Review: Ang Lee's 'Lust, Caution' is a thrilling oriental pearl

LONDON, England (CNN) -- Masks beneath masks, the click-clack of Mahjong tiles and the sheen of silk cheongsams: Taiwanese director Ang Lee ("Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon"; "Brokeback Mountain") brings an intoxicating tale of lies, deceit and corruption to the screen with his latest film, "Lust, Caution".

Japanese-occupied Shanghai, 1942. Mrs Mak, an impeccably coiffed Chinese lady, makes a telephone call from a cafe, then sits and waits. Cue a flashback to 1938, where her story begins. Mrs Mak is not the sophisticate she appears -- just a few years earlier, she was shy drama student Wong Chia Chi.

Ang Lee's adaptation of Eileen Chang's short story tells the tale of a girl caught up in the winds of change of World War II. The fast-paced erotic thriller tracks Wong Chia Chi's transformation from bookish student to collaborator bait.

The film has already received wide acclaim, winning Lee his second Golden Lion at Venice with a Golden Globe nomination for Best Foreign Language Film already in the bag. "Lust, Caution" cleaned up at Taiwan's Golden Horse awards, scooping seven trophies including Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor, which went to Tony Leung Chiu Wai, and Best Newcomer, for Wei Tang.

Wei Tang plays Wong Chia Chi, a student in Hong Kong whose fate is set when she meets Kuang Yu Min (Lee-hom Wang), a handsome fellow student who wants to use drama to provoke his compatriots to rebel against the Japanese. As Kuang's leading lady, Wong Chia Chi blossoms, but when Kuang urges his fellow players to move from inspiration to action, she finds herself at the center of a plot to ensnare and murder Japanese collaborator Mr Yee (Tony Leung Chiu Wai).

Dressed in cheongsams and primped and curled to perfection, Wong Chia Chi sets out on the biggest role of her life. As Mrs Mak, she gains Lee's trust through his wife, and the plot progresses as planned until an unexpectedly fatal twist spurs her to flee.

Cut to Shanghai three years later: Wong Chia Chi is caught in a listless existence when Kuang unexpectedly re-enters her life. He lures her back into the unfinished sting operation, and before long she and Mr Lee, now head of the collaborationist secret service, are engaged in a torrid affair that pushes her soul and her loyalty to the limit.

Newcomer Wei Tang gives a startlingly assured and subtle performance. At times, she seems to mirror Wong Chia Chi's transformation into Mrs Mak from dowdy student to rouged mistress, but she rises to the challenge and ably carries the film on her slender shoulders. As she is thrust into the spotlight by Kuang, stripped mechanically of her virginity in readiness for her role as temptress, and placed alongside Mr Lee, Wei Tang, with serene stillness, lets Wong Chia Chi be swept along to her final destiny.

Every diamond demands the right setting to sparkle, and Tony Leung Chiu Wai's generous performance as the enigmatic Mr Lee lets his co-star shine. Leung is pitch-perfect, and shows his quality as he lets Lee's beautifully impassive mask shift and slip, revealing a tightly-wound coil of repressed emotion beneath. Leung is remarkable: a highly skilled actor capable of expressing a world of emotion in the smallest muscle movement. The audience is left to imagine the horrors he unleashes during his interrogations of Chinese resistance fighters.

The already-infamous sex scenes can appear a little clumsy and contorted at times, less intimate than acrobatic; it's when Tony Leung Chiu Wai and Wei Tang sit in silence that they most project how intimate and electric their connection really is.

The lead characters are ably supported by a stirling cast, most notably a splendidly nuanced performance from Joan Chen as Mrs Lee, forced to turn a blind eye to her husband's affairs, both in business and of the heart, while Asian pop superstar Wang Leehom gives a convincing and impassioned performance as romantic, ruthless Kuang.

As for the ambience, Ang Lee is known for his attention to detail, and at times the 30s luxe and glamour is perhaps a little too perfect, a little too glossy, with a depth of style usually reserved for more placid period pieces. (Note for fashionistas: while "Atonement" might inspire a 2008 trend for bias-cut 30s dresses, "Lust, Caution" will add perfectly formed cloche hats and cocktail rings to the mix.)

But this chilling, thrilling film-noir-inspired tale is both poised and elegant, bloody and erotic; if not quite a diamond the size of a quail's egg, "Lust, Caution" is certainly a precious pearl of a movie. E-mail to a friend