Lust, Caution « P i l l o w b o o k

Posted by: cynematic | August 25, 2007

Lust, Caution

my friend liz, also a huge fan of amazing film director ang lee, posted about her excited anticipation of his latest film, which was given an NC-17 rating.

here’s an article about LUST, CAUTION, lee’s approach adapting it from eileen chang’s short story (i had no idea she lived out the end of her life in los angeles!), and information about the actors.

tang wei plays the female lead opposite the delicious tony leung (tony leung chiu wai, the to-die-for one in Wong Kar-Wei’s films 2046, IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE, HAPPY TOGETHER, and not the other one.) lucky girl. they get to have hot monkey sex together onscreen…fantasy-time. nice work if you can get it, even if it’s downer sex that bums you out afterward. still, you are getting your bonobo on with tony leung. (ETA: this is SO not the case, and i’m glad the onscreen sex doesn’t lend itself to fantasy-making, all nervous jokey-jokey about it aside.)

you know i’m dying to see more WWII films from the perspective of the pacific war and its impact on asians and asian americans. we need that exorcism, we’re so haunted by those ghosts.

Posted in asian america, hollywood, screen

Responses

[...] it is by far the most chinese film ang lee has ever done. by that i mean it’s virtually illegible for a large part of the non-chinese, american viewing audience–america, so fond of its little protege chiang kai-shek and deeply emotionally invested in anti-communist rhetoric and any tin-pot dictator willing to espouse such. (not that i’m calling chiang kai-shek a tin pot dictator, i don’t mean to. but i’m leaving open the contradictory possibility of his thuggishness and great ability as a general.) in ang’s WWII china, the weariness and dread arising from japanese occupation since 1931 shroud the film and are the foremost emotions, and he tells the untold story of the pacific war from the perspective of the chinese for the first time ever in a major mainstream hollywood film. so much for america’s fondness for chiang kai-shek or a vision of our(?)selves as tow-headed savior G.I.s handing out gum and chocolates from a tank. those self-soothing national fantasies are stripped from us almost as efficiently and violently as mr. yee shreds the clothes from wong chia chi/mrs. mak, his mistress, at their first assignation. for their first encounter was no more about seduction than it was about possession. [...]

By: Ang Lee’s LUST, CAUTION, and Stray Limbs « P i l l o w b o o k on October 6, 2007
at 7:30 am