L2R
Bluelight Crew
- Joined
- Apr 19, 2001
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d: ang lee
w: james schamus
s: tony leung, wei tang, joan chen
imdb link
based on the classic eileen chang story, this film is based during the japanese occupation of shanghai and hong kong during the second world war. a time which has spurred the strong anti japanese sentiments which i have personally witnessed over there.
the story follows a group of university classmates who, out of chinese nationalistic pride and patriotism, plot to infiltrate and murder a highly ranking japanese conspirator. the young female protagonist, wong chia chi, finds herself extremely deep undercover, and uses astonishing skill, far beyond that of her colleagues or even superiors, in maintaining her duty. but everyone has their limits.
this is not your usual spy thriller.
tony leung eases into his usual womanising, straight faced (with ever so subtle expressions) roles he's performed well in previously (namely wong kar wei films). but even with this familiarity, in this film he really puts himself out there (in more ways than one) in the more provocative scenes of this film.
speaking of which, wei tang, in her film debut, really steals the show with an incredibly difficult part. her performance in this is enough to test an audiences inhibitions. not to mention that dramatically, she manages to ace every subtle mark of this complex character.
onto the bit you're waiting for, the eroticism. seriously, it is as close to porn as i have seen in a serious drama. after my first viewing i really cannot tell if the actors were actually having sex or not. so much so, it actually makes me rather uncomfortable. whilst the sex scenes in this film drive the plot in the most important ways, especially the last one scene, thus contributing to the story significantly, it is also so gratuitous that the rest of the film seems to get dulled a bit by them.
i'm currently not quite sure whether this worked to the film's gross benefit or not. ultimately, i wasn't as moved as i was coming out of my first screening of brokeback mountain. perhaps if the sex scenes were toned down a little, it would've been different. maybe with subsequent screenings i will be able to look past the sex scenes. i dunno. maybe i won't.
kinda like the notorious scene in the first basic instinct. maybe i'm just a pervert at heart, but that entire movie still, more than 15 years later, to me is dulled by that one blurry shot.
the story, settings, cinematography and cast were all superb. ang lee, with his usual producer/writer james schamus work their excellent standard recreating this period of time, once again, at times causing me to question how on earth they managed it.
4.5/5
w: james schamus
s: tony leung, wei tang, joan chen
imdb link
based on the classic eileen chang story, this film is based during the japanese occupation of shanghai and hong kong during the second world war. a time which has spurred the strong anti japanese sentiments which i have personally witnessed over there.
the story follows a group of university classmates who, out of chinese nationalistic pride and patriotism, plot to infiltrate and murder a highly ranking japanese conspirator. the young female protagonist, wong chia chi, finds herself extremely deep undercover, and uses astonishing skill, far beyond that of her colleagues or even superiors, in maintaining her duty. but everyone has their limits.
this is not your usual spy thriller.
tony leung eases into his usual womanising, straight faced (with ever so subtle expressions) roles he's performed well in previously (namely wong kar wei films). but even with this familiarity, in this film he really puts himself out there (in more ways than one) in the more provocative scenes of this film.
speaking of which, wei tang, in her film debut, really steals the show with an incredibly difficult part. her performance in this is enough to test an audiences inhibitions. not to mention that dramatically, she manages to ace every subtle mark of this complex character.
onto the bit you're waiting for, the eroticism. seriously, it is as close to porn as i have seen in a serious drama. after my first viewing i really cannot tell if the actors were actually having sex or not. so much so, it actually makes me rather uncomfortable. whilst the sex scenes in this film drive the plot in the most important ways, especially the last one scene, thus contributing to the story significantly, it is also so gratuitous that the rest of the film seems to get dulled a bit by them.
i'm currently not quite sure whether this worked to the film's gross benefit or not. ultimately, i wasn't as moved as i was coming out of my first screening of brokeback mountain. perhaps if the sex scenes were toned down a little, it would've been different. maybe with subsequent screenings i will be able to look past the sex scenes. i dunno. maybe i won't.
kinda like the notorious scene in the first basic instinct. maybe i'm just a pervert at heart, but that entire movie still, more than 15 years later, to me is dulled by that one blurry shot.
the story, settings, cinematography and cast were all superb. ang lee, with his usual producer/writer james schamus work their excellent standard recreating this period of time, once again, at times causing me to question how on earth they managed it.
4.5/5
