Meaning to writing this review ever since I saw it a couple of weeks ago...It was first shown at the Toronto Film Fest with Tony Leung and the other actors coming, and we wasn't able to get the tix for it cause it was so much talked about...
so when it finally came out at the Vansity, I had to go see it...
This is one of the best films I have seen in quite a while and it made me believe in the power of movie again... how it is able to stir ppl's emotions, the power of story telling is superb, the acting is really really great, you can see so much depth and different levels from Tony Leung and also the new star Tang Wei...
Ang Lee was able to use the cinema language perfectly and so subtlety to tell a story that's so moving and touching, to reach into the depth of the soul to show how we are the same...
(Spoilers ahead...)
The story takes place in WWII when Japan was occupying parts of China and how a group of patriotic drama students decided to take matters into their own hands...
Wong Chi Chi(Tang Wei) found her calling in the drama club, as she is able to move audiences, and decided they had to use it for a purpose...kinda like "Heroes"
Their first target is Mr. Yee(Tony Leung), who is a traitor helping the Japanese ppl...closely guarded who won't go to any place that's dark and unknown..
So begins the task to seduce him...
There are a couple of key scenes, definite elements in the movie, one is when Wong takes the smoke from her friend's hands... the cigarette was first used during one of the scenes of acting and when she had decided to take up the role of Mrs. Mak, she took a cigarette by will and that's when the whole journey of "Acting" started...In order to seduce Yee, Wong needed to learn some techniques, he had to lose her virginity for this "special training" as a big sacrifice and was looking helplessly to Lee Hong, whom Wong was in love with... but he just stood there without saying anything, as the only one from the group that knows how is a drunken bastard to learned his skills from some hookers...
There is a key scene where Wong just stood naked beside the window and looking outside... THis is very important, as it shows the state that Wong was in...
That the body is not really hers anymore and she is not afraid to show it, as she has already given it up as a tool for the "great cause"...it showed her determination...
But when they were notify that Yee had already left HK and went back to China, Wong broke down as she had lost her virginity for nothing and to a sick ugly little guy...and the group found how naive they were as their moves were watched by the underground gangs...so everyone needed to jet....
2 years passed and the chance came when Yee was spotted again and they can continue with their plan of assassination with the help of the rebels, Wong was more than happy to join in so she didn't sacrifice for nothing...
Sex Scenes
The sex scenes to me were there for a very good reason, as it showed Yee's insecurity as a person... through the body language and the face expressions, the state of the relationship between the two were easily uncovered...it showed how lonely Yee really is deep inside as he wasn't able to show it anywhere else... only when he is totally naked and vulnerable that he was able to be his true self...In the very first "encounter", Wong was trying to play around with him and playing hard to get... Yee was very insecure and thought he was being rejected, so he got violent and beat Wong and kind of raped her...
In the sex scenes afterwards, Yee got a bit more relaxed but he never kissed Wong on the lips... cause that will be like giving out his real emotions... and it is not physical anymore...so it got more and more intense as they get more connected, not just physically, but by their body language...
There was a part where Wong had to meet Yee in a Geisha house...and ppl say that she was a disgrace to the Chinese as it was a place for Japanese to play with women and she went there willingly to be used by Yee...but just want to point out that the people who put her into the spot were the Chinese rebels... and she was doing it for the "good" of the country...not on her own will...This is a great movie, great story telling with lots of hidden sentimental details...
which not alot of films can do nowadays... esp not with Hollywood anymore...
A must watch...
It is for mature adults of course....
