Running time: 157 minutes
Starring: Tony Leung, Tang Mei, Joan Chen, Johnson Yuen
Rating 8 out of 10
After wowing audiences and critics alike with his film of forbidden love in the shadow of a cowboy hat in Brokeback Mountain, Ang Lee has made his first Chinese language film since his breakthrough smash Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. While the era and subject matters are quite different, it's an equally rewarding affair.
But first let's talk about sex, as the movie has not been mentioned in the press without an aside about the supposed controversy concerning its adult nature. Yes, the two main characters engage in prolonged bouts of lovemaking, and yes some of it is violent in nature. But it's integral to the story, and really nothing that Western audiences won't have seen before. It may have offended Chinese censors, but they are after all the same people who banned such nefarious efforts as Borat and Over the Hedge.
James Schamus' script - based on the popular short novel by seminal Chinese author Eileen Chang - is a complex affair that rewards close inspection. It's set in Shanghai around the time of the Second World War and follows a group of young radical actors who decide to target a Japanese official (this was a period when Japan occupied much of China).
To do so they recruit a beautiful if naive young girl in order to catch him in a love trap. He is paranoid and afraid for his life but cannot resist her charms, and it's a story that takes some years to unfold. The two leads, Tony Yeung - who may be familiar to audiences here from appearances in the works of Wong-Kar Wai - and newcomer Tang Wei are graceful, subtle and spellbinding.
Undoubtedly some audiences may baulk at the film's languid nature, but I found it increasingly captivating, leading to a terrifically directed finale. Lee is one of the best directors around - even his mah-jong sequences are a lesson in the art - and this is another great triumph. We can now almost forgive him for The Hulk.
Paul Hurley
But first let's talk about sex, as the movie has not been mentioned in the press without an aside about the supposed controversy concerning its adult nature. Yes, the two main characters engage in prolonged bouts of lovemaking, and yes some of it is violent in nature. But it's integral to the story, and really nothing that Western audiences won't have seen before. It may have offended Chinese censors, but they are after all the same people who banned such nefarious efforts as Borat and Over the Hedge.
James Schamus' script - based on the popular short novel by seminal Chinese author Eileen Chang - is a complex affair that rewards close inspection. It's set in Shanghai around the time of the Second World War and follows a group of young radical actors who decide to target a Japanese official (this was a period when Japan occupied much of China).
To do so they recruit a beautiful if naive young girl in order to catch him in a love trap. He is paranoid and afraid for his life but cannot resist her charms, and it's a story that takes some years to unfold. The two leads, Tony Yeung - who may be familiar to audiences here from appearances in the works of Wong-Kar Wai - and newcomer Tang Wei are graceful, subtle and spellbinding.
Undoubtedly some audiences may baulk at the film's languid nature, but I found it increasingly captivating, leading to a terrifically directed finale. Lee is one of the best directors around - even his mah-jong sequences are a lesson in the art - and this is another great triumph. We can now almost forgive him for The Hulk.
Paul Hurley
