I treated my folks to this film at Kino Dendy the weekend before last, lol. Some treat, huh? Of all movies…

Starring: Tony Leung Chiu-Wai, Tang Wei, Joan Chen, Wang Lee-Hom
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. 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. 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 Kuang. He convenes a core group of students to carry out a radical and ambitious plan to assassinate a top Japanese collaborator, Mr. Yee. Each student has a part to play; Wong will be Mrs. Mak, who will gain Yees’ trust by befriending his wife and then draw the man into an affair. Wong transforms herself utterly inside and out, and the scenario proceeds as scripted until an unexpectedly fatal twist spurs her to flee. Shanghai, 1941. With no end in sight for the occupation, Wong having emigrated from 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…

I think this movie, although impressive, had a bit too much publicity. Sure, the sex scenes leave next to nothing for the imagination (and I’d rather not see THAT part of Tony Leung, thank you very much) and do warrant an R18+/NC-17 rating, but the story itself is quite simple; however, under Ang Lee’s direction it also leaves an indelible impression on the viewer – it unrelentingly, unforgivingly forces us to feel one’s passion and desire to consume another, to succumb to the complete possession and control of another, and thus be stripped of all defences. Not a film for everyone to be sure, but certainly one to think about. I found it all a little disconcerting

Kudos to Alexandre Desplat (yet again composing in China, hah!) for an understated and exquisite score, and to the cinematographers, stunning once again!

Rating: