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The Lady is a Spy
By bukkhead | November 8, 2007
FILM REVIEW: ‘LUST CAUTION’
Written by James Schamus, based on the short story by Eileen Chang
Directed by Ang Lee
Rated NC-17
157 mins.
Spy films have become so ubiquitous these days, they’ll soon have their own section in the movie store. And when they do, we’ll have to identify sub-genres: whether it’s the action-adventure of The Bourne Ultimatum, or the political history of The Good Shepherd, spy movie are becoming diverse in their ubiquity. But Ang Lee’s Lust Caution isn’t just another spy film, anymore than Crouching Tiger was just another kung fu flick, or Brokeback Mountain was just another western.
Wong Chia Chi is a student living in Japanese-occupied Hong Kong during World War II. Her mother is deceased, and her father has escaped to London, so she finds a family in a patriotic theater troop. And as you would expect, just as universities and colleges have ever been the breeding grounds for revolution, so too do these students decide to strike a blow for Chinese freedom.
Through one of their contacts they arrange to befriend the wife Mr. Yee, a Chinese businessman and Japanese collaborator. In this manner, they hope to find a way to get past Mr. Yee’s defenses and kill him, or one of his men, or someone. Wong is given the role of Mak Tai Tai, the wife of an import/export tradesman. In the spy game there is a term, “fool’s rush,” as in “fools rush in where angels fear to tread.” It’s not despite, but due to their naiveté, that the students are able to succeed in getting Wong close to Mr. Yee’s wife, and thus, close to Mr. Yee.
But for the spy genre’s new diversity, what would a spy movie be without a love affair. Ang Lee’s movie is rated NC-17, and not because of violence. The sex scenes are, to put it bluntly, graphic, but not in the least gratuitous. Perhaps it sounds like pandering to one’s inner snob, but the scenes between Wong and Mr. Yee are fraught with so much tension, the sex scenes truly wrench at one’s heart more than at one’s libido.
Lee keeps dialogue to a minimum in the film, letting the actor’s faces do what words can’t always accomplish (thankfully: one assumes everything translated into subtitles is lacking in the original language’s subtleties. Indeed, in the dialect of Shanghainese, the word for ‘lust,’ is a homophone of the word for ‘lost’). Juxtaposed with this is his uses of single-source lighting—whether it’s the overheard lamp of gossip-laced game of mahjong, or a spotlight illuminating Wong’s face as she waits for Mr. Yee in his car. The result is a kind of modern noir, evoking an existentialistic ethos without descending into a campy throwback.
Lust Caution is based on a novella by the same name, written by one of modern China’s most celebrated female writers, Eileen Chang. Some have alleged that the short story was based on actual events, though Ang Lee denies this. By the film’s end, historical accuracy is not a compelling feature. Rather, it’s the lesson that no amount of caution can ever hope to defeat lust.
(This review was printed in the Newport Mercury.)
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