Lust, Caution

Lust, Caution is quite long, it's more than two hours. You tend to be glued though in anticipation of what is to come to the lead characters. Set in the late 1930s with Shanghai and Hongkong under Japanese occupation. It is an espionage story with the age old seduction as its carrying theme.

The lead characters are Tony Leung as Mr. Yee who collaborates with the Japanese hence tagged as a traitor. Newcomer Wei Tan plays Wong Chia Chi and doubles as Mrs. Mak, the one tasked to seduce Mr. Yee. The director did so well from Wong's transformation from a shy high school girl to a sophisticated young wife. You wouldn't recognize her.

Joan Chen plays a good support as Mrs. Yee. The character which I felt should have been given more exposure was Kuang Yu Min's, the very young and passionate leader of the student resistance movement. The character was played by Lee Hom Wang whom I do not know anything about until this movie.

I love the opening scene where four women are shown playing mah-jong. Their glances, the swift glide of the camera to the table, the sound of the clicking tiles, it just shows a whole lot of promise. It stops there.

There are delicate scenes which make you think if you are watching the same movie or has it turned X. Refer to the title and its message why those scenes needed to be there. Save for the good acting and wonderful production design, there is not much to be proud of in this movie. An aside, Tony Leung is good in all his movies that I have seen but I do not see what is the hype in his acting. They say it's the soulful eyes. No comment.

Back to the movie, I got interested as to how Kuang Yu Min's group of students would be able to carry out this great assassination plot to Mr. Yee. They failed of course but there was a second wind to their cause three years after. Still young and passionate, Mrs. Mak continued her role playing with the end in mind to seduce Mr. Yee and kill the traitor. All this time Kuan Yu Min and their support group are behind her. But love and lust got in the way.

This was what disappointed me. Two persons, both longing for love and companionship but tied to their duties, have their choices to make. The last ten minutes was a big let down. After all the sacrifices - body, mind and soul, you think that the call of duty and loyalty to one's ideology would weigh more to Mrs. Mak. She was almost there, victory for the group is at hand. But then a diamond filled ring melted everything away. What is the ring for, a symbol of true love by Yee to Mak? She let him go. And she was executed together with her group. Uh-oh.

I wished for a different ending. I wished for a more solid resolution. Discovering Lee Hom-Wang was the best part of watching this movie. I don't watch much telenovelas but he was like lifted straight from a Korea novela. Haha. I learned he is actually a pop singer. Not bad acting for a singer.