20 January, 2008
Not very cautious, quite lust, but a bit lost
Ang Lee‘s latest movie, Lust, Caution is probably not one of his best, yet it is worth a trip to the cinema. As always with Lee, the movie is beautifully shot, the acting firm and truthful. Yet I expected more.
Probably it is too long and it did not really convince me at the end. The story is simple and sometimes too weak: it is based on a short story about a woman (Wei Tang) who in Shanghai 1942 tries to help the Chinese resistance to kill the head of the police, Mr. Yee (Tony Leung) a collaborationist of the Japanese army that controls China. She gains Yee’s attention and becomes his lover. The relationship between the two is very intense and, rightly, the movie needs time to build up the tension. B
ut something is not really working in the movie, the focus is too much on the lovers, and the other characters are often mere shadows, thin-paper characters. Yet, some scenes are simply beautiful. The sado-masochistic tension in the sexual intercourses between the veteran Tony Leung opposite newcomer Wei Tang are so intense that the spectators feel like they are peeping into the privacy of two weirdly-attracted-by-each-other lovers: a master and a slave. Comparing those scenes with the rest of the movie, one has the impression that Mr. Lee made the movie only to be able to shoot those few scenes between Leung and Wei. It deserves some mention the part of the movie where Ms We, a virgin, has to learn how to make love to be able to become a convincing lover for Leung’s characters. After all she is believed to be the wife of a businessman, therefore expert enough in matter of sex. That part is well done, perfectly acted by Ms Tang, it is a series of almost speechless scenes where she goes from being a virgin to mastering some kind of art of love. Overall this is a good movie, but it is not a masterpiece, it was probably overrated. Yet, the cinema theatre is the right place to watch it, the cinematography and the beauty of the scenes shot by Lee are not made for a TV screen.
