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Assem Chhabra
Lust, Caution
Ang Lee / English/ 157 minutes
Two-thirds into Taiwanese director Ang Lee’s new film
Lust, Caution, the film’s two principles meet secretly in
mid-afternoon, in a dusty room in Shanghai. The two – Mr.
Yee (played by the 46 year-old Hong Kong superstar Tony
Leung Chiu Wai) and Wong Chia Chi (a young, 28 yearold
newcomer Wei Tang) have been playing a sexual cat and
mouse game through most of the film.
Wong is dropped at the building by Yee’s driver. She walks
up to the designated room and looks around in silence only
to be startled by seeing Yee sitting in a chair watching her.
The two are finally together – Yee, the older married man
and Wong, a woman with duplicitous intentions.
Suddenly he grabs her violently, slams her against a wall,
rips her dress, and then throws her on the bed. He pulls off
his belt, hits her a few times, and then ties up her hands, at
the same time unbuttoning his fly. The woman screams and
yells out loudly, but the man has all the power over her. He
finally releases her hands, but continues to dominate her in
what appears to be nothing short of a rape. The woman may
have come into the room willingly, but the sexual violence
that ensues changes the tone of the afternoon.
It is an exceptionally difficult scene to watch, especially
given that the audience had gotten used to the two characters’
playful flirtations, parting glances over a game of mahjong,
shopping trips and long lazy afternoons in quiet restaurants.
Lust, Caution was given the rare and controversial NC 17
rating by the Motion Picture Association of America’s
review board, which means that no one under 17 can be
admitted in a theatre (as opposed to the more common R
rating, where children under 17 can see the film, but only
if they are accompanied by an adult).
In the past 16 years, Lee has made a remarkable career with
films that challenge our notion of human relationships,
sexual and other. He made it big with The Wedding Banquet
– his charming study of a gay Chinese man’s marriage of
convenience with an undocumented woman, that results in
disastrous and yet warm consequences. He has since then
directed a vast array of films – from the subdued and quiet,
classic British romantic story Sense and Sensibility, where
what is not said is more important than what is spoken; The
Ice Storm – a tragic examination of the breaking apart of
America’s moral fibre, during President Nixon’s era, with
wife swapping parties in white suburban Connecticut; and
Brokeback Mountain, a deeply romantic and heartbreaking
love story of two closeted gay cowboys. He has dealt with
a comic book hero in the not-so-successful Hulk and with
Chinese martial art action drama in the very elegant and
high energy driven Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. It is a
very impressive resume for a filmmaker with tremendous
creative resources.
With Lust, Caution he goes further – looking at sexual
politics and power play, with a healthy dose of suspense,
intrigue and betrayal. The film is based on a short story
by the Chinese writer Eileen Chang whose writing career
(from the 1930s until the time of her death in 1995)
included several short stories, novels and film scripts. Her
works – considered the best among the Chinese literature
of that period, often dealt with the tensions between men
and women in love. In the film’s press kit, Lee is quoted as
saying that no story of Chang ‘is as beautiful, or as cruel as
Lust, Caution.’
It is the early 1940s. The brutal expansionist Japanese
army occupies China. Wong is part of a radical resistance
student group that first met up in Hong Kong and now
have reconnected in Shanghai with the hope of eliminating
Yee, a top Japanese collaborator. Theatre acting gives Wong
tremendous thrill and soon she is ready to play a more
important role where the script will have to be revised and
improvised.
Wong pretends to be married to a businessman and enters
the Yee household by befriending Mrs. Yee (a wonderful
Joan Chen). From there this young woman flirts her way
into Yee’s heart. But their first violent sexual encounter is
director Lee’s way of informing us that all is not comfortable
in this secret rendezvous. It is also his reminder to the
audience that because of the deceptive nature of their
relationship, something is going to crack up.
As the two protagonists meet up again and again for sex,
the violent nature of the act leads to more passionate love
making. But we cannot let our guards down. The two
Otilia’s journey turns out to be more harrowing than the
pregnant woman’s since she has to compensate for Gabita’s
unreliability and manipulative passivity. Starting with
booking the hotel where the operation will be performed
unbeknownst to the compulsively bureaucratic hotel staff,
she also has to negotiate with the abortionist, pay him and
deal with the aftermath. But the most harrowing test of
her solidarity comes as soon as she brings the abortionist
to the hotel room.
characters may start to show warmth towards each other,
but the director is keeping us on the edge. The eventual act
of betrayal by one of the protagonists is a reminder that
the weak in a relationship can sometimes be a lot stronger
than one can imagine. And they can use the strength to self
destruct.
Lust, Caution is a beautiful film, one that will haunt you, with
its slow romantic soundtrack, and its details – whether in
a woman cautiously applying a touch of perfume behind
her ears or the larger canvas of a busy Shanghai destroyed
by the occupying forces. Ang Lee is a master and we are
blessed to be living in a time when he can enrich our senses
with all his sensibilities.
Aseem Chhabra is a freelance entertainment writer based
in New York. He writes a weekly column for Mumbai
Mirror. He has been published in The New York Times, The
Boston Globe, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Time Out, New
York, India Abroad and Rediff.com. Aseem is on the board of
the South Asian Journalist Association. He can be contacted
at aseemchhabra@aol.com.
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