New to DVD - 'Lust, Caution'

Favoring two characters who must exist without emotions to exhaust the gamut of human emotion, Ang Lee?s unforgettable Lust, Caution only has one major flaw: It?s nearly three hours long.

That flaw leads to minor ones, or at least small judgment calls that wouldn?t need to be made if the film had clocked in at a more reasonable time. Though the story of deception, espionage, culture, and sexual domination in a time of world war is definitely worth exploring, Lust, Caution never feels epic. Lawrence of Arabia wouldn?t work in two hours, but this film would.

Set during the Japanese occupation of China in the late 1930s and early 1940s, Lust, Caution is more akin to a D.H. Lawrence novel than a contemporary film. It takes a long time getting where it?s going not because it?s poorly executed but because it believes investigating the conditions through its characters is worthwhile.

Mr. Yee (Tony Leung) is a Chinese diplomat collaborating with the Japanese. He?s wealthy and well-heeled, lives his work and not his life. His wife (Joan Chen) spends her time playing Mahjong with other ignored political wives. One of the wives is not who she seems, however.

Mrs. Mak is in reality Wang Jiazhi (Wei Tang), a spy from a group of university students turned revolutionaries who want to expel the Japanese influence from China and its government. She inches ever closer to Mr. Yee?s trust, sacrificing her body along the way.

The sex scenes in Lust, Caution have earned the film an NC-17 rating. There are half a dozen, maybe more, and all but one of them would constitute that MPAA rating on their own. Needless to say, they?re pretty graphic. They aren?t titillating but rather psychologically grueling. Yee is a bit of a sadist and while he cares about Wang, he can?t express it sexually. To him, sex is almost a battle of superiority.

Even with the sex, Lust, Caution is a magnificent piece of art from Ang Lee. As with every other film in his canon, Lust, Caution is beautifully photographed and the costumes and production design are flawless. Both Leung and Tang give remarkably brave performances.

But there are components of the conclusion of the film that make you wonder why on Earth it took Lee two-and-a-half hours to arrive with a whimper.