Lust.Caution
I went to catch Lee An's latest movie - Lust. Caution starred by Tony Leung, Lee Hom and Tang Wei (a rising star in Mainland China) over the weekend. Despite the many controversies surrounding the cut scenes of the movie, I would say that this movie is still worth my weekend ticket price.
The setting of the movie is in 1940s Shanghai, where the Japanese has just taken over China in the Japanese Occupation. Tong Leung (Yee) plays a powerful political figure in the Japanese backed-Chinese Government as the post of Intelligence Chief. His main role is to eliminate rebels who are looking to overthrow the Japanese empire. Lee Hom (Kuang) stars in the role of a charismatic student drama club chairman of a school. He is patriotic to his country and could not bear to see his country fall into the hands of the Japanese. By chance, he meets Tang Wei (Wong Jia Zhi) and shares with her his plan to assassinate Yee.
Wong is to take up the role of Mrs Mak to get close to Yee's wife. She is to help to find out the daily habits and routines of Yee to faciliate Kuang's gang to find a chance to assassinate Yee. By twist of fate, Yee was seduced by the charm and beauty of Wong and Kuang decided to use Wong as a bait to assassinate Yee.
Tony Leung was as usual, charming in his portray as Yee in this movie. However, fans may expect more from this acting veteran. The way he walks, acts or talks seemed to be a carbon copy from his character in one of his previous movie, 2046. The character of Kuang doesn't really fit Lee Hom at all. A patriotic student with an accent in his Mandarin hardly goes hand in hand. The way he spoke Mandarin in the movie is as good as me trying to speak French. One scene of the movie with Lee Hom leading his crew of rebels dancing and singing patriotic China songs down the street had the audiences in the theatre in stitches. His expressions need a lot more honing and in some scenes, his face is like that of a dead fish.
It was Tang Wei who really impresses me the most. Her character, in my opinion, is the hardest to act. Her portraying of the character of an ordinary student who was thrown into the turmoils of the chaotic world and get swept up in a dangerous game of emotion intrigue with Yee was a delight to watch. China does really have a stream of very talented young actors and actresses.
Many local critics had condemned this movie, saying that the cut version undermined the artistic value of the movie and one extremist in one newspaper column even urges Singaporeans to boycott this movie and piles pressure on the local movie industry to release an uncut (R21) version of Lust.Caution.
I was fairly disappointed when I learnt that 9 minutes of the movie had been cut to bring down the rating to cater a bigger crowd. However, after watching the movie, I would say that it has not lost its essence due to the cut and it scores a high 8/10 on my list. The main reason was because it was Lee An who cut the footage himself, not the Board of Censorship. Surely Lee An would not have cut something that would kill the plot or the essential emotions of the characters in his movie?
In other words, this lust can still be proceeded, with or without caution.
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"I look into the eyes of my fellow politicans in the Government and I see one thing only - Fear." Yee told Wong, which perhaps sums up the fear and stress he faces everyday in his job.
"The reason why this restaurant has got so little people is because the food they serve is awful. But that's the reason why I like it here. I can talk less discreetly here because there are not many people around." Yee to Wong in a suggestive mood.
"You could have had me 3 years ago. Why didn't you?" Wong said to Kuang. A simple sentence but yet contains her love and admiration for Kuang. It was perhaps of this that Wong decided to take up the dangerous assignment of acting as a spy beside Yee.
posted by malmoncolo @ 8:00 AM
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