I caught Ang Lee’s new masterpiece "Lust, Caution" last night. I left thinking, "Man, Ang Lee is really disturbed and has a wacked-out take on love." In all his movies I have seen, most notably, "The Ice Storm," "Brokeback Mountain," "The Wedding Banquet." and now LC, I don’t recall any tender romances. Sex seems to mean take people by surprise, wrestle them, inflict pain, and then afterwards pretend like it didn’t happen, but then end up liking the brutality of it all and declaring you’re in love. Ang Lee is the Ingmar Bergman of Asian directors. Ah, I would hate to be Ang Lee’s wife! I give him major props though, the film is beautifullly shot, the costuming exquisite, and the acting cruel but powerful. Tony Leung and newcomer Wei Tang gave disturbing and daring performances (I suggest they both do a comedy next.). A matronly Joan Chen gave a fine performance. I hope they all win awards!
Seeing Hong Kong and Shang Hai during World War II under Japanese rule was quite interesting, especially since I just visited Hong Kong. It’s an international city now and then. I doubt I could ever watch this movie again though. It left me feeling ill, perhaps this is a metaphor for what the Japanese did to Hong Kong and Shang Hai.
In other tragedy news, I saw "Laaga Chunari Mein Dag" ("I have stained my veil") by Pradeep Sarkar at the good ol’ Naz 8. It’s been a week or two since I saw the movie and I don’t really think about it, so that puts it at about average fare for Bollywood movies. I do recall it being entertaining but cheesy at many points, but what Bollywood film isn’t cheesy? My friend hated it and declared it anti-woman (and he’s a guy). He actually got mad at me in the car for saying I liked it. All the acting of the main characters was excellent; they could make this preposterous storyline of a village girl who becomes a high-class escort to support her crumbling, son-less, family pretty believable. Rani Mukherjee gave a great performance but perhaps even more memorable (or just had the better part) was Kokona Sen Sharma playing her younger sister reaping the advantages of her sister’s sacrifices. Kokona’s character gets an MBA and a great job at an ad agency while her sister meets clients as "Miss Natasha." Abhishek Bachchan makes a guest cameo which, you know, I loved as I am president of his Meetup fan club (okay, no such club exists but I do love the mischievous yet compassionate Abhi who marries divorcees, prostitutes, and single mothers in his movies. Abhi is the knight in shining armor.)
So there you have it – two movies I saw recently. I don’t recommend either, but I bet both will rack up some awards. Both did have excellent acting.
