LUST, CAUTION is a lovely film from Ang Lee (The Ice Storm and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon). Lee is a genius at mining the very individual, personal, and emotional devastation of characters. Usually these characters are operating against a background of political upheaval or unrest. Intimacy becomes impossible. As their personal selves become obliterated, they develop a shared bond with another person struggling against similar forces. In The Ice Storm, a group of adults drink to much, they have affairs, and they completely abandon their children. The children resort to drugs, alcohol, random sex, and acts of deliberate cruelty. All this ensues with Watergate unfolding in the background. Remember when the young boy and girl (Christina Ricci and Elijah Woods) decide to have sex while Ricci's character dons a Richard Nixon mask......LUST, CAUTION is set during a different turbulent period, the Japanese occupation of China during World War II. The two people at the center of the storm are a high-ranking Chinese party official named Mr. Yee, played by the incomparable and fearless actor, Tony Leung. Leung is fast becoming one of those international actors that doesn't really have to do anything......you know everything there is to know just by looking at his face. There is a silence, a quietness there that is just devastating to watch. He is like a young Max Von Sydow or Takashi Shimura. This guy could not register a false note if he tried. Wei Lang plays a young woman who is enlisted by a group of militant Chinese actors, in order to infiltrate the ranks of the newly formed Japanese/Chinese coalition.
A lot has been written about the graphic sexuality of the movie and it is plentiful, acrobatic, and really well-done. Sex is control, or a release from being controlled, or a reversal of the master/slave roles. Both Tony Leung and and Wei Lang are absolutely fearless actors, more so when they are completely naked to each other. There is something touching when Leung's character slowly begins to let his guard down. He slowly begins to trust once again. There are no masks when they lie next to each other, completely spent after another intimate moment. This movie is has a terrific ensemble of supporting actors. Especially wonderful is Joan Chen as Mr. Yee's long suffering, manipulative wife. Watch the scenes where the women play Mah Jong. The women's comments about society, and themselves is absolutely great dialog.
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