Lust, Caution **
ANG LEE follows up the overrated Brokeback Mountain with Lust, Caution, an overblown exercise in directorial indulgence that prompts a resounding cry of ’so what?’, despite controversy over its explicit sex scenes (heavily censored for the picture’s release in China where much of the story is set).
Like P.S. I Love You it also opens badly, with a tedious and incomprehensible game of mahjong played by a group of high society ladies.
The setting is Japanese-occupied Shanghai in 1942 and one of the women at the table is Mrs Mak (Tang Wei) who is actually an undercover resistance fighter who has lured the hostess’ husband into an affair – Yee (Tony Leung) a buttoned-up but powerful and ruthless collaborator.
The story flashes back to pre-war Honk Kong where we learn how Mak, a university student, fell in with an amateur gang of young, anti-Japanese militants. Thus begins her mission to seduce Yee, a stop-start enterprise that only reaches fruition in 1941 when the characters have relocated to Shanghai.
Cue borderline hard-core sex as the seemingly reserved Yee displays a fondness for bondage (it’s always the quiet ones) and Mak, a virgin, discovers a strange liking for rough sex. It’s a crash course in lust for both parties, but will Mak have the strength to see through her mission?
Unfortunately, it is hard to care as both Mak and Yee are under-characterised and their relationship generates zero warmth. The political manoeuvering is also uninvolving and there is not nearly enough intrigue to sustain the running time. On the plus side, it looks handsome and Tang Wei is a find as Mak.
Director: Ang Lee
Stars: Tony Leung, Tang Wei, Joan Chen
(18, 158mins)
