Lust, Caution, He Said

It's China in the 1930's. The Japanese are invading the country. A group of young Chinese students in the Hong Cong successfully produce a play that inflames passion produced threat from the Japanese. Their heady success and new found patriotism leads them to plot the death of a high official who is betraying his countrymen to the enemy, Their plan is to assassinate him. When his security foils them at every turn they turn to the beautiful actress to seduce him. She does, but than what?

Ang Lee's film depicts the era with chilling reality. The brutality of the invading force and the duplicity of the the collaborators leads to the horrible deaths of many people, But this is war and the youth of the nation are not to be lead to slaughter or submission without a fight no matter how great the odds.

To me the similarities between this film and Paul Verhoeven's Black Book (Zwartboek) are amazing. In both cases the heroine is motivated to play the role seductress and sleep with the enemy for the cause. In both cases, the target becomes hopelessly infatuated with the women, dropping their guard and becoming vulnerable. The sacrifice the women make is both appreciated and rejected by the underground that supports her. And in the end, salvation is not the earthly reward one would hope for. There is the man who worships the seductress from afar, but his love is repressed by the needs of the cause.

Ang Lee's contribution is a more epic slower moving film that takes some patience. Lee is trying to show us a culture we don't entirely understand that was going through a momentous and epic change. He wants us to understand the culture, the people and the landscape. At the same time he is pointing out the universal human quest for freedom and self expression and the necessity of waging a constant fight against subjugation and repression. This is a big bite out of an even larger sandwich. I get sucked in to these films easily, so maybe my opinion is shaped by my interest.

The film is compelling from a number of aspects, but in the end it's the human character of the seductress, Wang Jiazhi, played by Tang Wei, that reaches out and grabs our hearts and minds. She is troubled by the changes in her country, but is also besieged by her confusion over the inattention she receives from the man she loves, the rebel, Kuang Yu Min. His feelings are apparent, but he buries them as she becomes the principle player in their game to seduce and kill the collaborator, Mr Yee.

Her seduction of Yee is successful, but his brutal and sadomasochistic form of lovemaking is somehow appealing to her. her body betrays her mind and in the end the plot fails because of her inability to act. This film is R-rated because of the sex scenes, but without them the story can not be told or understood. You may not feel comfortable watching this film, but than that is not Ang Lee's intention.