Devious Goodie #4

Title: Lust Caution 色, 戒 [2007]
Warning: For Mature Viewers Only.
(I was gonna put 18+ but I don't think people would listen anyway)

Cast:

Tony Leung Chiu Wai ... Mr. Yee
Tang Wei ... Wang Jiazhi
Wang Lee Hom ... Kuang Yu-Min
Joan Chen ... Mrs. Yee
Chu Chih Ying Chu
Anupam Kher ... Indian Jeweller
Johnson Yuen

Language: Mandarin
Subtitles: English
Quality: DVDRip
Unrated full version

Synopsis:

Shanghai, 1942. The World War II Japanese occupation of this Chinese city continues in force. Mrs. Mak, a woman of sophistication and means, walks into a café, places a call, and then sits and waits. She remembers how her story began several years earlier, in 1938 China. She is not in fact Mrs. Mak, but shy Wong Chia Chi (Tang Wei). With WWII underway, Wong has been left behind by her father, who has escaped to England. As a freshman at university, she meets fellow student Kuang Yu Min (Wang Leehom). Kuang has started a drama society to shore up patriotism. As the theater troupe's new leading lady, Wong realizes that she has found her calling, able to move and inspire audiences -- and Kang. He convenes a core group of students to carry out a radical and ambitious plan to assassinate a top Japanese collaborator, Mr. Yee (Tony Leung). Each student has a part to play; Wong will be Mrs. Mak, who will gain Yee's trust by befriending his wife (Joan Chen) and then draw the man into an affair. Wong transforms herself utterly inside and out, and the scenario proceeds as scripted -- until an unexpected fatal twist spurs her to flee.

Three years later, with no end in sight for the occupation, Wong, having emigrated to Hong Kong, goes through the motions of her existence. Much to her surprise, Kuang re-enters her life. Now part of the organized resistance, he enlists her to again become Mrs. Mak in a revival of the plot to kill Yee, who as head of the collaborationist secret service has become even more a key part of the puppet government. As Wong reprises her earlier role, and is drawn ever closer to her dangerous prey, she finds her very identity being pushed to the limit.


My Review (Warning spoiler):

Well I think this is really just a tragic love story. Tang Wei stars as Wang Jiazhi, initially an innocent and sweet girl in the student body who met with Wang Lee Hom's character, Kuang Yu-Min.

I am not sure why exactly that she agreed to help them, was it her 'crush' or secret love for Yu-Min, or could it be she was really patriotic and wanted to help her country? I think it was a mixture of both, but it was more because of her feelings for Yu-Min that she agreed to be a spy.

What started as a student organization plan became much more than that, when the inexperienced students encountered difficulties and JiaZhi lost contact with Yu-Min and his 'team' for 3 years.

When she met up with Yu-Min again, she ended up agreeing to 'helping' him and his organization again to infiltrate Mr. Yee's residence and gain his trust. Why did she agree? After all, the students had only made use of her and did not think twice about asking her to lose her innocence and virginity just for the role of being Mr. Yee's mistress. They even made a guy have sex with her as training, I felt pity for her.

And when JiaZhi managed to gain Mr. Yee's trust, the head organization wanted to wait to take action, making it seems that they could not care less for her safety. As Jia Zhi was not trained as a spy, she was living under immense pressure and strained. Her body was used over and over again, she was tortured, and yet she never voiced her unhappiness. She never owed the organization anything, and yet she helped them without complaint.

I do find it sad that how JiaZhi started out as an innocent and naive girl, but was manipulated and had chosen to sacrifice her life in the end to escape from the organization... I don't think she actually loves Mr. Yee, but IMO, it was more of her final retaliation against the organization when she realized that she was nothing more than just a pawn. This was evident from day 1, when the head of the organization handed her a suicide pill just in case she was caught. It could also be because Mr. Yee actually treated her 'better' than anyone else. We could see how touched she was when she realized Mr. Yee plans to buy her a beautiful invaluable ring.

I don't know why, I really detest Kuang Yu-Min for being such a coward and did not stand up for the woman whom loved him and willingly helped him through all this.

It's a little boring if you don't appreciate artsy films, but I think most of you will be interested in the graphic bed scenes eh?

I don't sympathize with Jia Zhi, but I do feel good for her and proud of her, when she decided to turn her back on the organization! Sweet revenge, with a heavy price to pay.

Download Links:
(Please do NOT steal/share them on other sites irregardless if you credit me or not. If I find out my links are stolen, I would stop posting links in the future and/or hunt you down!)

Note: Sendspace links are available at my forum, Asianz Rendezvous.

Join all parts for Disc 1 and 2 (separately of course) with HJ Split.
Disc 1
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8
Disc 2
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8
Subtitles (English):
Here