Lust, Caution (2007)

the audience applauded

Highly Overrated But Still Good

Excellent but underrated film

Absolutely the worst movie.

It contains various kinkds of elements movies: sexuality, esthetics, suspense,etc. Really astonisthed at how they combine with each other and constitute a huge intricate artwork. Hope for your next Mandarian movie, Ang Lee. You are such a sentimental and meticulous director.

I've grown sort of conservative in my old age. I used to be an avant gardist. I rejoiced in chaos and meaninglessness: I believe in narrative, now.That's why I rate this flick so high. It's a good example of a film that *perfectly* fulfills the purpose of narrative. A story is told, the detail is pitch-perfect, time flows like the "jiang"; the great concourse; and the drama is very direct, pointed right straight at the primal twin issues of love and power, refusing to look away from predictable and unpredictable outcomes.This is a perfect story. And you get the impression that Lee Ang knew *exactly* how high he had to rise to meet this extraordinary occasion, and he did so rise.I do want to touch on the key point of the movie--since it seems so many commenters here missed out on that. No spoiler here: In fact, the following may help you if you're about the watch the flick.Se, Jie has one thing in common with Inglourious Basterds, strange to say. But they do squarely share a theme: Can it really happen?: Could (should?) artists get sick and tired of winning all the moral battles, and decide to reach out and win a *real* battle; a real-world battle for truth and justice?And... yes: This gets directly tied to the deep, unspeakable tragedy at the end of Se, Jie.(And, bear in mind, this isn't the *only* theme; Se, Jie has a number of themes, at least as important as this one.)It's a great movie; one of those that you need to watch *carefully* before you die.

The main problem with this Ang Lee period espionage love story is that it drags. With a running time of two and a half hours, yet with a plot that can be summed up with a couple of words, it overstays its welcome sooner or late, depending on the patience of its viewer. It's a fine film by most other measures, but even a good film can turn sour if it simply keeps going and going.The story follows the life of an university student Wang Jiazhi (Tang Wei) during the years leading up to and during the World War Two in China. She ends up joining a bunch of other rebellious youths who want to strike back against Japanese oppressors. In this particular case using Jiazhi's sexuality as a weapon against a Chinese collaborator. Good basic idea, but you cannot really see two and a half hours's worth of material in that, can you.Ang Lee is a prolific director for a reason and it shows in this film as well. It is shot beautifully, most of the actors give great performances and the production values are topnotch. Definitely a film to check out if you're a die-hard fan of him.But, it drags. It drags so bad. And that is why I have to rate it as just below average. If you're a fan of films that take their time and allow for a lot of atmosphere and mood buildup, then this is definitely your film. But, if you like your films mostly under or around two hours, you might want to reconsider.

With excellent cinematography, impeccable direction, a haunting score and top-notch performances, why is 'Lust, Caution', such a ho-hum affair? For starters, so much of it is stretched out that we end up with only tidbits of compelling drama. This film could have and would have worked a lot better had about 45 minutes of celluloid found its way on to the cutting room floor.'Lust, Caution' is divided into two parts. The first part is set in Hong Kong in 1938, before the Japanese have occupied all of China. Leehom Wang does well in his first acting performance as Kuang Yu Min, a radical student at Lingnan University in Hong Kong. He conscripts a pretty, shy co-ed, Wong Chia Chi, to act in a patriotic play, designed to inflame the passions of a Chinese audience, who naively believe that they can defeat the Japanese, who are on the verge of taking over the entire country. Chia Chi is so successful in moving the audience to tears that Kuang becomes convinced that she could assist him and his acting group turned real-life conspirators, in a plot to assassinate Mr. Yee, a local party chief affiliated with the Wang Jingwei puppet government in mainland China. Kuang concludes that only Chia Chi can infiltrate Yee's organization and perhaps help facilitate his assassination.Chia Chi assumes the identity of Mrs. Mak, the wife of an import-export dealer and is introduced to Mrs. Yee, the wife of the intended target. While we're expecting some kind of exciting, assassination attempt by Kuang and his confederates in the first hour of the film, that never materializes as Mr. and Mrs. Yee unexpectedly move back to Shanghai. What we are treated to during the first hour is a long-winded sequence of "Mrs. Mak" playing Mahjong with Mrs. Yee and her social circle, Chia Chi being deflowered by one of Kuang's co-conspirators in order to gain some skill in seducing Mr. Yee and the clumsy murder of Tsao, one of Yee's subordinates, who pays a visit to the Kuang and company as they are packing up their bags following Yee's sudden departure from Hong Kong.While the conspirators are supposed to be the 'good guys', Ang Lee makes the point that they're really no better than Mr. Yee, who both use Chia Chi as a sex object. When she's forced to lose her virginity in such a mechanical way, Kuang wants her to understand that this is her service to a greater cause—at the same time, he does nothing to comfort her and worse, express any deep-felt feelings he has for her. All this only serves to harden Wong who later betrays the group. The betrayal at the film's climax is foreshadowed by the group's awkward attempt to train Wong as a seductress—this is where she really loses her enthusiasm for the group's cause.The second part of of 'Lust, Caution, takes place four years later in Shanghai. Kuang now is an undercover agent for the KMT, which seeks to undermine Japanese occupation rule and the Chinese puppet government. With her past contacts with Mr. Yee and his wife, Chia Chi again is able to infiltrate the Yee inner circle. This time she becomes Yee's mistress and most of the film deals with Yee and Chia Chi's relationship. Yee is first depicted as a sadist as he rapes Chia Chi during their first sexual encounter. Gradually he warms up to her and by film's end, he's buys her a very expensive diamond ring. By concentrating on the sexual relations between the two, Ang Lee sacrifices any chance to develop Yee's character. He's played by Tony Leung Chiu-Wai who desperately tries to humanize Yee by showing his tender side during love-making (although he's afraid of the dark, Yee eventually allows Chia Chi to place a towel over his eyes, connoting some vulnerability). But we surely would have liked to know more about Yee—for example, what does he exactly do in his job as head of the secret police? (I think that's a lot more interesting than all those sex scenes that go on ad infinitum). Why not more like the scene in the Japanese district where Yee confides to Chia Chi that he really despises the Japanese and their cause is lost? Now that's ambiguity (and we needed a lot more of that!).As for Chia Chi, her failure to help the good guys, is meant to be seen as tragic. While Mr. Yee plays with her emotions, she begs the KMT to act before she becomes an emotional basket case. Due to 'strategic concerns', Chia Chi is told to wait and before you know it, she's fallen for 'bad boy' Yee, hook, line and sinker. Lee seemingly sees her as a victim of a male chauvinistic society. Others might view her as a weak woman who had a job to do during wartime and betrayed her confederates, resulting in their tragic death.Chia Chi warns Mr. Yee at the film's denouement and he escapes with his life. I had no objection to Ang Lee trying to avoid a sentimental, happy ending. Given the time period the film is set in, there actually weren't too many happy endings for Chinese people under the Japanese occupation. Nonetheless, it sure takes us a long time to get there. But even if you're willing to go along with the film's glacial pacing, one is struck by the fact that this is not a film that appeals to the intellect. Rather, it's a film that relies merely on the sexual chemistry between the principals without bothering to virtually flesh out any other element of their personalities. The same can be said for the supporting players (the conspirators) who we find out next to nothing about.For all its wonderful atmosphere, 'Lust, Caution' serves up only a few surprises; along the way, its characters remain ciphers who we can hardly become involved with.