Lust, Caution
It’s not much of a stretch to call Taiwanese filmmaker Ang Lee one of the masters of world cinema. From his International breakthrough with the 1995 Oscar winner “Sense and Sensibility,” Lee has forged a career where simple description is allusive, from his 1997 ’70s family drama “The Ice Storm” (arguably his most underappreciated film) to his flawed, but ambitious, 2003 comic book movie “Hulk” to the Oscar-winners “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” and “Brokeback Mountain.” All exceptional films (except “Hulk,” which is merely curious), all exceptionally varied (and I haven’t even mentioned his early Taiwanese films or his 1999 Western “Ride With the Devil,” mainly because I haven’t seen them), the only thing seemingly linking his films is a keen eye for character over spectacle, specifically characters who go against the mainstream of their cultures, in search of their identities (credit an assist to Roger Ebert, whose own review of the film pointed this truth out to me).
Now comes another left turn from Lee in “Lust, Caution,” based upon a short story by Eileen Chang, stretched into a 158-minute epic that immerses you, like his other films, into a vivid sense of time and place. This time, he looks at Japanese-controlled Shanghai during World War II, as he tracks the efforts of a Chinese resistance in the assassination of a Japanese collaborator. Our entry into this world is through Wong Chia-Chi (Tang Wei, a newcomer who breaks through with managetic rapture and allure, reminiscent of Zhang Ziyi in “Crouching Tiger” or Gong Li in Zhang Yimou’s early films), the aspiring actress and college student brought into the fight by student activist Kuang Yu (Wang Leehom, a Chinese pop star, charismatic as the leader of the cell). Her part in the plot is the most dangerous- she’s the one charged with getting close to Mr. Yee (Tony Leung, from Wong Kar-Wai’s “2046,” “Infernal Affairs,” and John Woo’s “Hard Boiled,” who projects the appropriate amount of longing and dangerous charm). If you saw Paul Verhoeven’s “Black Book” earlier this year, which this film resembles in more ways than one, you can figure it out from there (not to say Lee doesn’t have a few tricks up his sleeve, though).
I said earlier that Chang’s short story (adapted by “Crouching Tiger” collaborators James Schamus and Wang Hui Ling) was stretched into 158 minutes. That’s not an understatement. More than once the film sags, perhaps under the weight of having to watch one too many games of mah-jongg Wong Chia-Chi has to play with Mrs. Yee (Joan Chen, whom I didn’t even recognize). No matter; even when the pacing wanes, Lee has designed an intoxicating thriller, which made me think more than once of Hitchcock’s classic thrillers (specifically, “Notorious” and “Suspicion”), and not just because of the luciously Herrmann-esque score by Alexandre Desplat or seductive cinematography of Rodrigo Prieto, which evokes “Vertigo” and “Marnie.” What those films have in common with this one- apart from a master’s touch- are the unspoken psychological battles being waged by the main characters, usually stemming from a clear sexual tension either forced upon them (as it was in “Notorious”) or as something they gave into (as it is here). That tension leads to three scenes of uncensored carnality (at least in the states, where the film received an NC-17) that continue the psychological war between the characters in the flesh, and the true passions of these characters are revealed more explicitly. But Lee is careful to show that for Wong Chia-Chi and Mr. Yee, this isn’t simply lust, as is implied by the title, but some deeper desire that comes out of genuine affection, leading to the final poignant moments when both characters are lead to the only paths that their true natures can possibly take them in the world we’ve become immersed in. It’s a finale impossible to shake to a film that no film lover should miss.
