This review is specifically for the NC-17 version of this film.
Lush and lugubrious are the two adjectives that come to mind after just watching Ang Lee's 2007 follow-up to "Brokeback Mountain". On the surface, the two movies appear to have nothing in common, but they share two attributes - both share the concept of a forbidden relationship, and both are expansions of acclaimed short stories. This time, the literary source is Shanghai-born writer Eileen Chang's 1979 novella set in China during the Japanese occupation. As adapted by Wang Hui Ling and James Schamus, the focus here is less on character development and more on a ponderous, drawn-out conspiracy where acts of passion threaten to upend an ambitious mission to kill a powerful official working with the Japanese puppet government. The net trade-off is a film that is sumptuous to look at and impressive in its meticulous attention to historical detail, but sometimes challenging to track and ultimately not as emotionally involving as it could be. Interestingly, the film earned the notorious NC-17 rating for the graphic sex scenes in the last hour, but Lee obviously includes them to amplify the desperate extremities of the principal characters. Running at an epic length of 157 minutes and with particularly fast-turning English subtitles at the beginning, it can often feel wearisome, especially in the methodical way the plot unfolds. At the same time, no film by Lee can be completely dismissed, and there are rewards to be reaped from his idiosyncratic approach.
Through an extended flashback, the story spotlights a group of Chinese students who perform patriotic plays to raise Chinese spirits during the occupation. Inspired by the zeal of leading player Kuang Yu Min, several members of the troupe band together to plot the murder of Mr. Yee, a member of the Japanese collaborationist Kuomintang government of Wang Jingwei. Among them is a shy young girl named Wong Chia-Chih, whose family has fled China and in turn, finds herself at home on the stage. Her innate talent and quietly coquettish beauty are such that she is designated as the lure for Mr. Yee under the guise of Mrs. Mak, the wife of a businessman who is away in Hong Kong. The seduction seems to be working, but a first assassination attempt in Hong Kong fails. By chance, a second attempt is made years later in Shanghai, and the consequences become overwhelming for all involved, especially for Wong who becomes entangled in an erotically charged, emotionally confused affair with Yee. Much of the film's second half is focused on the evolving nature of their adulterous relationship, and at the same time, the motivations behind these characters are left open to interpretation. As the film progresses, it becomes increasingly difficult to empathize with their fates because the plot remains stubbornly opaque. Moreover, more discipline could have been applied to the editing as some scenes remain painfully lengthy, such as the fumbling, brutalizing killing of a government insider.
Even with the flaws, the performances are uniformly strong. Tony Leung Chiu-Wai, Wong Kar-Wai's favorite leading man, plays Yee close to the vest as we see little of how he behaves in his official role. However, the actor conveys Yee's simmering menace with subtlety until he translates his explosive contempt in the bedroom. In a most auspicious film debut, Tang Wei looks very much like the porcelain-doll models in the vintage Chinese advertising of the 1930's, and she turns in impressive work given the challenging arc the character experiences. There is a palpable uncertainty in her portrayal of a seductress that serves the film's ambiguity well, and as the glamorously composed Mrs. Mak, she looks stunning in Lai Pan's period clothing. Smaller roles feel more contained within the storyline. Regardless, Asian-American pop sensation Lee-Hom Wang plays Kuang Yu Min with spirit, and the versatile Joan Chen makes Mrs. Yee a sharp background figure, especially when she rattles on during the meticulously lensed games of mah jong. All the sensory aspects of the production are impressive - Alexandre Desplat's lustrous music, Lai Pan's period-authentic production design, and especially the rich cinematography of Rodrigo Prieto (who performed the same duties on "Brokeback Mountain" and "Babel"). Make sure to look for the 2008 DVD with the NC-17 version, which includes ten minutes of footage not allowed by the MPAA to run during the original theatrical run. Not just for prurient tastes, the scenes add a necessary layer of complexity to the relationship between Wong and Yee. Beyond that, the one significant extra to the DVD is a sixteen-minute making-of featurette that provides just a cursory look at the production including comments from the Lee, Schamus and the principal actors (Wei is barely recognizable as the same person in modern dress).
Lush and lugubrious are the two adjectives that come to mind after just watching Ang Lee's 2007 follow-up to "Brokeback Mountain". On the surface, the two movies appear to have nothing in common, but they share two attributes - both share the concept of a forbidden relationship, and both are expansions of acclaimed short stories. This time, the literary source is Shanghai-born writer Eileen Chang's 1979 novella set in China during the Japanese occupation. As adapted by Wang Hui Ling and James Schamus, the focus here is less on character development and more on a ponderous, drawn-out conspiracy where acts of passion threaten to upend an ambitious mission to kill a powerful official working with the Japanese puppet government. The net trade-off is a film that is sumptuous to look at and impressive in its meticulous attention to historical detail, but sometimes challenging to track and ultimately not as emotionally involving as it could be. Interestingly, the film earned the notorious NC-17 rating for the graphic sex scenes in the last hour, but Lee obviously includes them to amplify the desperate extremities of the principal characters. Running at an epic length of 157 minutes and with particularly fast-turning English subtitles at the beginning, it can often feel wearisome, especially in the methodical way the plot unfolds. At the same time, no film by Lee can be completely dismissed, and there are rewards to be reaped from his idiosyncratic approach.
Through an extended flashback, the story spotlights a group of Chinese students who perform patriotic plays to raise Chinese spirits during the occupation. Inspired by the zeal of leading player Kuang Yu Min, several members of the troupe band together to plot the murder of Mr. Yee, a member of the Japanese collaborationist Kuomintang government of Wang Jingwei. Among them is a shy young girl named Wong Chia-Chih, whose family has fled China and in turn, finds herself at home on the stage. Her innate talent and quietly coquettish beauty are such that she is designated as the lure for Mr. Yee under the guise of Mrs. Mak, the wife of a businessman who is away in Hong Kong. The seduction seems to be working, but a first assassination attempt in Hong Kong fails. By chance, a second attempt is made years later in Shanghai, and the consequences become overwhelming for all involved, especially for Wong who becomes entangled in an erotically charged, emotionally confused affair with Yee. Much of the film's second half is focused on the evolving nature of their adulterous relationship, and at the same time, the motivations behind these characters are left open to interpretation. As the film progresses, it becomes increasingly difficult to empathize with their fates because the plot remains stubbornly opaque. Moreover, more discipline could have been applied to the editing as some scenes remain painfully lengthy, such as the fumbling, brutalizing killing of a government insider.
Even with the flaws, the performances are uniformly strong. Tony Leung Chiu-Wai, Wong Kar-Wai's favorite leading man, plays Yee close to the vest as we see little of how he behaves in his official role. However, the actor conveys Yee's simmering menace with subtlety until he translates his explosive contempt in the bedroom. In a most auspicious film debut, Tang Wei looks very much like the porcelain-doll models in the vintage Chinese advertising of the 1930's, and she turns in impressive work given the challenging arc the character experiences. There is a palpable uncertainty in her portrayal of a seductress that serves the film's ambiguity well, and as the glamorously composed Mrs. Mak, she looks stunning in Lai Pan's period clothing. Smaller roles feel more contained within the storyline. Regardless, Asian-American pop sensation Lee-Hom Wang plays Kuang Yu Min with spirit, and the versatile Joan Chen makes Mrs. Yee a sharp background figure, especially when she rattles on during the meticulously lensed games of mah jong. All the sensory aspects of the production are impressive - Alexandre Desplat's lustrous music, Lai Pan's period-authentic production design, and especially the rich cinematography of Rodrigo Prieto (who performed the same duties on "Brokeback Mountain" and "Babel"). Make sure to look for the 2008 DVD with the NC-17 version, which includes ten minutes of footage not allowed by the MPAA to run during the original theatrical run. Not just for prurient tastes, the scenes add a necessary layer of complexity to the relationship between Wong and Yee. Beyond that, the one significant extra to the DVD is a sixteen-minute making-of featurette that provides just a cursory look at the production including comments from the Lee, Schamus and the principal actors (Wei is barely recognizable as the same person in modern dress).