Lust, Caution

Lust, Caution, Ang Lee's latest movie, just won him the second Golden Lion at Venice. His first Golden Lion was Brokeback Mountain in 2005. When Lust Caution was premiered in Venice, everyone was shocked at how intense the 3 sex scenes are. Newspapers paid more attention to how the actor exposes his balls in the film, instead of how the sex scenes are trying to tell them.

Eileen Chang, the author of Lust Caution, is one of the greatest writers in the 20th century. Her writing always gives me a sense of movement. I feel that there was a camera in her mind when she wrote, and she knew how to manipulate the camera well in very simple and compact words. She definitely knows how to abstract the story. Sometimes it gives you more to think about if you do not know all the details, and that's how she dealt with Lust Caution. She did not tell how the 2 main characters developed their affections, but the main point was that the female character tried to approach the guy, just to assasinate him, but she ended up falling in love with him, and told him to run when her group planned the whole action and everyone was ready. He ran away, but, in return, told his men to get the whole group and kill them all. We all believe this includes her, but of course Eileen did not say that. Ang Lee wants to use the 3 sex scenes to tell the audience how their love evolves with the story, and I think that is a clever thing to do. That is the untold story in this story.

But, we'll have to wait until end of September for the movie to premiere in Taiwan. I'll definitely go watch it. By the way, I love Eileen Chang. Her early stories are so compact and great. I believe she gives a sense of defeat to those who want to be writers, because they know they'll never be this good. She finished all her major stories in her early twenties.