This film has a very 40's film noir feelng and it's nicely shot. The costumes and set design are pretty to look at as well. The story interested me because living in America, you don't often get a good history of World War II seen from other points of view during that time. There was a lot going on in the world at that time; in China, Spain and Russia not just the major players like England, France, Germany, Japan and so on.
The sex scenes are intense but they lent themselves to the relationship of the two involved. Through their passionate affair you watch the spy and the target fall victim to what happens when you become physically intimate with someone. Feelings inevitably get involved. There were some scenes frought with tension as you watch the woman get in over her head in the name of her cause.
I'm giving this a 10 for great acting, directing and script. This is a very well done film. There is a reason why it was nominatd for so many awards including Best Foreign Film by The Golden Globes and BAFTA.
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One of the young woman in the group volunteers to seduce a dangerously callous high-ranking official in the government, who has been denounced as a national traitor. This action proves to be a rude and hard awakening to the inexperienced and naive group of friends. This movie could be said to be a "suspenseful, edge-of-your-chair story complete with a highly stylized appearance" even when a lot of other review batch it I still felt that the staff did a great job with the costumes and backdrops making them into colorful and magnetic field that attract the senses.
The actors/actresses expressions and careful words just show how skilled they were even in acting in a more sinister tone genre.
This film easily captivate the attention, If you are afraid of the explicit sex scenes well you may just pass a good movie for naught. I personally didn't object to them in the least, but I was not expecting much from them to begin with. Well before to watch this you must be sure that you are not offended by explicit sex scene or crude subtitles, I would at least recommend this for the dynamic and feel of the movie.
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It's Ang Lee's work for sure. His movies are never simple. I suspect it can even be made into long dissertation by film students! ^^
Both leads, Tony Leung and Rebecca Tang did a marvelous job. The whole movie is dominated with their presences. You can feel the tension between them, the progress of their feelings to each other. Is it lust? Is it love?
Until the final scene, I keep thinking how much of lust has turned into love and whether it's worth it. And is this what the title means, Lust, Caution since you'll never know how much you'll get burn by it?
It's a heavy movie. By the end of the movie, I was feeling exhausted, even during their sex scenes, I was not thinking about the sex but more to what does it mean to the both of them. I don't mind with the ending that people are mostly complaining about. It's the price that they have to pay and they know it before they start the journey.
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Double meaning in Chinese; (色, sè) can be "Colour", while "caution" (戒, jiè) can be "Ring"
In my opinion, this is a better movie than Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000), Ang Lee's blockbuster which he directed seven years before this one.From Wikipedia;
The title of the work, Lust, Caution, has a double meaning in Chinese. The character for "lust" (色, sè) can be read as "colour", while "caution" (戒, jiè) can be read as "ring", therefore the title can also read as "coloured ring", an object that plays a pivotal role in the story. The two alternate readings of the title are interwoven into a cautionary tale of lust and love through the symbolic use of the ring.
This would be a better description for any preview:
"During World War II, a secret agent Wong Chia Chi, must seduce then assassinate an official, Mr. Yee, who works for the Japanese puppet government in Shanghai. Her mission becomes clouded when she finds herself falling in love with the man she is assigned to kill."
This is one of those movies where you would pee in your pants rather than take your eyes off the movie and go to the bathroom!
Year 1938: Hong Kong - college student Wong Chia Chi (Tang Wei aka Rebecca Tang) joins with a young man, Kuang Yu Min (Leehom Wang) and his college thespian group to put on patriotic plays to unite the local people against the invading Japanese military. However, Yu Min then rallies the students to attempt to assassinate a local Chinese man, Mr. Yee (Tony Leung) who works for the Japanese under the local puppet government. Chia Chi assumes the identity of Mrs. Mak, with another student assuming the role of Mr Mak, an import-export businessman and her husband.
Their plans fail as Mr. and Mrs. Yee leave for another city abruptly; however, they were able to kill another Chinese subordinate of Mr. Yee who did not accompany him abroad.
The acting troupe scatters to different places after the assassination.
Year 1942 - Shanghai - Chia Chi moves in to a house left by her father, but is forced to sell it and live on a government subsidy with her aunt; she is allowed to study with some of money from her house being sold. She runs into Yu Min, who has trained as a Chinese spy. he wants her to assume the identity of Mrs. Mak again and again try to set up Mr. Wu up to be killed again, who now sniffs out and kills Chinese operatives for the Japanese in Singapore,
The movie is so complete in everything seeming to be in the right place. The detail that they went to in order to film this movie is almost unbelievable! Everything from costumes, vehicles and such were painstakingly reproduced in order to make this film!
The cinematography is excellent, the music is the only thing that was not perfect to me; the single-stringed instruments which were common then drive me up the wall to a certain extent..Sorry!
The main cast perfectly portray falling in love over time, and seem to develop intimacy with each other, much to the detriment of the female lead, and her college friends! Rebecca Tang, even though it was her first movie, is breath-taking in the period costume, mesmerizing in the sex scenes and absolutely convincing in her transition from a student bent on revenge and assassination to a woman deeply and completely in love with the man who would order her and her colleague's death.
In my first viewing of this movie, I realized what was happening and I was wondering is the Kuomintang (KMT) was going to pull her off the assignment or not before something 'bad' happened to her.
Tony Leung, who I had never seen in a movie before, was great as a cold, calculating head of a Japanese secret service department set up to find and kill Chinese espionage unit members. Little did I know that this was probably his first time playing this type character, as I found out later.
I also cannot hardly wait, when I watch this movie, for the first-time 'love' scene between the two main characters, which he initiates!
He played the character well; however, he did show some emotion in the last scene in which he had already sealed the fate of the group.
Personally, had I been him, I would have sent "Mrs. Mak" and her fellow female colleague to the war front as "comfort women" instead of wasting them as they were!
The support cast as well played their roles well, playing their individual well, and adding to the ability of the main cast in telling the main story throughout the movie. I usually give a kudo or two to an outstanding support cast member here and to how they especially contributed to the film, but everything was so 'concentrated' on the two main male/female characters that no one really stood out.
Interestingly, Yu Min and Chia Chi gaze at each other, in what seems to be a loving glance, just before their end. I personally think that Yu Min could have contributed more to the Chinese war effort by volunteering as a soldier, rather than attempting to trick and kill a more experienced adversary such as Mr. Wu; he was outclassed at every turn by the senior spy master!
Had Yu Min been man enough to join the Chinese army rather than to convince his college friends take on someone who is superior to them in the game they played, he would not have caused so many deaths!
As with The Classic (2003), The Bow (2005) and Seven Samurai (1954), I notice something new in this movie every time I see it, which means it is a movie which you shouldn't see just once!
This is a half to three-quarters box of Kleenex movie, but only in the last third of the movie.
RE-WATCH VALUE: YES!
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Historical Revisionism, Romanticising Abuse, and Outright Misogyny
Do I really hate this film? Well, actually, I did enjoy some few things in this film until that nasty and unfortunate second half, especially the ending. I love this film for two things: Tony Leung and Tang Wei. Though, I hate this film for three things: the historical revisionism, the "woman and their affection for jewelry (materialism)" trope, and the toxic romanticism of abuse.In spite of giving it a decisive one star during my first watch, I still decided to give it another watch as I also could not deny the things I have loved about the film. I have a personal positive bias for both of the leads: Tang Wei and Tony Leung. Indeed, their performances have been great as always. At the very beginning, their characters have already been greatly emphasized: his almost callous and greedy composure and her idealistic and naive courage. This did not change all throughout the film which led to that appalling conclusion.
I do commend the direction also, but for a film about espionage, it was lacking with intrigue and suspense. All throughout, I could only sense a story about a tragic romance blossoming. Even the sex scenes didn't have the electrifying quality of eroticism. It was, indeed, lustful. Though, there was no uncanny or distinct emotion that truly drove the eros. Ang Lee need to understand the difference between pornography and true erotica. Erotica has high-art aspirations. It has emotional and intellectual sensitivity. But, just like some cheap pornography, it seemed that Ang Lee only thought to convey different, but, "controversial" sex positions.
After learning that this was based from a true historical event, I went to read about Zheng Pingru. She was the true-to-life spy based on Tang Wei's character. After learning herstory, I was really appalled. Especially that I am from a country where historical revisionism has been a sensitive issue and a detrimental political propaganda machine, I could never justify the disrespect they made her character in the film. Zheng Pingru was a strong and brilliant woman who has not betrayed her country and people which led to her death at a young age of 22. Her character, though, was made less into someone who has chosen jewelry over her true allegiance.
I AM DISGUSTED HOW THEY MADE A WOMAN'S HISTORY FILLED WITH COURAGE AND DIGNITY INTO SOMEONE'S MISOGYNISTIC FANTASIES OF TRAGIC ROMANCE. Even without tying it to true history and just a complete fictional idea, it is still socially detrimental. It really promotes the foolish long-held idea that men has to be aggressive first in order to fully lure the interest of women. Of course, we have different sexual preferences, but the common denominator in all healthy relationships is consent. Again, Ang Lee has no intelligent grasp of true erotica and he also have no true comprehension of BDSM. I doubt even if the sexual assaults were truly plot devices, but rather misogynistic fantasies. That certain scene could have stopped at the moment she was showing agony as he assaulted her, but that scene concluded with her smiling in bed as if to assure the audience that she enjoyed her assault (yikes).
Furthermore, another long-held idea or trope where women will always be moved by a good, expensive jewelry has ruined the film even without tying it to the historical revisionism. Can a woman only realized a man's affection when he give her material luxuries? Patriarchal society has long been damaging women for believing that men have to do the labour and money-earning while their women sit at home and splurge their money on luxury. This patriarchal belief that women are materialistic is what this film was going for. In any way you look at it, Lust, Caution is a film that is completely detrimental to society. The NC-17 rating is not because of the (almost doubtful) erotic content being inappropriate for young audiences, but rather these foolish long-held misogynistic beliefs should be abolished from young minds.
P.S. Another thing I noticed which I almost forgot to add, the film was also portraying the Madonna-whore complex. Yes, of course, another patriarchal belief of their lack of understanding regarding female sexuality.
"The Madonna–whore complex is a concept first coined by Sigmund Freud. It represents the dichotomy of the Madonna—a wholly virtuous, pure, and chaste woman—and the whore—a promiscuous, seductive, and degraded woman. "
This complex has plagued many men into having affairs because they believed that their wives are only good and pure, thus, they need another extra woman in their life that they can corrupt. In the film, we can see how Tony's character degraded, corrupted, and lusted over Tang Wei's. Though, there was no sexual attraction or tension shown between him and his wife. His dealing with his wife was always "pure", while with Tang Wei, it was "promiscuous". This complex and belief has put so many taboos in female sexuality.
Women desiring sex does not make them less pure neither is sex inherently vulgar or dirty. It was the patriarchal belief that put sex in a taboo category. Sex was purposed to be transcendental, holy, and intimate until patriarchal society decided it was a vulgar obscurity just because they can't master over their own unjust lusts.
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