Jan

12

2008

Lust, Caution

Posted by luna6

lustcaution-poster1.jpg
Movie Review: Lust, Caution
Release Date: August 30, 2007
Country: Taiwan
Director: Ang Lee
Starring: Tony Leung Chiu Wai, Wei Tang
Runtime: 157 Min
Editor Rating: 6.0

Users Rating: 6.42 1 Star2 Stars3 Stars4 Stars5 Stars6 Stars7 Stars8 Stars9 Stars10 Stars (19 votes)

Loading ... Loading …



I’ve been anxiously awaiting for the arrival of the much hyped “Lust, Caution” from praised Taiwanese director Ang Lee. The movie promises a tantalizing mixture of sex, espionage, historical settings and, along with that, a Venice Film Festival Golden Bear award, ratings controversy in the U.S. and China, the charismatic Tony Leung, and tremendous box office success in China and Korea. With all those elements involved, there must be something great about “Lust, Caution” right?

lustcaution-main3.jpgThe movie itself is set in Japanese-occupied Shanghai during the second Sino-Japanese War. A once naive country girl named Chia Wong (Wei Tang) becomes involved in an underground resistance movement to assassinate a high ranking Japanese collaborator named Mr. Yee (Tony Leung).

The girl infiltrates Mr. Yee’s inner sanctum by first befriending his wife (played by Joan Chen) and then seducing Mr. Yee into a torrid affair. As their heated tryst develops, the girl’s heart becomes heavier by the mixture of harsh reality and uncontrollable emotions.

Throughout the long 2 hour and 37 minute runtime, I couldn’t help feeling underwhelmed by the movie. That’s not to say “Lust, Caution” is a bad movie per se, but with its cast and hype, the movie came across as strangely average. Part of the blame lies with the film’s overly long setup and its focus on extraneous moments. As an example, the many scenes shown of the wives and their mahjong game felt like gratuitous moments that were strangely disconnected from the movie’s core. The chatter among the wives during those games seemed more appropriate for “The Joy Club” rather than “Lust, Caution.”

The cast for “Lust, Caution” was probably the second biggest factor in my lukewarm response for the movie. Wei Tang, who played the pivotal character of Wong Chia Chi, is a first time performer in a feature film and she unintentionally signified the movie in general … “just average.” On the other hand, Tony Leung has given many unforgettable performances in the past, but outside of the novelty of his graphic sex scenes, there’s not much in “Lust, Caution” to remember him by. The peripheral cast were just as lukewarm, lacking any type of magic or anything special. The recreation of Shanghai in the 1940’s was done well and in particular the recognizable French Concession and Bund area’s of Shanghai.

The much talked about sex scenes were fairly graphic though it counted for only a small fraction of the movie’s runtime. To my eyes, there wasn’t anything gratuitous about those scenes, especially when in taken in context with the story. You could analyze those scenes and the way it represented the development in Chia-chi and Mr. Yee’s relationship. I’ll take a pass on that, but will just say that power is a funny thing and the battle for who gets on top could be applied literally to those scenes.

Back, to the initial question in this review of “there must be something great about ‘Lust, Caution’ right?” After watching the film, I can say that the only magic I found in “Lust, Caution” was found in the film’s marketing department. They did a remarkable job in selling an otherwise average movie.

Cast:
Tony Leung Chiu Wai - Mr. Yee
Wei Tang - Wong Chia Chi
Joan Chen - Mrs. Yee
Lee-Hom Wang - Kuang Yu Min
Chung Hua Tou - Old Wu
Chih-ying Chu - Lai Shu Jin
Ying-hsien Kao - Huang Lei
Yue-Lin Ko - Liang Jun Sheng
Johnson Yuen - Auyang Ling Wen / Mr. Mak
Kar Lok Chin - Tsao
Su Yan - Ma Tai Tai
Caifei He - Hsiao Tai Tai
Ruhui Song - Wang’s Aunt
Anupam Kher - Jewelry Shop Manager
Liu Jie - Leung Tai Tai

If you like this movie you may enjoy: Purple Butterfly

lustcaution-01.jpglustcaution-02.jpglustcaution-03.jpg

lustcaution-04.jpglustcaution-05.jpglustcaution-06.jpg

lustcaution-07.jpglustcaution-08.jpglustcaution-09.jpg

lustcaution-10.jpglustcaution-11.jpglustcaution-12.jpg

[Slashdot] [Digg] [Reddit] [del.icio.us] [Facebook] [Technorati] [Google] [StumbleUpon]

2007 Movie Reviews, Chinese Movies, Movie Reviews, Movies |

Comments

Name (required)

Email (required)

Website

Leave a response

3 Comments so far

  1. 3 apple Says: January 17, 2008

    i actualli watched this movie ages ago on a dodgy dvd, b4 i heard about it and didnt know who directed it. even tho it was grainy n all (bad quality disk) but i thought the mah jong scene especially was wong kar wai-ish, but it was a bit…i felt worked. pretentious? like self aware. but i still thought the movie was good-but not great.

  2. 2 luna6 Says: January 12, 2008

    Luiz the sex scenes were fairly explicit… enough were you could incorrectly believe what you were seeing were real. The first scene was rough, light bondage. The second scene was were the gymnastics came into play. And the last one showed how their sexual relationship parralleled their romantic relationship. Also since you asked, I wasn’t taken by Wei Tang’s performance, but she did look quite impressive in the nude.

    “Lust, Caution” didn’t have anything in it to remind me of a Wong Kar Wai film. It actually had more of a Hollywood film like quality which I couldn’t quite pinpoint why.

    Cheers…

  3. 1 Luiz Says: January 12, 2008

    Does it seems a bit like a Wong Kar Wai movie? WHen you described the Mahjong scenes i couldn’t help but think of “In The Mood For Love”….

    And about the actress, how was her sex performance…?

    Last year was full of overhyped movies…