Ang Lee's startling, erotic espionage thriller is yet another masterpiece from this most versatile of modern directors. Like Lee's acclaimed Brokeback Mountain, it scooped the Golden Lion at Venice, and has emerged as one of the best reviewed films of the year.
Based on a novella by the Chinese writer Eileen Chang, Lust, Caution is set during the Japanese occupation of Shanghai, when a beautiful actress (Wei Tang) begins an affair with a notorious collaborator (Tony Leung) in order to facilitate his assassination. As the couple embark on an intense physical affair, her increasingly complex emotions threaten to compromise the mission.
Lust, Caution made headlines for its graphic sex scenes, yet the physical element is so crucial to the story's central relationship that to censor them (as occurred in China) would have undermined our understanding of the passions that eventually overwhelm both characters.
After their first, chaste introduction, the pair become separated, and their eventual reunion leads to a sexual encounter that is as sudden as it is brutal; later trysts show the couple moving towards a more equal footing.
Wei Tang is one of the most exciting new stars to emerge from Asian cinema in decades, and Lee's slow-burning narrative allows her to reveal a truly remarkable range, as her character’s emotions shift from wary ambivalence, to lust, to growing compassion.
Graphic sex scenes apart, Lust, Caution could pass for a classic Hollywood drama, with a sense of intrigue that recalls the finest thrillers of the 1940s, and stunning production design that superbly evokes the wartime setting. Many of the film's motifs echo classic Hitchcock; the plot is similar to Notorious, while a disastrous murder mirrors a similar sequence in Torn Curtain.
As for the film's epic length, enjoy it; Lust, Caution earns and even requires its running time; it's a film worth watching again and again to pick up every nuance.
During WWII in China, a beautiful spy begins an affair with a powerful political figure to facilitate his assassination, but complex emotions complicate her mission. The film has already made headlines for its graphic sex scenes, yet these are so crucial to the central relationship that to have censored the scenes would detract from the heady passions that saturate the film. In spite of its epic length, this is a film worth watching again and again to pick up every subtle nuance; no one else can match Lee's gift for this kind of cinema, and following on from his Brokeback Mountain is yet another masterpiece to add to the versatile director's incredible career.
The Lives of Others
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Lust, Caution
