Ang Lee, 2007
Paul Verhoven’s awful WWII dickaround Black Book - which Ang Lee’s wonderful new film is almost narratively identical to – ends with a seemingly endless series of loose-end-tying; it being largely a typical “shaggy dog story”, one whose focus is more on the happenstance of each subsequent character’s clichèd denouement than what anyone’s actions/endings mean. By comparison, Lust, Caution is almost exclusively about what the actions of a group of individuals on the many sides of a war mean.
Where Verhoven’s ‘Rachel’ is a sexy heroine whose quest - though simplistic in its baffling complexity - is never as clearly delineated as her beauty or her sexual capacity, Lee’s ‘Wong’ is never allowed anything resembling clarity or easy partisanship, he seemingly obsessed with her quest’s meaning, or indeed if there is any to be found in such circumstances. His street-level perspective of a multi-faceted war spends much time debating many hard-fought tangibles, but questions the validity of these in the face of so many intangibles and such arguable effect, even as it narrows down a target: a man who is almost inarguably targetable.
Regarding the much-discussed sexuality, Lee again creates a hugely illuminating depth lacking in Verhoven’s oddly sexless machinations by not only fashioning an intimate and physical dialogue between Leung and Fei, but by using these scenes as a compelling metaphorical crux for the work’s crushingly bleak core concern: the actualities and repercussions that erroneously spring from desire’s seed. Physical or romantic desire is held up to ideological and political desire as one and the same – naught but a series of vague and confusing hopes, and complicated personal claims to happiness and righteousness.
