Finally, I went to pay homage to it on the third day after the release, and sure enough, it is worthy of lust. The two-hour-long movie doesn't feel too long at all. So much so that when we saw the end of the play and the subtitles were raised, both the beard and I shouted: "That's it!"
A good show never fails to impress.
When "The Sun Also Rises" was a riot, "Lust and Caution" was still practicing behind closed doors, but I saw a report on a press conference in the middle of it, and it was in a hurry. The low-key Li An adjusted everyone's appetite. Until the Venice Film Festival showed its true body, in addition to the erotic scenes that shocked the water city in the report, it was not expected to win the Golden Lion. But the final result was unexpected and expected, and Ang Lee was once again shy to hold the supreme trophy. Then non-stop premieres in New York, London, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, Shanghai and other places. Lust and Caution has been emphasizing that this is not a movie that aims at "lust".
Without color, it cannot be called perfect; without color, it still looks good.
The structure of the film is just a simple combination of episodes and flashbacks. At the beginning, Wang Jiazhi left the mahjong table for an excuse and went to the joint location to notify the action. She sat nervously in the coffee shop, waiting for what happened next. He turned his head and looked out the window.
In the series of plays centered on the mahjong table at the beginning, all the hints have been spread out, explaining the characteristics of the characters who have appeared: Mr. Yi is cautious and cold, his skills are quick, he must draw the curtains when he enters the door, and be careful everywhere; the broad lady at the mahjong table They rely on men to make a fortune; Wang Jiazhi deals with it carefully, but in her eyes it can be seen that she and Mr. Yi have already had an affair. In the cafe, Wang Jiazhi's "skills" in dialing a coded phone showed that she was already experienced; but the unease hidden in the Cantonese conversation completely exposed her anxiety. Outside the window, that is the beginning of the story. Ang Lee did not procrastinate to ignite the fuse of the whole movie.
Memories, is about an assassination story. But I think it's more accurate to say that it is a story of two assassinations. It's just the same thing: the first one begins with the absurd, and the last one returns to the absurd.
This was four years ago. The power of the drama has infected these six patriotic youths. With a patriotic drama and a graduation song in the rain, youth blooms in the drizzle. Wang Jiazhi smiled shyly and happily, and staggered away from the noise to the front seat of the bus, sticking her head out, letting the drizzle cover her hair. Clean shirts, young and fiery faces, secret admiration and affection, in Lingnan, where the trees are fresh and green and the rain is abundant, is as prosperous as early summer. The young people here are beautiful. Therefore, it is difficult to say whether what Wang Jiazhi did after that was because of her affection for Kwong Yumin.
The outrageous drama was staged in reality immediately. Wang Jiazhi lingered on the stage, and they called her from a high place, "Wang Jiazhi" - the so-called assassination of several students, which was almost a farce, began. Seeing Wang Leehom's seriousness, there is another sentence: "If you don't kill them, it's time to start school!" I really don't know whether to scold them or what to do, especially in the part where Wang Jiazhi gained sexual experience, I kept talking to the beard around me. Called: How can this be? How can this be so?
Seduction is going on. Mr. Yi gave Wang Jiazhi an umbrella in the rain, fed the cards at the card table, made clothes together, and then invited them to dinner and brought them to the house. The relationship between men and women, and the ambiguous state of affairs have already swayed from the eyes of Wang and Yi to the entire screen. Li An is really a master, and a few scenes in one go have progressed the relationship between the two to the point where only the window paper that can be broken is left. It's a pity that the beard who didn't understand the style kept yelling beside me: "What do you mean? What do you mean?" At that time, she despised her emotional intelligence and forbade her to ask any more questions.
It is extremely absurd that just the day after Wang Jiazhi lost her virgin, Mrs. Yi called and said that they had rushed back to Shanghai. Tang Wei's performance in answering the phone was particularly brilliant, and he had to accept the reality when he was at a loss. The first assassination ended hastily in the midst of Kuang Yumin's first murder and Wang Jiazhi's frantic running out.
And these are just the beginning.
This is three years later. The Shanghai beach is full of chills, and the bodies of people who died tragically in the troubled times can be seen everywhere on the streets. Wang Jiazhi is no longer Mrs. Mai, just a schoolgirl with messy hair who is struggling to get by. She can only look forward to a beautiful love and life in foreign movies. The scene of the movie is very interesting. She was watching the same movie in the cinema three years ago. At that time, she was so adorable that she burst into tears, but now she was interrupted by the national disaster film and left helplessly.
The arranged encounter became the beginning of another assassination. With the help and training of the organization, Wang Jiazhi became Mrs. Mai again. I'm a little confused, insisting on doing this, is she doing it for the sake of national justice, or for this handsome young man who is still passionate and patriotic? ...
Hearing Mrs. Mai's return, Mr. Yi quickened his pace. At this time, his face was full of love and nostalgia; Liang Chaowei really did not cover it. The phrase "it's good to have someone come" once again took the bait. Afterwards, the director did not spend too much time, and directly created an opportunity. Mr. Yi arranged the first "color". Although the cute and innocent mainland version deleted this sexual abuse, but the clues can already be seen from the existing picture, and "color" obviously occupies the process; People's "love" and Wang Jiazhi's "hate" made the relationship between the two heat up sharply. From Wang Jiazhi's subsequent narration with Kwong Yumin, it can also be seen that she already vaguely felt that she was caught in this seemingly true and false love at this time. , will soon be difficult to extricate themselves.
Wang Jiazhi and Mr. Yi in the study, outside the prison, and her uncontrollable vent to Kwong and others, the three scenes are gradually advancing Wang Jiazhi's emotions until they erupt. A meal and a song in the Japanese Art Museum turned the two's pretense into true love. Kwong Yumin's kiss was rejected by Wang Jiazhi: "You could do it three years ago, why not?" The weakest question, the final farewell. I'm sorry, but each of these paragraphs are brilliant, but I can't find more words to describe them. One love is a matter of course, and another one is fruitless. This is a woman's choice, but also fate's trick.
The mysterious gift finally appeared - it turned out to be a priceless diamond the size of a pigeon egg, inlaid with crystal, and it was extremely gorgeous. (By the way, when this ring appeared at the time, women in the movie theater, especially the beards around them, exclaimed. It seems that women really can't resist the temptation of diamonds.) The story is connected to the beginning of the memory , and at this time it is the last link of arranging the assassination.
Needless to say, the result was an absurd ending that was probably caused by a single thought. It is worth mentioning that Tang Wei's performance in this section was great. She was in the middle of conflict and confusion. She was too weak to shout twice: "Let's go, let's go!" Then she hesitated on the street in a mess; Li casually promised the rickshaw driver, "Hey, go home"; when she saw the grandma who was rushing back to cook and wanted to rush through the guard line, she smiled softly—every expression, every demeanor, Tang Wei did the best.
Tony Leung was also impeccably good at the end. He sat on the bed where Wang Jiazhi lived, stroking; he answered the questions asked by his wife indiscriminately - his voice was blurred, his eyes were red, and he closed his eyes in a panic when the death knell at ten o'clock sounded. Get up, stay, leave... Subtitles appear.
After writing this, I finally breathed a sigh of relief. It turned out that this movie left me with so many plots. You don't have to think hard, the scene is instantly clear in front of you.
A year ago, when I heard the news that Ang Lee was going to make this movie, I had the heart to borrow the original novel of Mrs. Eileen Chang to have a look, but at that time I gave up because I was a little confused at the beginning. Fortunately, a smart Ang Lee brought it to the big screen, allowing me, a layman who is not good at reading, to appreciate the charm of images once again. Although there is no meticulousness of language or boldness of color, a shroud of emotion and humanity deeply moves the viewer.
I always feel that Ang Lee is an absolutely smart person, he will go to great lengths to make a near-perfect wedding dress for every movie he has made; this wedding dress is gorgeous, but not without complexity; a person who loves beauty , you don't have to be too careful, just take a look at it, it is enough to be conquered by it. Li An has done this, with ease and prudence. The movie is highlighted in the details, and at the same time, the generosity and grasp of the details are also necessary to achieve such a classic.
I always feel that a good movie should definitely put the screenwriter first. Lust and Caution has a good story blueprint, and this story is married by the irreplaceable Zhang Ailing, so there must be no telling. The rest is the task of Wang Huiling and other screenwriters. The plot is still proceeding according to the context of the original work, advancing step by step and peeling off layer by layer. The completeness and rationality of the plot ensure the smoothness of all plots and the attractiveness of the story. In just two hours, two assassinations and several emotional collisions, Wang Jiazhi and Mr. Yi, Wang Jiazhi and Kwong Yumin have no trace of far-fetched love. The skill of the screenwriter is really admirable, and several scenes that promote the plot are hearty and do not give people a chance to breathe.
The dear uncles and uncles of the film bureau have already checked the minimum level. So in the version I saw, only two of the three erotic scenes that were related to the plot were kept, and they were only taken from the beginning and the end to the middle without any leakage. After watching it, I realized that the previously hot erotica was really not for the sake of sex, but should be the key to promoting the plot. The progressive relationship between Wang Jiazhi and Mr. Yi, and the gradual fall of Wang Jiazhi, should be more convincing if there are those erotic scenes that have never been seen before. Perfect, just short of this, and already excellent; looking forward to the full bloom of DVD. Of course, this is another story.
In the movie, Tony Leung is amazing. Although Tony Leung has long been a performer, this performance is indeed a different kind of reward than before. Crazy and twisted monologue to Wang Jiazhi in the car, smoking and wiping tears while listening to music at the Japanese Art Museum, touching and nostalgic on the last sheet... The last few scenes made Uncle Liang's performance almost Oscar-worthy. It's just that Uncle Liang sacrificed too much for the movie, and his face was so thin that he was exclaimed "Chen Baoguo" by the beard as soon as he came out.
Tang Wei is also amazing. From the beginning to the end, he is neither pretentious nor ostentatious. His forbearance and restrained performance is not like a newcomer at all, but he is indeed a newcomer - there is no fixed pattern, a blank sheet of paper, along with Wang Jiazhi. And Mrs. Mai is constantly changing. It can be said that the image of Wang Jiazhi is the fullest in this film, youth, longing, brokenness, pretense, ambiguous, ashamed to talk, unable to stop, resentment, contradiction, relief, death... Tang Wei's taste permeates the plot inside and outside. To be honest, she is not good-looking, and the appearance of playing a Jiangnan Jasper seems to be a little worse, and the three white eyes make people feel more hostile, but she really has Wang Jiazhi's temperament as Li An chose. Tang Wei has also done enough homework, the smooth conversion of multiple languages, the appropriate chanting, the moving face of a singer from the end of the world, and the looming armpit hair... What these newcomers need to pay for the role is the luck of the role, and it is also Li The brilliance of Ann's director.
Leehom was obviously still a little detached in the first half, but it got better and better in the second half; Chen Chong and other big supporting roles set off the tone of the whole movie, and repeatedly became the maker of various scenes. The jokes of several wives were like A Ukiyo-e painting in Shanghai. The last Chen Chong's timid questioning set off Liang Chaowei's sadness and confusion, especially the good show.
The combination of earthy yellows and light cyans is excellent. The music is also brilliant. When I heard it at the time, there were a few piano sounds in it that seemed familiar. When I checked the information, it turned out that it was made by the composer of "The Veil", which won the Oscar for the best soundtrack. Although Jacky Cheung's drowning still didn't move me, the music that left his trembling voice, under the adjustment of various arrangements, created appropriate emotional outlets for various situations.
All of these add up to lust. Ang Lee did not disappoint. His consistent delicacy and precision made the story a classic possibility. Chairman Zhang Yimou said that this is the film with the fewest mistakes. To some extent this is not wrong. Ang Lee is insisting on a kind of perfection, which is the temperament of lust, and it is also the temperament that a good movie should have.
Inside the PS
movie.
In Zhang Ailing's other novel "Love in a Fallen City", Fan Liuyuan and Bai Liusu said that if one day our civilization is completely destroyed, perhaps only this wall will remain. If we had met under this wall at that time, maybe you would have a little sincerity with me, and I would have a little sincerity with you.
Sincerely about that. Against eternity.
But, that's the truth. At this time, the protagonist Wang Jiazhi died.
Perhaps the biggest difference between a man and a woman is that a man can give a woman the same sincerity, but this sincerity must never harm a man himself. It is better to lose this sincerity and fall into the bottomless life of darkness; but women are different. Because of this sincerity, she couldn't breathe, so her life and drama ended together. How could she not understand the ending, but she was even more disheartened about life without this sincerity, and could no longer act. After she let him go, she walked up and down the street in a daze. At that moment, she was full of lost emptiness and helplessness.
She couldn't quit, so she died; he could, so he lived.
Everyone gets what they want. It's just that that really fades away.
So I actually feel that this is just a pretense of a war background. The patriotic young female spy and the big traitor are all blurred. Yeah, what the hell is politics.
outside of movies.
Tony Leung never followed the movie to publicity around the world, and continued to shoot the huge Chibi in a low-key manner; Tang Wei and Lee Hom followed Ang Lee, obediently being the students of their teachers. Tang Wei has an increasingly international temperament, and as soon as he debuts, he may climb faster than Xiaozhang. Ang Lee is busy but humble enough to promote the movie, and he had to cut nearly 30 minutes of scenes for the mainland. Oscar may be far away, but it may be another gorgeous adventure.
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