentle and then he was brutal. I guess Ang Lee had taken this opportunity to push his actors and actresses to their limit, at the same time, aid us (the audience) in determining who is good in this industry. I liked the film and I didn't like the film. I like it because it was cunning, I didn't like it because this is my first gruesome erotic show that I've watched.
[1] Lust, Caution Movie Reviews. Retrieved from http://movies.nytimes.com/2007/09/28/movies/28lust.html
[2] Review: Lust, Caution. Retrieved from http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/film/film_reviews/article3122621.ece
[3] Clickety Clack. Lust, Caution Review. Retrieved from http://nymag.com/movies/reviews/38019/
[4] Lust, Caution. Review by Margaret Pomeraz. Retrieved from http://www.abc.net.au/atthemovies/txt/s2099620.htm
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