Lust Caution

Because my birthday was spent cooped up in the office listening to my managers being snarly to each other, I decided to treat myself to a belated 'happy day' at the movies.

With all the hype about Lust Caution going on, it being given an NC16 rating after distributors decided to screen the tone-down version, I decided to go watch the movie and judge for myself what the hoo-ha was all about.

So bright and early I headed for VivoCity's GV and bought myself a Gold Class ticket. This being my virgin Gold Class experience, I didn't know what to expect. That early in the morning, I found myself being the only one in the Gold Class lounge feeling like a Economy class passenger in a First Class passenger lounge. The prices in the menu were ridiculous but I decided that I would go the whole hog and order something for the movie. Somehow the good ol movie standbys like popcorn and Coke just didn't fit into the lofty Gold Class. So I ordered potato wedges with three different dips - one of the cheapest items on the menu already at $8. And plain water. :-)

The cinema was one of the bigger Gold Class cinemas with about 60 seats. Mine was right at the back. Have to say the seat was PLUSH. Almost made the $25 price tag of a Gold Class ticket worthwhile. It was a big comfy armchair which had buttons that allowed one to recline and for leg rests to come up. A thick blanket was also provided. I'd brought my shawl, so I wrapped myself snugly, tipped the seat back, leg rest up, blanket over my legs and prepared to enjoy the movie. I thought I was going to be the only one in there until a young teen couple came in (thats why the distributors made the movie NC16 - so smoochy teen couples could get in and mooch around in their armchairs!).

My potato wedges were served to me later - nothing to write home about and the sour cream dip was so thin it was almost watery. So definitely the food was not worth it. I thought that for a $25 price tag, at least a decent minimal buffet of food could have been included - like just tea or coffee or free popcorn or for a really luxe experience, even finger sandwiches wouldn't have been half bad. That would really have been classy of GV but I guess the bottomline always gets in the way of class. Although something like that might well have made their Gold Class halls more full than near empty since it would be considered better value for money. Ah well.

So anyways the movie came on and I snuggled back down in my bed-like chair and watched. If you intend to watch the movie then better stop reading - some spoilers ahead.

Lee Ang as always, creates great mood and setting. There seems to be a constant touch of blue in the light and indeed, Tang Wei's lovely cheong-sums were largely in shades of blue and turquoise. With a haunting score, it set the tone for a melancholic mood. The sets, the costumes and details were down pat, bringing us right back into Japanese occupied Shanghai. While the movie is largely in Mandarin, there were bits in English, Cantonese and Shanghainese. And I loved the sing-song lilting tones of Shanghainese!

With Lee Ang, its always a case of less is more. So you never get the excessive outbursts of emotion and one has to read the faces and body language of the key characters to understand what is going on - which is good. And hence this is why it is a pity that the sex scenes were slashed for the NC16 version. Because it is through the sex scenes that one can better understand the dynamics of the complex relationship between Mr Yee and Mrs Mak aka Wang Chia Chi. The NC16 version is so clean that you do not see any skin below the neck. There are one or two scenes of post-coital facial expressions where you get fleeting glimpses of the intensity and ferocity of their sexual experience but not enough for one to go deeper into their characters.

So how far and how much each gives to each other, how much each reveals of themselves, and therefore how much more they stand to lose can only be guessed at but never revealed fully. And this is why the sex scenes, unlike many other movies, are central to the plot and character development and never merely gratuitous.

Clearly the affair is one where both let go a bit of themselves, lose a bit of that identity they had and bare more than they bargained for, invested more of themselves in each other. But we can never know or understand the full extent of this, thanks to the snips. Of course, the more they reveal, the harder they fall, the greater the loss. And loss is revealed, devastatingly but wordlessly in the white-faced anguished eyes of Mr Yee in the last scene.

Not for nothing is Tony Leung known for his liquid eyes - sheer deep wells of emotion. Fear, sadness, loneliness, tenderness - you see them all in his eyes. And as for Tang Wei, I think Lee Ang chose right when he passed over the Zhang diva for the unknown actress. She brought to the role courage, loneliness, fear and sacrifice. Even Joan Chen, the mahjong-playing tai-tai wife of Mr Yee, rose to the occasion (has she never??). All the performances (with the exception of Wang Lee Hom - who looks good in blazers and vests - but who cannot summon up much convincing emotion and just ends up looking wooden and pained!) were spot-on.

The movie and the acting never called for big drama moments so all these big emotions lay more as undercurrents in the movie and were shown through spare, careful, controlled, small actions - the cast of a mahjong tile on the table, the intonation of a word, the camera's lingering on an elegant hand and of course, the careful facial expressions. Some people say this is self-indulgent of Lee Ang and makes the movie drag, that it only serves as build-up to the sex scenes which has been so hyped, but I disagree. I think the dialogue and pacing, the style of speaking, the nuances are typical of the era and of the tension of the day. They don't serve as handmaiden to the sex scenes, but the sex scenes cap and underscore what the reserved nuances cannot say.

I would want to watch the movie again. There are so many details that I think might click better with a second viewing. But this time, I'd want to watch the full version.

So the NC16 movie is still not a bad movie - it still maintains the elegance that Lee Ang intended, the melancholic mood, the great cinematography, the perfect costumes etc. And the plot is still gripping enough, with a constant sense of danger and exposure, to keep you riveted through the movie. But it could be much better had the distributors put art ahead of money and screened the full and complete version.