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And it cannot be played on every players. It is difficult to figure out how to play.
However, the film resonates very well with the unromantic vision of human passion and battle of the sexes of the 20th-century novelist Eileen Chang (Zhang Ailing), upon whose short story the filmscript is based. The stark, unsentimental conclusion and dénouement may be off-putting for some film-goers who hanker after a feel-good finale, and the amount of violence and nudity makes the uncut version of the film suitable only for viewers of age 18 and up. The female lead Tang Wei and male lead Tony Leung both give excellent performances with a level of subtlety that calls for repeated viewings of the film. This is a cerebral espionage thriller, plumbing psychological depths that are rarely attempted, much less achieved, in ordinary films in this genre. The award-winning director Ang Lee, one of the top half dozen film directors from Greater China (specifically Taiwan in his case), is at the top of his game in this film, arguably his greatest to date.
And, of course, there is her obvious talent: how could an actress, in her first-ever film, so fully be the character as to perform the sex scenes, with other people watching, with such authenticity. Whether he did as she describes deliberately to "force" her to do her best I don't know; but it had a brilliant result). And in this: How on earth, as example, did he get such a performance -- especially but certainly not only in the sex scenes -- from the amazing lead actress Wei Tang in her first-ever film. about director Ang Lee.I've not seen all his films, but it is clear from those I have seen -- "Eat Drink Man Woman," "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon," and now "Lust Caution" -- and interviews (especially with Zhang Ziyi about her experiences making "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon" found on helloziyi.us.com) that he is one of the absolute best directors in the business.His range is phenomenal: none of those three films has anything in common with the other two in terms of subject, content, or genre:"Eat Drink" is a "small" and intimate, and poignant, family comedy, in which he consciously substituted food (for those who've not seen it, the lead male character is a master chef) for the rampant sex in today's films.By comparison, "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon" is wholly unexpected: a wu xia "martial arts" film -- which also revolutionized that genre by including a story with substance, not merely as dispensible bits to fill in the pauses between a number of "martial arts" fights. Ang Lee is the Chinese director to watch -- even more so than Zhang Yimou and Wong Kar Wai, and a slew of others. Well, there is one thing that is common to those films: Ang Lee's stories always have both substance, depth, and subtlety. Then comes "Lust Caution" -- another wholly unexpected subject. And he draws extraordinary performances from his casts (again, see the interviews with Zhang Ziyi about "Crouching Tiger" -- the hard work she put in in effort to fulfill the director's apparent hopes.
The acting is pretty good and the visuals are excellent. Ponderously, the movie lasts for a 2 plus subtitled hours (unless you understand Chinese), but it felt more like 6 hours. But my advice to most of you is rent a travelogue or documentary about China and an Asian porno and you'll get what you came for without the tediously uncredible story. I especially liked the street scenes of WWII time Shanghai (or whereever that was supposed to be). The story takes place over a period of 4 years and it almost seemed like I was watching it in real time. The story is not very convincing and kind of dumb actually, but to Ang Lee's credit it is fairly well told.
By the time "Lust, Caution" reaches its downbeat conclusion, the dramatic impact has been dissipated. Strong performances, impressive period detail and Rodrigo Prieto's mesmerizing photography cannot fully redeem the plodding narrative. Not one of Lee's best films, but certainly worth a look. Set mostly in World War II Shanghai, director Ang Lee's follow-up to "Brokeback Mountain" is an overlong, ambivalent journey into Chinese sexual espionage. Lee aims for an epic grandeur that clashes with the traditional spy thriller - minus the sharp pacing inherent in the genre.
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