Thursday, May 15, 2008

 

lust, caution

i always find it extraordinary to what length some people are willing to sacrifice themselves for their country.i must be a real bastard because i will not go to any length , not even an inch for my country. i'll never shed any blood, neither mine nor others for my country. am i a coward? am i a bad person for not willing to die for my country? does it mean i don't love my country?

i am unable to answer these questions . when i think of all those idealistic people who are incarcerated, often in solitary confinement, endure excruciating torture or even death for the sake of their country and belief , the first thing that come to my mind is , is it worth it? you die for your country , but for what? just so that people that are probably a hundred times worse than you to continue to live?

what lead me thinking along this line is because i've recently (and finally) get to watch lust, caution. i said 'finally' because i actually bought a copy of the dvd from those pirates when this film first came out but the english translation must have been done by a certified madman. it was completely gibberish and did not make any sense.only much later that i get to buy the dvd with the original english translation. and i got this uncensored version from my favorite tom's dvd in beijing . which surprised me a bit as i thought the chinese banned this movie.

quite understandable with the dour chinese government which wants to control everything .as you know, it's a controversial ang lee film based on a short story by eileen chang, a writer who is completely unknown to me. most people want to see this film because they want to watch the famous chinese actor tony leung having real and torrid sex with the first time actress wei tang who played an innocent theatre actress involved in the amateurish plan to kill a chinese collaborator (tony leung) to japanese occupation force . if this is what you're after, you won't be dissapointed . it's not exactly a five star straight out porn but you'll get to view tony leung's balls swinging every which way during the sex scene . but the film is much much more than that.

it's a study on how far you're willing to sacrifice yourself for an idealism. in this case the poor girl had to sacrifice her body but, oh how complicated things can become! still, despite all the dark and sombre mood, there's one funny and revealing moment where after one steamy love scene the first sentence uttered by wei tang's characher was ' get me an apartment'... isn't that typical of many women! it's true that many women will open their legs for all kinds of reasons apart from love and giving yourself for your country sounds like a very noble thing to do. but does she have a choice?

my feeling is, it's not idealism that compel some people to do certain things but they simply find themselves in a position where they can not do other wise. take those suicide bombers for example. why do they kill themselves? many of these unfortunate people are no more idealistic than you or me. but they find themselves in a position that blowing themselves is the only option they have. they have no choice.but is this really so? in many cases it's nothing more than a matter of perspectives.

so, hedonists are probably right afterall...lighten up, have fun!

Comments:
sheesh. my copy of Lust, Caution that i just watched last night must have been your first copy. i got lost in the subtitles with that initial establishing scene of the mahjong game!No, i gave up soon after that.
 
Yes, Greenbottle, have fun, go see Indiana Jones!
 
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