Tense and suspenseful, I would have never suspected that Ang Lee was so capable of such strong direction to convey this spy thriller in such a fascinating and provocative manner. He really conveys the mood of anticipation and dramatic emotions through the juxtaposition of explicit frankness and repressed subtlety. And unlike some of his other films, the long running time flew by swiftly while the the film still maintains an epic feel. Lee pushes out powerful performances from the entire cast and Tony Leung shows again why he is one of the best actors of this generation. Oh, and the NC-17 rating is well deserved, moreso for its suggested violence than just nudity. Solid A.

Lust, Caution is the film that asks the question:

Is being a deep cover assassin/spy really any different than being a lifelong lover/spouse?

(Hint: Until death do us part.)



The lush, lush recreation of historical Shanghai provides a vibrant backdrop for this intensely slow study in intrigue and deception. It really is quite magnificent in it's languor. And the acting, especially by Wei Tang, who is in practically every shot, is splendidly involving.

6 out of 5.

Saw it when it opened... guess it's been about a month?

I wasn't really enthused with it. Lee's made a gorgeous, lush film, but I found it to be a bit too hollow.

B-


*sigh*

As pretty much every single other film I saw by Ang Lee, Lust, Caution suffers under a too long running time and the fact that Lee doesn't know when some stuff should be edited out. While a major problem, howevere, this is not my main gripe with this movie. That would be that I never felt that the character Tony Leung played crossed over from a disturbed pervet to a three-dimensional character. He just remained the same for me all the time and thus I had difficulties to understand Wong's feelings for him that result in her death and the deaths of her friends at the end. This was a very crucual point and the ending just felt unnatural and more estranged. I couldn't buy into the connection that built up between Mr. Yee and Wong and that's a really big flaw in the film.

Other than that, it'll probably remain the slowest film I've seen all year, but it is by no means a bad movie. The character of Wong Chia Chi is well-developed and Tang Wei plays her with delicate perfection. Tony Leng who I usually enjoy in al of his roles let me down here, as he couldn't make his character in any way likeable (and I think that was intended in a way). He remained rather hollow. The rest of the cast was quite decent, but Wei outshined every single one of them.

Another film I liked about the film, was how well it estabilished its setting and time period. The art direction, costumes, make-up and music were all spot on and made the viewer feel as if he was in Shanghai of the 40s. The cinematography, while more subtle as in Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon or in Brokeback Mountain was quite good as well. It's too bad that the final product doesn't live up to its full potential. It could have been much improved if shortened by 15-20 minutes, but the fatal flaw of the lacking explanation to Wong's feelings towards Mr. Yee would still remain.

The single best scene in the entire film was the armateur-ish killing of the blackmailer. Its a really tense scene and I felt it was portrayed painfully realistic because that's how a murder would lkely happen if you have never done that before and if it happens at the spur of the moment.

Now I've gotta see Black Book and compare the two

Except for the mahjong scenes, which are great, especially when you understand the rules and could feel the tension with each play and conversation (the scene where Joan Chen, playing Mrs. Yee, interrupted Wei as she was trying to give Leung her phone number gave me chill), the first 40 minutes are slow. In particular, I think the school play segment could be cut significantly. The story only took off once Tang Wei and Tony Leung's characters met. Whenever they're on screen, it's spellbinding, and they delivered two of the best performances of the year. Unfortunately, Lee-Hom Wang lagged behind their standard except in the killing scene, as he couldn't make me buy into his feeling toward Tang Wei. I agree with Lecter in that that killing scene is really intense and well played, all the way to when Lee-Hom Wang snapped the blackmailer's neck with his eyes fully red.

As for the three sex scenes, they're certainly as explicit as they get, and they in fact got progressively more explicit. You could actually see Leung's erected penis and balls in the last one. But they're essential to the development of the two lead's relationship. Because they don't talk much and they share the similar burden of having to keep everything inside, sex becomes their way of communication; it's one place where they could let it all out, and it's why having sex alone could push their relationship to where it was at the end. All the positions they used are just like conversations. Even though only three scenes are shown, I believe the idea is they actually had many more during that time, and three are basically the representatives of different stages of their relationship and feeling toward each other. At the beginning, Leung's character didn't yet trust Wei and was concerned about making himself feel alive, so he resorted to violence. Then eventually he allowed Wei to take control and trust her enough to let her on top.

Technically the film is what you could expect from various masters, haunting score from Desplat and beautiful cinematography from Prieto that brought you firmly back to Shanghai during 1930s.

Overall: A-/B+

Hmm, can't remember that. Maybe I just didn't focus on it as much, heh.

I wouldn't have noticed it either if not for my gf, who had watched it with her friends prior, pointing it out to me.

Sure xia sure

I want to see this (it just came out here this week) but I probably have to wait for dvd. My GF wont want to see it even though she's Asian and none of my friends do. Plus I dont want to see it on my own as i'll feel people will think im some sort of deviant only there for the sex

I guess I'm the only one who didn't find this movie to be slow. It felt a lot shorter than The Hulk and Brokeback Mountain to me, and, in fact, one minor complaint I'd have for the movie is that the ending happened too quickly. Perhaps the movie just felt slow for most because we have to wait so long until the second half of the movie to see the sex scenes between Tony Leung and Tang Wei?

I just watched it, and I didn't notice. And that's something I'd notice .

LUST, CAUTION - 8/10 (B+)

Surprisingly this didn't feel nearly as long as I was expecting it to. In fact, it went by pretty fast, despite being slower paced. I wasn't that into the first half hour, but after that it was really intriguing and I wasn't bored. The direction is perfect, and the costume design, cinematography, and all other technical aspects are masterfully done. That one blue dress Tang Wei wears is probably even more stunning than the green dress Keira Knightley donned in "Atonement." Speaking of Tang Wei, she gives a great performance. But I was really disappointed in her character's actions in the end.

Why this wasn't showered in award nominations at least in the technical categories is beyond me. Nobody can deny how deserving it is.

She was beautiful in her blue dress, but personally I prefered her in her undress in the movie...

Why is every foreign movie listed in the topic title in their original name and then in [] the English title? I looked for a topic to this movie when I first saw it, but couldn't find a topic named Se, jie...

Anyway, back to the movie...

8/10 -> B

A very good movie, a bit too long at parts. What was really interesting to see was all the sexuality. This is easily one of the most sexual movies I've ever seen. And that's surprising considering it comes from usually very conservative Taiwan.

This movie has everything done right - a great love story, suspense, drama, but running time really gives a good blow to the movie. Hence the lower grade. Other than that I really can't say something bad about the movie.

Fairly interesting film that falters in parts due to its overlong runtime.