Durante la era de la Segunda Guerra Mundial, una joven, Wang Jiazhi, se ve envuelta en un peligroso juego de intrigas emocionales con una poderosa figura política, el Sr. Yee.Durante la era de la Segunda Guerra Mundial, una joven, Wang Jiazhi, se ve envuelta en un peligroso juego de intrigas emocionales con una poderosa figura política, el Sr. Yee.Durante la era de la Segunda Guerra Mundial, una joven, Wang Jiazhi, se ve envuelta en un peligroso juego de intrigas emocionales con una poderosa figura política, el Sr. Yee.
- Dirección
- Guionistas
- Elenco
- Nominada a2premios BAFTA
- 28 premios ganados y 56 nominaciones en total
- Mr. Yee
- (as Tony Chiu Wai Leung)
- Old Wu
- (as Tsung-Hua Tuo)
- Lai Shu Jin
- (as Chih-ying Chu)
- Liang Jun Sheng
- (as Ko Yu-Luen)
- Tsao
- (as Kar Lok Chin)
- Dirección
- Guionistas
- Todo el elenco y el equipo
- Producción, taquilla y más en IMDbPro
Opiniones destacadas
Because of the nature of the film's protagonist Wang Jiazhi (played by a newcomer named Tang Wei - not shabby for your first feature) as an agent working under a second identity to ensnare a dangerous collaborationist (Tony Leung), all the scenes where Wang masquerades as the bourgeois Ms. Mai are fraught with a psychological tension, doubling with the political agenda at stake as well as her womanhood. She portrays both roles with heartbreaking deftness; a great casting choice if there ever was one. While not as physically alluring as some of her competitors for the role - Chinese language actresses including Zhou Xun and Shu Qi - I don't think anyone else could have pulled it off like Tang. She convincingly transforms herself from a naive college girl to coy seductress...and back again.
The film struck quite a few personal nerves on my part too. While mainstream cinema should be, you know, self-sustaining or whatever you want to call it, there's really a lot to this movie that gets lost in subtitling to an extent, but also just in context and culture. Etiquette at the mah-jongg table; the omnipresent yet understated background of wartime occupation; political interests in the Chinese Civil War era; the weight of regional identity in dialects and interpersonal relationships. Tang Wei spoke Mandarin, Cantonese, and Shanghainese. My only thought is: What a hottie.
The sex scenes are...something else. As echoed by most critics, they serve the story perfectly in capturing the urgency that Tang and Leung have in their precarious affair. There's a lot of violence in them, and it is through these carnal and savage acts that Tony Leung's Mr. Yee character is established as a very dangerous man. I won't spoil too much but there were several times when it became too difficult to watch.
There were quite a few moments that made my heart flutter and eyes wobble. I'll just leave it at that.
Ang Lee is a genius. He's so good at capturing the emotions of his characters and actors. It's like he unfolds them so that everything on the inside is laid bare. From The Ice Storm to Brokeback Mountain to Lust, Caution he shows you real people and how they love and damage and betray each other, and more specifically how it feels. That's true talent. Anyone can point a camera. This is something else entirely.
The film itself is the best espionage film I've ever seen, but that's not all it is. It's very much like a noir and a war film and romance is probably the genre that is represented least. I've read a few reviews mentioning love and falling in it. There is some of that but I think maybe those people might want to give this one another go. They might have missed the point.
Who should see this? Adults. But I'm not saying that because of the sex scenes. I'm 33. I don't know if I would have completely grasped the emotional complexity of this film 10 years ago. I think you need to have been kicked around a bit by life to fully appreciate what's happening here. Anyone who likes old movies, sad movies, good movies. Bogart fans, noir fans, costume design fans should all enjoy it. I sincerely hope it gets some recognition around Oscar time. It's my favorite this year so far.
I am very impressed by this film after just watching 5 minutes of it. The mahjong scene is very well made. Behind all the gossip, it has so much subtle tension. Everyone is secretly calculating another and planning their next move, both in the game and outside the game. Another striking thing that I noticed is that the panning motion of the camera. I am sure it is very tricky to get it right! A continuous shot of taking a piece of mahjong, then the hand of tiles, then throwing the unwanted one away. All done in one shot. It's really good camera work.
There is a lot of complex emotions, both expressed and implied. For example, Wang Jiazhi's pain of having to give up her virginity is skilfully implied. Later, her pain of being intimate with Mr Yee is expressed in a rage. The psychological games in the subsequent parts is well portrayed. Wei Tang is masterful in playing her role. She portrays a wide variety of facial expression and bodily gestures so naturally and skilfully. Her power of seduction is undeniable. The surreal atmosphere that she creates when she is Mai Tai Tai is stunning. I have never heard of her before, and I hope she will get to play in more film in the future.
Despite the film being two and a half hour long, it did not feel like it at all. In fact, I am glad that Ang Lee gives us enough time to appreciate the beauty of the film. The plot is gripping, and there is a lot to be pondered on. Men have to caution against lust, while for women, they may have to caution against something else. I will no reveal it here, watch the film to see for yourself.
This film is a beautiful masterpiece. Just a side note, the sexuality in this film is so extremely the polar opposite compared to Ang Lee's last film "Brokeback Mountain". I find this very interesting.
Whatever misgivings there may be about it, this festival-winning film is a mesmerizing, rich experience. After 2 1/2 hours of being bombarded with a World War II love-and-hate story that's both exciting and dragging, chances are you will be still pinned to your seat, anxious to find out how it ends.
The "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and "Brokeback Mountain" director has turned his attention to war-threatened Hong Kong in 1938 and Japanese-occupied Shanghai in 1942 (complete with a "safe Japanese zone"), seen through the eyes of a group of young Chinese resistance fighters.
Based on the late Chinese-American writer Eileen Chang's short story of the same name, the focus of "Se, jie" is the relationship between Mr. Yee, head of the ruthless Japanese-collaborator security forces (played by Tony Leung, leading man of some 80 films) and a young actress with the resistance, played by Wei Tang, in her very first film role.
They make a strange pair, both in the roles and as actors. Of the story - a cat-and-mouse game between the seductress/underground agent and the Japanese puppet/lord of life and death among the occupied - the less said the better in order to enjoy the movie. As actors, it's a veteran facing a new challenge and a novice who shows great skill and assurance.
Leung has always been a brooding, symphathetic, worn-but-handsome presence, especially in his collaborations with director Wong Kai War. Here, for the first time, he plays not just a heavy, an ugly character, but a scary, unhappy, murderous man, literally a dark figure, lurking in the shadows. It's a great performance, fully realizing both aspects of the character: the monster and the man.
Lee's love for the cinema classics is shown both in his use of excerpts from Hollywood greats (as the young actress frequents movie theaters) and in his creation of memorable images. This is a director with a painterly sensibility and the ability to transform objects into instantly memorable pictures. Never will you see mahjong again without recalling "Lust, Caution." Few of Lee's favorite classics can match the simple effectiveness of his final image here, of a sheet with slight depressions left by what rested on it shortly before: white on white, and yet meaningful and affecting.
Leung and Tang fairly monopolize the screen, but the rest of the large cast is outstanding, led by San Franciscan Joan Chang as Yee's wife, and the vivid individual characters in the resistance, including the American-born Chinese pop star Leehom Wang.
I think this is a very personal film for Ang Lee - betraying his private thoughts on his homeland, on sexuality, on truth, on love.
Here in Asia, one shared event in our history binds us all - the Japanese occupation during WWII and all the horrors that came with it.
To retell the anguish of that time through a torrid affair between a collaborator (traitor) and a spy is a brave commentary on how we Asians respond to traumas both personal and collective.
Mr Lee raises unearths some complex emotions towards identity and truth, as revealed in only the most intimate moments between illicit lovers in times of extreme duress.
That Lee chose to make such a film after his phenomenal success in Hollywood, and during this period of phenomenal progress for modern China, gives Lust Caution a heightened sense of relevance and urgency, a film that can potentially invite questions on what it deeply means to be Chinese, to be Asian.
Lee is a master, Tony Leung is divine, Tang Wei is a slow-burning revelation. I highly recommend this film to Asians and non-Asians alike.
¿Sabías que…?
- TriviaDirector Ang Lee made Tony Leung Chiu-wai study the performances of Marlon Brando in Último tango en París (1972), Humphrey Bogart in La muerte en un beso (1950) and Richard Burton in Equus (1977), to give him a sense of wounded masculinity, which Lee felt was right for the character of Mr. Yee.
- ErroresIn the café scene where Mak Tai Tai is calling her comrades the ringer heard through the phone both times is a modern ringer, which wasn't used until the 1970s/early 1980s.
- Citas
Old Wu: Don't tell me what to do! You listen to me! Yee murdered my wife and both my children. But I could still eat with him at the same table! That's what an agent must be able to do! I'd like nothing better than to kill him with my own hands. But if letting him live another few days is valuable, then we must! Keep him hooked, and keep me informed. Don't do anything without my order. Remember... For an agent there is only one thing... Loyalty. To the party, to our leader, to our country. Understand?
Wong Chia Chi: Don't worry. I'll do whatever you say.
Old Wu: Good. Very good. All you need to do is keep him trapped. If you need anything...
Wong Chia Chi: What trap are you talking about? My body? What do you take him for? He knows better than you how to put on an act. He not only gets inside me... he worms his way into my heart like a snake. Deeper. All the way in. I take him in like a slave. I play my part faithfully... so I, too, can get to his heart. Every time... he hurts me until I bleed... and scream. Then he is satisfied. Then he feels alive. In the dark... only he knows it's all real.
Old Wu: That's enough.
Wong Chia Chi: That's why... That's why I can torture him until he can't stand it any longer... and still I go on until we collapse from exhaustion.
Old Wu: Enough!
Wong Chia Chi: And when he finally comes inside me, I think maybe this is it. Maybe this is when you'll rush in and shoot him in the back of the head... and his blood and brains will cover me!
Old Wu: Shut up!
- Versiones alternativasAn R-Rated version was made for the home video market for sale in places that doesn't carry NC-17 films (e.g. supermarkets). The run-time of the R-rated version is only ~30 seconds less but features ~70 seconds of alternative footage to soften the rating.
- Bandas sonorasKlavierstücke Op. 118 No. 2 Intermezzo
Composed by Johannes Brahms
Performed by Alain Planès
(p) 2007 Decca Label Group
Selecciones populares
Detalles
- Fecha de lanzamiento
- Países de origen
- Sitio oficial
- Idiomas
- También se conoce como
- Lust, Caution
- Locaciones de filmación
- Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia(students on the tram: Jalan Chung On Siew)
- Productoras
- Ver más créditos de la compañía en IMDbPro
Taquilla
- Presupuesto
- USD 15,000,000 (estimado)
- Total en EE. UU. y Canadá
- USD 4,604,982
- Fin de semana de estreno en EE. UU. y Canadá
- USD 63,918
- 30 sep 2007
- Total a nivel mundial
- USD 67,091,915
- Tiempo de ejecución
- 2h 37min(157 min)
- Color
- Mezcla de sonido
- Relación de aspecto
- 1.85 : 1