Lust, Caution

Starring Tony Leung Chiu Wai and Wei Tang…also Directed by Ang Lee

Another film I knew nothing about prior to seeing it, as this one was on the boyfriends Netflix list.  The whole thing is set pretty quickly - in China, around WWII, Japanese are occupying China, it sucks.  I didn’t totally love this movie, and I would say it’s not the kind of thing a lot of people are going to like, but it is worth seeing if you like movies from this period.  It received an NC-17 rating for the sexual content, so if that sort of thing bothers you, stay away.

Also, it has a lot of mahjong.  I’m personally fascinated with mahjong, so I found that stuff distracting.  I’m not sure how much dialog I missed because of watching the tiles instead of the words on the screen.  A local film critic said that the movie has lots of sex, and even more mahjong, which made me laugh at the truthfulness of the statement.  I wouldn’t say it has tons of sex, but that definitely plays a part in the plot.

I think I need more time to really think on how I felt about the ending.  Part of me likes that Mak Tai Tai gave in to her heart and saved the man she loved.  The other part of me wishes she’d gone for it all and really made a difference for her country.  Plus one of her colleagues was hot and she should have dated him instead
On the whole, a decent film, though a bit sad.

My Rating: 3/5