MyFilmVault's Greatest...

Had this in my mind for a while but wasn't quite sure how I wanted to lay it out. Think I've solved it - I'm happy with it at least!

Over the next few weeks I will be putting together pages for our most honoured actors, actresses and directors. First up a triple bill of 3 of our most nominated men:

Tony Leung

Morgan Freeman

James Stewart

Lust: Caution (Se Jie) (2007)

There have been some very full and interesting reviews and comments on this on the site, so I'll (try to) keep mine brief. It may differ from the others as well.

I had been waiting for so long to see this film, having (yet again) missed it during its cinema run, it was, to be honest, beginning to enter that territory where the ache to see a film enters the protagonist into that otherworldly irrational arena of deep yearning love which, we all know, can lead to great disappointment. How many films have each of us seen which don't live up to the preconceptions we've given them in the deepest, cobwebbed, confines of our souls?

So, if I had this down, pre-viewing, as an A+, did it live up to it?

Ultimately, the answer to this is no. But this does not mean that it's a bad film. It isn't. It just isn't a great one, especially when compared to some of last year's fantastic offerings.

It was very interesting to note the NottingHillBilly's comments on the title. Very relevant indeed. I hadn't known any of that and could not agree more that something very significant has been lost, particularly, as the NHB (sorry!) points out, the scene referred to by the Mandarin title ('Colour Ring'), is easily the film's best and it's high point. The violin-bow taughtness and tension as Mr Yee (Tony Leung) and Wong Chia Chi (Wei Tang) pick out a diamond ring is almost on a par with Sonny's spectacular demise in The Godfather: Part one. Does Mr Yee meet his demise in a similar way? Well, you'll just have to watch and find out. It would certaily be no waste of anyone's time.

Reading people's comments, I cannot help reflecting that I should watch this again as my expectations could well have been too high. Although I concede that this shadowy, sinewy, film twists and turns like vines interweaved in old, crumbling, trees, it just didn't grip me in the way that it should have done and certainly in the way that it clearly aims to. That, for me, was the bottom line, but I may well watch it again and be forced to rethink my view.

I will dwell a little longer on the performances. They are spectacular. Wei Tang is magnificent and the level of torn, deserted, anguish in her eyes is, at times, too real for the viewer to imagine that she's actually watching a film. She delivers a bold, but subtly drawn, performance that anchors the film in a delicately ambianced emotional reality and takes the viewer directly into the heart of those anguished war-torn times many of us have never seen.

However, the star of the show is once again Tony Leung Chui-Wai. He will, once again, top my acting lists for a jaw-droppingly perfect performance. Leung is the kind of actor you watch and wonder why certain Hollywood types are as revered as they are. Leung has a range that surpasses all. By far. From Happy Together's lovestruck Lai Yiu-Fai (who is somehow grounded and dreamy in one breath), through Leung's two drasticly different reimaginings of Chow in In the Mood For Love and 2046 (this gap, more a chasm really, demonstrates Leung's ability more than anything else - I can't remember any one else even attempting, let alone accomplishing, something so dramatic regarding one character's development from one film to the next and the effects of what has got him there. It goes way beyond what even Pacino manages in the Godfathre films), to the bloodthirsty, sadistic torturer on show here, Leung always manages to collapse that boundary between audience and film. I'm not sure who is supposed to be among Hollywood's most revered males, it changes so frequently, but I cannot image a DiCaprio, a Clooney, a Norton, a Foxx, even playing any, let alone all, of these characters. And Leung has, of course, played many more besides. On show here, in other words, is the greatest living actor, at the very peak of his game, showing just how successfully great performing can collapse that irrepressible barrier between moving image and those lacy images of reality which ultimately inspire them. And that seems as fitting a place as any to end.

B-

Lust, Caution

Ang Lee specialises in films that explore love and intimacy. His best work explore these intangibles from all angles: the lack of affection between a middle aged, quite unhappily married couple in The Ice Storm; the repressed but deeply held intimacy between two men in Brokeback Mountain; the interwoven, requited and unrequited love in Sense and Sensability. All these films are superb examples of how to bring to life a relationship and convincingly portray it on screen. His latest effort is arguably his most convincing and most satisfying yet. It concerns the intensely intimate relationship between a government official and a resistance fighter and it can be described as nothing short of ground breaking.

This is Ang Lee's first film in his native tongue since 2000’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and it is fascinating to see him work again with great Asian actors. One of these is Tony Leung, an actor who is all over my colleague's movie years ballots, and after seeing this it’s not hard to understand the appeal. I’ve seen Leung before, in Wong Kar Wai’s In the Mood for Love. That’s a highly regarded film and one that features a widely acclaimed performance. But I’ll be damned if he’s not so much better here. Starring opposite him is an actress with none of Leung’s years of experience, but one who betrays such youth with a performance that matches Leung in every way. Tei apparently saw off literally hundreds of other applicants for the role. It was one well worth fighting for and for Lee and his casting crew, such a meticulous auditioning process has paid off.

Wang Tei plays a student in Japanese occupied China, who's recruited by a group of idealistic, patriotic youths determined to resist the oppression thrust upon them. They begin their opposition through theatre but quickly become frustrated with the impotency of their efforts and soon gradate to more brutal methods. They hatch a plan to murder one of the key Japanese collaborators in the region (Leung) and plot for Tei to first befriend then seduce him.

Ang Lee has really taken a chance in this film, filming the most graphic love scenes ever seen in a movie intended for mainstream audiences. However these scenes are not only the most graphic they are also the most convincing. Perhaps there’s a correlation between the two, but it is not just the nudity that makes these scenes so effective. Lee handles the camera with absolute precision. Every movement, every shot so thoughtfully planned and note perfect in execution. The acting is a tour de force and this fascinatingly complex relationship is brought to life, and to a certain extent is told through their love making. It’s a relationship that evolves in unexpected ways throughout the course of the film and it is rare that we see character development as effective as this.

Leung and Tei are perfect. Leung plays a man who shows very little emotion for 90% of the time, and then an explosion of ferocity and passion for the rest. This stark contrast and the intensity of the emotion displayed, nearly all of which is reserved for the love scenes between himself and Tang Wei, is completely riveting. Wei begins the film as a naïve student who can barely overcome her shyness enough to appear on stage, and ends the film as a key figure within the resistance able to deceive one of the most paranoid and cautious men in China. Her transformation is utterly compeelling; she’s superb.

Lust, Caution was disqualified as Taiwan’s entry for foreign language film at the Oscars due to having to large a percentage of cast and crew coming in from outside Taiwain. It’s a real shame as it will almost certainly not find itself shortlisted in any of the other categories* and this is a film that deserves more attention. Rodrigo Prieto’s cinematography deserves notice, although it has to be said there’s an embarrassment of riches in that particular category this year so one cannot complain too much if he is overlooked. The score by Alexandre Desplat is certainly award-worth as well, but the greatest behind the camera achievement is undoubtedly that of Lee’s. This may very well be the best directed film of the year and the greatest directorial achievement in his illustrious career.

A-

*and indeed it wasn't. Nominees were announced earlier today - I wrote this review last weekend.