There was a point when watching Lust, Caution last night when I managed to fall asleep. It was dark, it had been a long day and I was relaxed on the sofa, and I felt my eyes pull shut except this time they took a few minutes to open. When I woke up all of ten minutes later I wound back and realised that the story had not progressed in that ten minutes I was asleep.
The purpose of me telling you this is not to say that the film was boring or that I was disinterested (if I was I would not have wound back when I woke again) but to illustrate one of the film's most defining characteristics. This is real slow burn, revelling in beautiful filmmaking and exceptional performances. This is less about the plot and more about the evolving relationships between characters - which is just as well given how slight the plot is.
Lust, Caution is the tale of a student who joins a theatre troop and finds herself part of a loyalist plot to kill a top level collaborator, the powerful Mr Yee. As part of their plan the student is required to sleep with the paranoid and sexually violent Mr Yee in order to tempt him to a place where he might be murdered.
The sexual scenes in many ways are the lynchpin of this film, conveying character perfectly thanks to the film's excellent performances. Quite often a sex sequence will feel tacked onto a film to try to entice an audience - here it is hard to contemplate this film working without its graphic, rough sexual scenes. They represent a physical, lustful dialogue between the two characters that is as necessary as any conversation they have.
Tang Wei is excellent as the shy lead character of the piece giving a performance that is deep and remarkable. She perfectly conveys the journey that her character goes on. One key scene for me in her performance is when she realises that she will have to give up her virginity to her cause, and watching her discomfort and embarrassment at having sex with a sleazy friend who has slept with prostitutes (making him the most experienced of their coterie). I felt for her at these points and this is thanks to the different levels contained within the character Wei creates.
Opposite her as Mr Yee is Tony Yeung, who casts a strong presence over this movie. His character's sexual kinks make for uncomfortable viewing but illustrate his nature without needing to show us him torturing his countrymen. His sexual nature mirrors the work he does.
With a decent supporting cast, there is much to commend in this film. As with Lee's Sense and Sensibility or Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, this is a beautifully composed film. Each look from a character has signfiicance and the film has a rich, crisp style that is irresistible.
Yet at over two and a half hours, the film suffers from a slow introduction. There is little wrong with its pacing later in the film but it takes too long to learn what is going on and to become involved in the film's story. Once more time is devoted to Mr. Yee however the film takes on a more powerful quality and begins to fulfil expectations.
Lust, Caution is not Lee's strongest work but it is a powerful piece with plenty of texture and typically excellent cinematography.