Lust Caution
2.5 Stars

Focus Features, 157mins, NC-17
Directed by
Ang Lee

A reason why fraternizing with the enemy is considered an offense in wartime. This is an excellent example. It begins with a Mrs. Yee (Joan Chen) playing ma-jongg with her usual coffee klatch when her husband (Tony Leung Chiu-wai), shows up. Then he leaves. More blather. Then he returns, and Mrs. Mak  (Tang Wei), who's losing badly, decides to head off. It turns out she's a spy for the resistance. Oh, yeah, this is World War II. After this very long introduction, the real movie begins.

Flashback to 1942, and Mrs. Mak is actually Wang Jiazhi, a first-year university student, who's enamored of a young communist named Lai  (Chu Tsz-ying), who's into the drama club. It turns out Mr. Yee is a Japanese collaborator, and our merry band has decided, on a lark, to kill him. But they have to infiltrate his group first.

This damn film is slooooooooooooow. Things happen, followed by nothing much, then another jolt, followed by more nothing after the something ends in disaster.

Finally, Jaizhi is recruited to resume her identity as Mrs. Mak and finish up what she had begun. That's when the sex starts. This is about sex more than anything else. It's used for comedy and tragedy and to waste time as the film takes twice as long to see as the short story to read.

This is not one of Lee's better films, but after “Brokeback Mountain” and “Crouching Tiger” anything he does is going to have people swooning for a while. If you go, bring a pillow for your butt.



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