So I went to see Lust, Caution, directed by Ang Lee. I don't feel like doing any blurb of it right now, so if you are interested, you can check it out on rottentomatoes.com here.
It is a well-acted movie. Tony Leung and Tang Wei portray complex and believable characters. Their interactions most clearly depicted via scenes of explicit and painfully-intense sex, which has nothing to do with Eros and everything with our eternal struggle against Thanatos.
In the end, though, it all seems like much ado about nothing. True, one person was stabbed multiple times and bled to death before horrified perpetrators /witnesses. There was a semi-staged rape scene. There was intense power play between a powerful man and a seemingly-powerless woman. And yet, the ending dissolves these potentially devastating elements into a mere tempest in the teapot, a puff of hot air that quickly fades into nothing.
Perhaps I missed some critical nuance, but I do not find it pleasant to have my emotions all stirred up—and then, it ends. Was the evil, powerful man changed by this potentially life-altering potential-love? No. He got cracks in his armor, and she was summarily executed along with her band of co-conspirators. All her experiences meant nothing. --If the movie had meant to portray nothingness to give us an understanding of the ultimate futility of this world--OK. I can accept that. But the entire movie was spent on the nuance of their relationship, the background which was their unspoken context--the focus was all on the people.
Alas. What a waste.
I will give it THREE STARS out of a potential FIVE.
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