Lust, Caution indeed

Just saw the new Ang Lee film, about Japanese occupied China during the Second World War.

Lust, Caution is a more than a spy thriller and more than a love story. It's passionate and cruel. It's sensual and brutal. It is shot beautifully in 1940's Hong Kong and Shanghai and the main female protagonist, Tang Wei, is brilliant.

Though it is hard to fault, it is also difficult to like. The characters are victims and victimised. Times of war creates amoral circumstances and all the players are have been twisted from external pressures. Normal life cannot be resumed and people are bent out of shape and become more and more warped. Things of beauty are snatched and used, as if consuming them can somehow balance the brutality of the surroundings.

Some can remain oblivious, while others are press ganged into roles they would rather not take. Some play mahjong all day and complain about the lack of cigarettes, while bodies rot in the streets. When your day job is torture, it inevitably seeps into other parts of your life. When your day job is seduction, it inevitable seeps into other parts of your body.

It's hard to recommend something that you didn't enjoy, but justifiable if it was interesting or powerful. Lust, Caution lacks the cathartic edge of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon or Brokeback Mountain; but is a film of such same quality.

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