Lust, Caution [2007]

Lust, Caution is a fine follow-up to Taiwanese director Ang Lee’s much acclaimed Brokeback Mountain. It is a dark and brooding film where love and lust are just pawns in a game of cold-blooded foreplay, schemes and deceit. Set in China during World War II, the film tells the tale of a dangerous cat-and-mouse affair between a teenage girl who happens to be a member of China’s revolutionary underground movement, and a rich, powerful, womanizing political figure they want dead. Veteran Hong Kong actor Tony Leung has given yet another gripping performance as a cold and ruthless man who turns out to be a human being after all. The star of the show, however, is Tang Wei – her controlled portrayal of a girl-woman, whose conflicting psychological dilemmas and strong sexual undercurrents play hand in hand, deserves a huge applause. A provocative and disturbing thriller, this tense cloak-and-dagger tale is bound to keep viewers thoroughly engaged as much with its strong erotic content as with its taut narrative. As a reviewer so wonderfully summed up, whereas in Borekeback Mountain, “love is a haunting, elusive ideal briefly attained but forever out of reach”, here it “is a performance, a trap or, cruelest of all, an illusion.”





Director: Ang Lee
Genre: Thriller/Psychological Thriller/Resistance Movie/Spy Film
Language: Chinese
Country: China (Hong Kong)