In the Mood for Lust

For the past 15 years, Ang Lee has proven to be one of the most diverse and ambitious filmmakers of modern cinema. While each of his movies take on different genres, there's always an overwhelming sense of humanity to his characters. A fear builds inside of me that his material is going to suddenly spill into the melodramatic, but it very rarely does. Somehow, his characters (mainly due to the actors playing them) and atmosphere manage to keep things where they should be. This is not to say Lee's pictures don't ever lose their way; they do, however, always get the viewer from beginning to end with little or no regrets.

My first exposure to Lee's work was Eat Drink Man Woman (1994), a movie I would best describe as charming. The characters and storytelling were both appealing, which showed me above all that Lee was a natural with slice-of-life narratives. Imagine my surprise the next year when he helmed an adaptation of Sense and Sensibility. I could tell Lee was emerging as an artist; I just couldn't make a guess yet as to where he was going. Then The Ice Storm (1997) hit me like a ton of bricks. It was a picture that effortlessly combined the gorgeous with the melancholy, leaving the viewer in a somber daze that was impossible to shake.

I thought it took great courage for Lee to tackle Hulk. Most comic book movies lack the sadness needed to accurately display the hero's inner demons, and despite the fact Lee bit off a little more than he could chew, the pain of the characters is what shined through more than anything else. I find Hulk to be a terribly underrated movie. The root of its failure, I think, is due to the expectations of general filmgoing audiences. The special effects are its biggest weakness. Lee was trying so hard to please the masses and himself that the two halves ended up clashing. Strip away the CGI and I can see, and appreciate, what he wanted to say.

His Academy Award recognition finally came with Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) and then (the completely different) Brokeback Mountain (2005). With the former, Lee was able to marry his human relationships with graceful martial arts, and it felt like an appropriate match. What he did with the latter was even trickier. Brokeback took a romance not often explored in mainstream movies and gave it more sympathy and realism than 90% of the dramas about "straight couples." At this point, there was no doubt Lee was becoming a master at creating movies about realistic human emotions.

And yet, as much as I admire Ang Lee, I still feel The Ice Storm is the only great movie he's made. If there's a recurring problem I have with his pictures, it's that he goes too grand too often. I think he's still building up to it, no question, but he needs to stop trying so hard to get there. The same setback hangs over his first movie since accepting his golden statue, Lust, Caution. It is, like his other movies, a work of endless visual beauty, rich and authentic performances, and moments of staggering pain. But Lee wants so badly to show us how sweeping and grand his movie is, he takes some missteps during the journey.

The movie is set in 1940s Shanghai during the Japanese invasion, a time when patriotism was something shown behind closed doors. College freshman Wong Chia Chi (Wei Tang) is invited to join a theater troupe planning a production that will show their support for their country. She agrees, earns the lead role, and the rest of the cast is so impressed they invite her to take part in a bigger, more dangerous affair: to seduce Japanese agent Mr. Yee (Tony Leung Chiu Wai) so they can get close enough to take him down when he least expects it.

As expected, Wong disappears into her role as the wife of a wealthy businessman, and is quick to catch Mr. Yee's eye. Lee plays their early scenes together with uncomfortable silences and limited lighting. There's an immediate physical attraction that builds so slowly we can almost hear their endorphins preparing to explode. The first sex scene between them is shocking in its brutality. Mr. Yee, a man of power, likes to exert it over anyone he can, especially when it's a woman. As the sexual encounters multiply, the experience for both of them turns into something experimental and even joyful.

Lust, Caution earned an NC-17 rating for its sex, and while I can appreciate the fact Lee kept the rating to maintain his vision, the sheer nastiness of it all wears thin relatively fast. By the third scene of Mr. Yee and Wong practicing every position under the sun, their budding passion for one another was becoming my headache. It almost feels like Lee, who obviously faced a lot restrictions with Brokeback Mountain, was thrilled to finally break free and do whatever he wanted. But as the saying goes, sometimes less is more.

The story unfolds without much surprise as Wong continues to trick Mr. Yee while her friends anxiously wait to hear his daily habits. The moments of Lust, Caution that stand out are Wong's meetings with her compatriots, as she forces herself to tell them about the grip Mr. Yee has on her. Even though Wong is excited by her sexual awakening, she's scared shitless of it too. Mr. Yee has become someone, despite all the atrocities he has committed, she cannot easily walk away from. This proves true during the movie's climax when she discovers why Mr. Yee sent her on an errand for him.

Lee, working with cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto and production designer Lai Pan, has created a movie of constant visual radiance. Every scene is soaked in a barrage of ordinary colors that are well matched to the despair and fear in the character's hearts. Sadly, Lee locates these dark feelings in the movie's look more convincingly than he does in the actual characters. We never truly understand why Wong is so willing to subject herself to playing Mr. Yee's sex slave, so it makes it hard to sympathize with a lot of her actions, particularly as the movie nears its end.

Any weaknesses on the screenplay level are modestly cloaked by the performances. Tony Leung Chiu Wai, who is the centerpiece of Kar Wai Wong's movies, brings his signature silence and constant smoking to the table and turns it into something sinister and creepy. As Wong, Wei Tang gives a breakthrough performance of delicate confusion and internal yearning. Even if we're not sure why Wong is putting herself through hell, Tang makes us believe it's the only choice she had. It's as if there was nothing else to live for. How her big screen debut got ignored by Academy voters is a mystery.

Lust, Caution is a minor movie that could have been a great one, brought to life by a director who has his heart in the right place, but does not trust the audience enough to let us have some control. It's frustrating, since there are pieces of it that hit me like a hammer, particularly the ending. The final shot is legendary, a poetic moment that has burrowed its way into my brain and refuses to leave. It's proof that Ang Lee is the real deal, but even more so, it's hope that one day he'll make another movie worthy of his talents, for I know in my heart that The Ice Storm wasn't just a stroke of good luck.


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