Lust, Caution (2007)

Film Review. Rules are made to be broken. Sadly, due to rules, Lust, Caution won't be competing for this year's Academy Award's Best Foreign Language Film (for the complete reasons of why, check this article), the fact that would further hampered the already questionable quality of these so called Awards. Lust, Caution is simply, in my book, the best film i've seen this year. Even though you have been hearing (probably tired as well) about how i praised The Bourne Ultimatum end on end, it turns out, and i'm proud to admit that i have been wrong, that Lust, Caution is a better film.

One of the uniform measurable quality of a good film is time versus boredom quality. It goes roughly like this, if you seen a 180 minutes film and you hadn't had the slightest idea to look at your watch, there's a good possibility that the film was better than most. On the contrary, if you seen a 90 minutes film and you found yourself glancing at your watch time and again, then there's a good possibility that the film was simply sucked.

Lust, Caution runs a shy minutes from 180 minutes mark. And not even once had i stiffled a yawn. When the film has ended, i look at my watch and surprised that almost three hours had passed. From that quality alone is not a surprise if i had named this film as one of the best film in 2007. If not the very best.

Tony Leung Chiu Wai - one of my favourite Hong Kong actor. Erm, wait, my favourite Hong Kong actor - is branded a traitor by the resistance during the tension of the World War II for his involvement with Japanese who at the moment, occupied the China mainland. Elsewhere, in Hong Kong, a group of Chinese students staged a play that in the end sparked their sense of patriotism. And when the chance came for them to cross path with Tony Leung's character (Mr.Yee), they decided that it would be a good time to do something for their country instead of staging a simple play.

The film told in a flashback manner. At first scene, we see four women playing mahjong at Mr.Yee's residence. This mahjong scene hooked me up right away as one of the three most powerful scenes in this film which distributed well at the beginning, in the middle (when Wang Jiazhi said, "You could've done it three years ago") and in the end (the final on-screen scene of Wang Jiazhi and Mr.Yee). One of the women, youngest and best looking of the group, Wang Jiazhi (Tang Wei), implied that she had something secretive with Mr.Yee who was a married man. All was shown only with glances and body language. They say you could lie easier with words than with gestures, and Ang Lee shown the fact clearly. Wang Jiazhi later excused herself claiming that she had some business to attend to. On her way, she contacted some group who then prepares themselves for a fire-arm outtake. Their intention is clear, to kill.

The film flashback four years prior when Wang Jiazhi is a freshman in a Hong Kong college and later, started their spy-game with her fellow drama students.

Most would believed that Ang Lee is the one responsible in bringing Zhang Ziyi to Hollywood. I wouldn't argue. But if Tang Wei keeps at it, it won't be long before we see Tang Wei in Hollywood. She shines in this film, and giving far better performance than any of Zhang Ziyi ever does. And not because she's doing nude scenes, or she's doing a hot sex scene with Tony Leung, it's hardly important. I have been deluded by the NC-17 rating fact and by everyone commenting that the sex scene is something really worth the wait in the film. In truth, though the scene itself is a necessity, it's more than just a fan-service, it's more of an establishment to the relationship between Mr.Yee and Wang Jiazhi, of what had begin in Hong Kong three years prior through slow seductions.

Though the film runs long, i never had an impression that the film runs slow. The pacing was right, and i was finally able to develop some kind of connections to the characters that i start to really care about them. Thus, the ending scene hit me like a storm wave. Tony Leung is flawless in this film, Tang Wei had left a considerable impression in her first debut, and she's also a beauty which in itself is a plus.

The year 2007 had proved as a better year for films than 2006. And Lust, Caution, so far as i'm concerned, currently lead the pack for the best film of 2007.