%-( Confused?
:/ is a wry grin.
Lust, Caution
Is supurb. It is a love story, with a difference.
Tony Leung Chiu Wai is a very different character to the gentle Mr Chow Mo-Wan in "In the Mood for Love".
Wei Tang, I have not seen before, but I am looking forward to seeing her again.
Dare I say, it is Ang Lee's best work yet? ( - or maybe I should see how this film ages before I claim it is more subtle, polished, better put together, than Brokeback Mountain.)
Well, if it is not his best yet, it is his second best, an extremely classy film. The best I have seen this year.
The story is curiously American - although it is set in Shanghai and Hong Kong during WWII (filmed in Shanghai, Hong Kong and Malaysia), and we are taken to the French quarter, the Japanese quarter, British parts of Hong Kong, Cantonese parts of Hong Kong, Shanghaiese parts of Shanghai - we even have a German in an Indian bazaar for good measure, but no Americans (Which I suppose is natural for the time of the Japanese occupation.)
Maybe it is the jazz music, or maybe it is because this film is curiously like and unlike the American Amy Tan's book "The Kitchen God's Wife".
It is hard to keep up with, at first - attempting to read the subtitles and the glances darting around the ma-jong board. But the gist of the movie is not dependant on catching every nuance, which is just as well because it is beautifully nuanced.
It does deserve it's R rating. There is not just sex, but sexual violence. Not for everyone. Probably not a good choice for a first date.