Film Review: Lust, Caution

Liverpool Daily Post

Lust, Caution (Cert. 18, 158 mins)
Stars: Tang Wei, Tony Leung, Joan Chen, Wang Leehom, Chu Tsz-ying
Directed by Ang Lee

IN MARCH, 2006, Taiwanese film-maker Ang Lee was embroiled in one of Hollywood's most shocking robberies.

Riding proudly to the Academy Awards with his love story Brokeback Mountain, Lee deservedly collected the statuette as Best Director, only to see his picture sensationally denied the top prize in favour of homegrown drama Crash.

The gasp of disbelief, which echoed around California that night, was almost as loud as the sound of jaws collectively dropping around the world.

Lee sensibly escaped the furore by returning to Asia for this slow-burning adaptation of Eileen Chang's short story "Se, Jei", set against the Japanese occupation of Shanghai during World War II.

Lust, Caution is the director's first Mandarin language film since Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and the two features couldn't be more different.

Whereas the 2000 martial arts epic boasted breathlessly paced action sequences, this new work - a meticulous study of female repression - is achingly slow paced, punctuated with graphic sex scenes that leave nothing to the imagination.

The film's flawed heroine is demure Wong Chia Chi (Tang Wei), who bolsters her self-confidence by joining the university drama society run by radical Kuang Yu Min (Wang Leehom).

Kuang vociferously denounces the Japanese and he recruits Wong and the other actors to his cause, which includes a daring plot to assassinate high profile Japanese collaborator Mr Yee (Tony Leung), using Wong as bait.

She will pose as businessman's wife Mrs Mak and infiltrate the social circle of Mrs Yee (Joan Chen), then seduce the traitorous husband.

Wong's transformation is stunning, and Mr Yee is poised to succumb to her charms, only for tragedy to strike.

Lust, Caution will be too languid for some tastes. If anything, there is too much lust in the meandering middle section - a couple of the full frontal couplings could be excised to quicken the film's pulse without sacrificing any of the intensity or emotion.

But newcomer Wei and the iconic Leung are dazzling. Both actors place their trust entirely in Lee as the characters are laid bare, in every sense, consumed by a desire that will eventually destroy them.

Chen oozes style while director of photography Rodrigo Prieto, who worked on Brokeback Mountain, captures the beauty and devastation of the period, impeccably recreated by production designer Lai Pan.

If you invest time in Lee's magnificent study of betrayal, you'll be handsomely rewarded.