Ang Lee Explains Relationship Between Lust and Caution

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Ang Lee Explains Relationship Between Lust and Caution

From the Nichi Bei Times Weekly October 11, 2007

By BEN HAMAMOTO
Nichi Bei Times

"Lust, Caution," the new film from Academy Award-winning director Ang Lee, has become famous for its NC-17 rating and for rumors that the sex that earned the rating is not simulated. While this aspect of the production has been discussed endlessly, there is much more to "Lust, Caution" than just sex.

The film follows a young actress who falls in with a group of students involved in the 1940s nationalist resistance in Hong Kong and occupied Shanghai. Together, they plot to kill a member of the Japanese collaborationist government of Wang Jing-wei. Their plan is to use Chia-chi Wong, the young actress, as bait; they have her pose as a member of high society in order to seduce Yee, the high-ranking collaborator.

"My mother lived in Beijing and they were collaborators," Lee explained in a roundtable interview the Nichi Bei Times participated in. "My father went with Chiang Kai-shek to the west [Taiwan] to the resistance, so I heard the story of both sides.

"I don't see myself making political films," he continued, "but it's such an important part of our lives. We can"t get away from it. Just like sex."

The intersection of sex and politics is certainly a large part of the film.

"The occupied and the occupier is the shortest way to put it," Lee stated. "I had never read from Chinese literature what women get from sex. [In the story the film is based on, author Eileen Chang] even suggests… the way to a woman"s heart is through her vagina. How could I miss that?

"To put female sexuality in the backdrop of the whole patriotic war against the Japanese, it's never been done before," Lee added in a Hollywood Newswire interview with Izumi Hasegawa.

Another aspect of the film that attracted Lee was that acting enables both the main characters to feel things they wouldn"t otherwise.

"It's very much like me. By making movies, by pretending, by embodying a character [one can find their] true self," he said. "Even stripped naked [and having sex] they are still performing. As long as there is a relationship you are performing for someone, even one"s relationship to their self. It"s very hard to define which part is your true self and which is a performance.

"Lust, in Chinese, also means color, everything you see," he adds. "It's the texture of life. It's nothing but the reflection or a projection of your own self. And you should be cautious not to be fooled."

Politics, in the film, is also a performance, often used to justify or glorify violence.

"We are all told about how war is glorious and they don"t look at killing [in that context] as a crime. In reality, it's something that"s very hard to do and something that is gruesome. They glorify the stories such as [Wong"s, in which] a woman sacrifices her body for the country. They don"t tell you [what sex can mean to a woman]. I think it"s a very similar thing. "

Wong's actions at the end of the movie have shocked and confused many, prompting the question, "Why did she do it?"

"I don't think there is an answer" is Lee"s response. "I think it came from a very dark and murky place inside her. Personally, I think she did the wrong thing. She made a horrible mistake, but also, an understandable mistake."

Tang Wei, the actress who played Wong and who was also on hand for the interview, disagreed.

"I think she knew everything. I think she knew exactly what she was doing," Wei said.

The book seems to agree with Lee, clearly indicating her choice the product of a terrible miscalculation. The film, on the other hand, seems much more consistent with Wei's interpretation. In the film, Wong"s choice seems to be an ultimate act of passive aggression, retaliation against those who have used and manipulated her.

Despite his insistence that Wong made a mistake, Lee, perhaps subtly indicating agreement with Wei, asked, "Who truly occupies who?"

The diverging opinions of the director and his leading lady create an eerie parallel to the book and film. Though Lee is the ringleader of the picture — somehow Wei"s idea is the one that comes across on the screen.

http://www.nichibeitimes.com/articles/artsent.php?subaction=showfull&id=1192144653&archive=&start_from=&ucat=3

[Marie]

Ang Lee said:

[Eri]

It is very interesting to know;

"My mother lived in Beijing and they were collaborators," Lee explained in a roundtable interview the Nichi Bei Times participated in. "My father went with Chiang Kai-shek to the west [Taiwan] to the resistance, so I heard the story of both sides,

I don't remember he mentioned anything like this in Chinese Language media before,although he said "The patriot student might be future Mr.Ng who was manipulating those students, and Mr Ng can be future Mr.Yee who was a collaborator" and he is not talking about which is good or bad.

Perhaps Ang Lee felt something in common with Japanese Americans.
Their struggle to survive in the US which was an enemy of their homeland then, and have to make very difficult decision about which side they are on.
Even family members were divided into two, to live as a Japanese or an American. I heard some stories from my Japanese American friends, before.

I think "I don't see myself making political films," he continued, "but it's such an important part of our lives. We can"t get away from it. Just like sex." was true for them as well.