Lust, Caution

I read the short story this movie was based on, but it was back toward the end of 2007 - probably around the time we played the movie. I don’t remember the story being as involved as the story in the movie, although the pace of the film is close enough to plodding that one could certainly imagine the story having been condensed into relatively few pages. It’s the old saw with the Ang-ster, but it works a little better here than it does in other pictures.

Briefly, the story revolves around a group of Chinese dissidents working underground to destabilize the emerging Chinese government during the time when Japan occupied China during World War II. The plan is for the resistance to get close to one of the Chinese leaders and assassinate him, but this is - wait for it - Easier Said Than Done. The “getting close to” is the hard part, because trust builds slowly (like plaque), especially when - again, wait for it - The Stakes Are High.

The group plans to use one of its own, a pretty girl with whom the targeted leader, a Mr. Yee, is clearly smitten, to seduce him and put her in place to take him out when they get their orders from the higher-ups. And oh, boy...does she seduce him. The third act is pretty much a Chinese Kama Sutra, with some shots of people smoking cigarettes very artfully, just to let you know that this whole thing is Very Serious.

Let me just stop for a second to rein this thing in here - because I think it’s starting to feel like I’m trashing the movie, and I don’t mean for that to be the case. I liked this movie, and if it had been 30-40 minutes shorter I would have really liked it; but it’s easy to poke fun at because it takes itself so seriously. This pretty much comes with the territory when you’re watching Ang Lee movies - they’re very pretty to look at, but they think awfully well of themselves, and alacrity is clearly a concept with which Mr. Lee is unfamiliar. This is one of those movies to which it is very easy to apply the MST3K treatment.

Interestingly, though, the plodding pace works here more than in other Ang Lee movies - because of the fact that trust and loyalty both build slowly. It’s necessary to show this trust building over the course of passing days, shared glances, lingering conversations, and some impressive feats of sexual endurance that are, quite honestly, a hair’s breadth away from being porn. It’s almost gratuitous, except for the way in which it revelas the dichotomy of Yee’s character - which gives us the title of the story.

The ending bothered me, though. For reasons passing understanding, Lee pulls his punches with two scenes that could have had a very powerful impact as the story draws to a close; and it seems an odd way to wrap up the story, given the very explicit nature of the sex scenes. There’s no ambiguity to the scenes, but fully realizing them might well have made the difference between a good picture and a very good picture.