Movie Review Lust, Caution

Lust, Caution (2007)

Directed by Ang Lee 

Written by Hui-Ling Wang, James Schamus

Starring Tony Leung, Tang Wei, Anupam Kher, Joan Chen, Wang Leehom

Release Date September 28th, 2007

Published February 14th, 2008 

It is an odd note of history, lost to most Americans who aren't taught this in school, and still a stinging point of contention in mainland China. The fact that Japan had, prior to World War 2, overrun the Chinese mainland and were essentially running large portions of the country that has since risen to superpower status. It is almost unfathomable to the modern mind that this goliath with a population of over 1 billion people was once dominated by their tiny island neighbor. This makes Ang Lee's exceptional Lust, Caution not only an opulent, sexy spy thriller but also an important history lesson.

In hindsight it makes sense. In the mid to late 30's China was a peaceful nation coming of age. When Japan invaded and brought modern weapons and government, some of the loose confederacies of traders and politicians saw an opportunity for power backed by their modernist neighbor and this partnership brought Japan to China. This was the impetus for a Chinese nationalist revolution that would eventually lead to full fledged communism. This is where Lust, Caution picks up. A group of college educated Chinese theater students decide to perform patriotic plays to inspire their countrymen to rise against Japan and their Chinese conspirators.

At first, the group is merely idealistic but as the reality of the violence committed against their countrymen sets in, the group becomes galvanized and talk of political assassination becomes more than just talk. Setting up in Shanghai, in a wealthy district where top Japanese officials and their Chinese co-conspirators live and prosper, the group poses their best actress, Wong Chia Chi (Tang Wei), as the bored wife of a wealthy trader. As Mrs. Mak it will be her job to seduce and destroy Mr. Yee (Tony Leung) , a well protected member of the Japanese collaborationist government. It is Mr. Yee who deals, often violently, with those who oppose Japanese involvement in China.

It doesn't take long for Mrs. Mak to get Mr. Yee's attention and soon the two are lovers. Circumstances force the group to break up and Wong Chia Chi flees. Three years later Kuang (Wang Leehom) finds her and offers her the chance to finish the job. She will reassume the role of Mrs. Mak and once again fall into Mr. Yee's bed. The plan works once again but with their relationship rekindled can Wong/Mrs. Mak separate her feelings for her country and her lust for Mr. Yee.

Lust, Caution is a lush, beautifully crafted period piece with the great hook of a spy thriller. Sexy, intriguing and exciting, it's some of Ang Lee's finest direction. Coming off the languid western visuals of Brokeback Mountain, Lee continues to dazzle with eye popping visual delights that deepen the film experience without distracting from it. What Lee has yet to escape is his penchant for lingering just a little too long on scenes after their natural ending. Lust, Caution, like Brokeback Mountain and the Oscar nominated Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, would have benefitted from a tighter edit. That however, is a minor quibble over a film that is far better than most other films in the market.

The aspect of Lust, Caution that has garnered the most attention are the lengthy, athletic sex scenes that earned the film an R-rating. Indeed the scenes are very sexy and some have speculated as to whether the scenes were simulated or real. If the rumor is that it took more than 100 hours to film the many vigorous scenes of love making, let's hope some simulation took place otherwise poor Tang Wei may never walk right again. The scenes are graphic but not terribly overdone. The scenes are sexy with an edge of aggressive violent S & M that underline the tense secrets of these two complex characters.

Though the sex separates Lust, Caution from true comparisons with classic Hollywood thrillers, there is something very old Hollywood in the ways Lee builds the tension in Lust, Caution. As the film builds to its shocking climax you may be surprised how invested you are after having been kept waiting for most of the film's 2 hour 50 minute run time. Lee pulls off the astonishing trick of holding us in place with pretty pictures and erotic sex and then in the final act he amps up a truly tense spy thriller that will have you on the edge of your seat till the stunner ending.

Lust, Caution was a hit at the Cannes Film Festival and was Lee's second winner in a row at the Venice Film Festival. Now finally on DVD Lust, Caution is a must see for fans of fabulous film making and seductive intrigue. It is entirely in Shanghainese and subtitled which I know turns off a lot of you. Trust me when I tell you that investing the time in reading along with Lust, Caution is worth it.

Movie Review Taking Woodstock

Taking Woodstock (2009) 

Directed by Ang Lee 

Written by James Schamus 

Starring Demetri Martin, Emile Hirsch, Eugene Levy, Imelda Staunton, Jonathan Groff

Release Date August 28th, 2009 

Published August 28th, 2009 

The cultural touchstone that is Woodstock has been examined and reexamined in many different forms. Books, TV shows, movies, documentaries, records, have been used to cover every possible angle of this iconic moment in recent American history. So, it is quite notable that director Ang Lee and his writing partner James Schamus have found something of a new angle for their take on Woodstock.

In Taking Woodstock the festival of peace, love and music provides the background for the self exploration of Elliott Teichberg, played by comedian Demetri Martin. Using the concert as the backdrop for a character based story isn't new but the character and the approach to him is something kind of revelatory.

In early August 1969 the organizers of Woodstock found themselves run out of Wallkill New York. Locals pulled the group's festival permit. Luckily for them a young man named Elliott Teichberg happened to have a festival permit and as chairman of the chamber of commerce in tiny Whitelake New York, he had the power to keep it.

A partnership was forged that would change history. Elliott was not meant to be in Whiteside. His parents Sonia (Imelda Staunton) and Jake (Henry Goodman) have run a failing resort in the area for years while Elliott has moved to New York City. When it looked like the place was finally going under, Elliott moved back home.

He became a part of the town and the youngest chamber of commerce chairman in history when he took the risk to bring Woodstock to Whiteside and with it a life changing experience that he could never have envisioned.

I am making Taking Woodstock out to be a little bigger than it is. It's big for Elliott but the story's scale is exceptionally small. Tiny, well observed moments of Elliott Teichberg finding out little things about himself, taking small but escalating risks and dragging his parents, especially his stingy, entrenched mother, along as well.

Some, maybe most, will find Taking Woodstock to be slow, even meandering. For me, the pace was slow but my interest never seemed to wane. Taking Woodstock is a gentle, immersive experience that floats along on a cloud of marijuana smoke and good vibes.

Comic Demetri Martin perfectly captures Elliott's lost soul innocence and longing. He has a wonderful playful spirit hidden behind a nebbish reserve. When he lets loose it's a gentle catharsis perfectly pitched to Ang Lee's waves lapping against the shore pacing.

Yes, Taking Woodstock is slow but it is intended to be slow. It's intended as a gentle study of a gentle man. In that it is highly successful and for me a warm wonderful moviegoing experience. I don't recommend this one to fans of Transformers 2, but for those who enjoy their movies with a little more leisure, Taking Woodstock is the movie for you.

Movie Review: The Hulk

The Hulk (2003) 

Directed by Ang Lee 

Written by James Schamus, Michael France, John Turman 

Starring Eric Bana, Jennifer Connelly, Sam Elliott, Nick Nolte, Josh Lucas 

Release Date June 20th, 2003 

Published June 19th, 2003 

I don't know much about the comic book version of The Hulk. My only exposure to the big green guy is the goofy live action TV version in which Bill Bixby turned into a green-painted Lou Ferrigno. I'm not familiar with the comic book mythos, his origin story, his powers, and especially his heroic purpose. I'm sure the comic has a dramatic force to it, something that the Incredible Hulk seeks, a goal he hopes to achieve. It is that goal that is missing from Ang Lee's The Hulk, a listless superhero movie without a real hero.

The film version of Hulk's origin begins with Bruce Banner's father David (Nick Nolte, looking worse than his recent mugshot). David is a military scientist working on some potion that, according to the military, is too dangerous to test on humans. Undeterred, David Banner tests the potion on himself. We are not certain what was accomplished until David and his wife have their first child Bruce, who has inherited his father’s altered genetics. David soon realizes he made a terrible mistake, but before he can find a cure for his son, the military shuts him down. So David blows up the facility and returns home where something really bad happens. It's clear to the audience, but young Bruce blocks the memory.

Flash forward and Bruce, in the person of Black Hawk Down's Eric Bana, is working as a scientist on a military base. With his ex-girlfriend Betty Ross and another classmate, Bruce is unknowingly working on the same project his father had begun years earlier, an experiment that uses gamma rays to heal injuries without surgery. What Bruce doesn't know is that his father is back from prison. David Banner has taken a job as a janitor in the lab, not only to see his son but to take revenge on the man who shut down his lab, General Ross (Sam Elliot). Oh, and the General is also Betty's father.

When Bruce's experiment goes bad, he is accidentally sprayed with gamma rays unleashing his heretofore unknown alter ego. Seeing his son for the first time as the Hulk, David Banner sees an opportunity to get his revenge on General Ross. He will manipulate his son's alter ego into destroying everything. That is the basic plot as I understood it, though there is also a quick bit with a military contractor named Talbot (Josh Lucas) who wants to harvest the Hulk's DNA to create super soldiers. However, that is an ineffectual afterthought in a plot full of afterthoughts.

Initially, when I heard director Ang Lee was going to make a so-called art house super hero movie I was excited about the possibility. I was thinking Jekyll and Hyde, a little Frankenstein, maybe even Freud. Unfortunately, I got some of what I was hoping for and I didn't like it. Lee lost the real idea that drives super hero movies and that is escapism. Lee's Hulk is so tortured that I'd rather see him in counseling than a movie. There is this protracted plot point about Bruce's repressed memories of childhood. Specifically about the day his father blew up the army lab. Though we in the audience know exactly what happened, Bruce has blocked it out. The director drags it out so far that we are left screaming the memory at The Hulk. The frustration of waiting for Bruce to unclog his memory lasts almost to the very end of the film.

One of the many problems with The Hulk is its casting of Eric Bana as Bruce Banner and the CGI face of the Hulk. Bana, who was so charismatic and exciting in Black Hawk Down, appears to have had his personality removed. This is likely due to a script that rushes him along even while he sulks like a tortured artist. Bana never communicates anything other than painful exasperation throughout the entirety of The Hulk. Maybe he was attempting to mimic the audience.

My major problem with The Hulk is that there really isn't much of a plot. The Hulk isn't the least bit heroic, save for his fight to save Betty from some vicious genetically-enhanced dogs. For the most part, I was sympathizing with the film’s supposed bad guy, Sam Elliot's General Ross. The General does what any right thinking person would do when a giant superhuman begins going around smashing things and hurting people, he tries to kill it.

Then there is the CGI effects that bring the Hulk to life. Ugh! Sadly the concerns that fans had after the poor showing in the Super Bowl commercial back in January were confirmed. The Hulk never looks like anymore than a video game character. Bana's dull facial expressions on the CGI mug don't help much. It's impressive that a CGI character could be so well integrated into the real life backgrounds but I was far more impressed with the CGI realism in Shrek, where the technology really seemed to be at its peak. Would I have been happier with a big green painted professional wrestler as The Hulk? No, it was dopey looking on the 70's TV show and it would be even dopier now, but this CGI is only slightly more satisfying. 

What The Hulk truly lacks though is dramatic purpose. The film is so wrapped up in Bruce Banner's psychology and Hulk's CGI appearance that they seemingly forgot to give the character something to strive for. Is he looking to cure himself of the Hulk? Does he want to be a superhero? Does he strive to control his new self in order to become a hero? I never understood the reason why I should care about The Hulk. And thus I didn't.