In Progress

Ang Lee’s most recently released film, 2007’s Lust, Caution has been described by critics as an espionage thriller, which does little to convey the major themes of this elegant elegy that follows a young girl’s journey from student to spy.

Based on the 1979 novella by Chinese writer Eileen Chang, Lust, Caution opens with a brief but graceful credits sequence, which gives way to an incongruous close up on an alert German Shepherd. From the dog, the camera travels up the body of his uniformed handler to his deeply suspicious face. His gaze rapidly shifts right, then up, before the camera cuts to an armed guard in the same uniform pacing across a balcony. A few more shots of guards stationed on the same city street establishes that the area is heavily policed, broken only by a group of seemingly relaxed men talking and smoking on the sidewalk. From here, we transition inside, cutting to the interior of a house where a maid is bringing a tray of elegant soup bowls to four fashionable women playing a lightening-speed round of mahjong. This opening sequence introduces a clear visual distinction between the external war-tinged world of men and the insulated interior domain of women, a dichotomy that is to be breached most notably by the two main characters in the film.

The film arguably has two main characters, although we follow one more closely through the story, which is set in Hong Kong and Shanghai in the late 1930s and early 1940s during a period of Japanese occupation. Chia Chi is a young women at university who is drawn into a school acting troupe, where she finds success as its leading lady. Soon, the charismatic troupe leader is urging the group to do more than put on patriotic plays, and the group finds their cause in trying to assassinate Mr. Yee, a high-ranking Chinese government official collaborating with the Japanese. Chia Chi is remade as Mrs. Mak, an elegant society wife who befriends Mrs. Yee to catch the eye of her husband. Although she succeeds, the Yees move back to Shanghai before the assassination plan can be put into action, leaving the troupe in disarray.

The film moves forward several years to reveal Chia Chi in deep despair, with seemingly little future beyond a subsistence living in her aunt’s home. She is rediscovered by her co-conspirators, who have joined the secret police, and she is quickly recruited to return to her role as Mrs. Mak in the hopes of successfully carrying out the early mission against Mr. Yee, who has become the head of the secret police, responsible for the torture and deaths of countless members of the resistance. After successfully reestablishing her relationship with Mrs. Yee, she soon embarks on a violent and passionate affair with Mr. Yee, which strips them both bare of years of solidly established defenses, leading to the final tragic denouement.

As with many of Lee’s films, Lust, Caution features a muted palette tinged with a golden hue that evokes a subtle glamour. Cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto brings a modest but assured style to the composition, which works perfectly to showcase the period setting. In his sure handling of the period setting, this film continues Ang Lee’s tradition of developing a richly detailed portrait of a particular time and place as a unique and personalized moment in history, much in the tradition of the famed Merchant Ivory productions of 1980s and 1990s.

The graphic, sometimes violent sex scenes created some controversy before the film opened, and earned it an NC-17 rating in the US. The scenes, mostly between the two main characters, are essential to moving the story forward and often devastating in the vulnerability on display. Much of the narrative is told through the play of emotion on their faces, and this emotional interplay does much to define the arc of the story. Newcomer Tang Wei is a revelation as Chia Chi, effortlessly moving her character through a vast personal journey over a period of years. And Tony Leung Chiu-Wai, who was such an excellent proxy for Wong Kar Wai’s vision in In the Mood for Love and 2046, wholly disappears into the cold, bruised Mr. Yee, demonstrating another facet of his dramatic range.

Posted on December 17th, 2008 by DeepthiW
Filed under: Books, Movies, Politics, Uncategorized