Lust, Caution

aka: Se, Jie
China / Taiwan / USA 2007, 157 minutes
Dir. Ang Lee
In Mandarin, Japanese, English with English subtitles
Rating: [R]
Genres: Foreign Cinema, Drama, Suspense/Crime / War, Sex

Topics: Period 1940s.

Feat. Tony Leung (Chiu-wai), Joan Chen, Wei Tang, Leehom Wang

Aroview: Dir. Ang Lee (BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN) returns to the mainland to present a slow-burn, psychologically dense and provocative spy thriller, based on the Eileen Chang short story and set in Japanese-occupied Shanghai during WWII.

Centred on a young student who becomes the mistress of a powerful collaborator (celebrated Canto-thesp Tony Leung, in a menacing aboutface) in order to kill him, this overcomes much of its sexual notoriety (for supposedly unsimulated intercourse) through impeccable period detail and Lee's seasoned, always urgent direction. Go-for-broke, but not entirely out-of-place, the aggressive, consensually ambiguous love scenes charge the latter half of the film with the necessary danger and moral unease to transcend its oft-told tragi-romance.