LUST, CAUTION
2007



October 31, 2007
San Jose CA -- Cinearts Santana Row
USA / China / Taiwan / Hong Kong
Mandarin / Japanese / Shanghainese / English
157 Minutes
Drama / Romance / Thriller / War
Ang Lee



A lot of criticisms have been made about the slowness of this film in its pre-sex passages. The story is about an acting troupe who fancy themselves revolutionary fighters. Because it is a bunch of actors, they believe they can fool people into thinking that they're someone else. The extension of this belief is when the character played by Tang Wei assumes the role of the wife of an importer so that she can get close to a Japanese sympathizer played by the perfect Tony Leung. It's the story of acting and therefore the acting has to be perfect. We're watching a young girl acting the part of an actor acting.



There has been much talk of this film's NC-17 sex scenes and the rating is justified, but those scenes are incredibly important to the plot. We see acting during the sex, which isn't usually the case. The success of the mission hinges on his believing her. And in turn, he is only free for the brief moments of pleasure he finds in her arms. It's hard to explain the way that everyone on screen is "double-acting". I didn't find the early scenes slow because we have to watch the development of the college girl into a plausible rich young wife. There are scenes of violence that few people mention, which are as important as turning points in the story as any of the sex scenes. I need to see this one again.



6.0 Metacritic
8.1 IMDB




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