I think that a part of it was all that the others have said - the feelings she developed for Yee, through a combination of intimacy, Stockholm Syndrome, lust, love, empathy, feeling that she was important and precious to him, call it whatever you want.
But there's also another aspect. She was manipulated, used and abused throughout the story, but not just by Yee. He abused her physically, but her own co-conspirators - her friends, including the guy she had been in love with, and the older ringleader guy - had been using and abusing in an even worse way, even though it was an abuse she agreed to, in the name of patriotism. It's a moral ambiguity at the heart of the film: on one hand, there is a story about patriots and traitors, but then it's also a story about the way young women are treated like sexual commodities, and it doesn't make the patriots in the film look good. They all acted like it was completely acceptable for her body to be used sexually in the name of their cause, and never stopped to think that how that might affect her, that she was a person (and a very young, inexperienced, vulnerable person as well) and that she might get psychologically affected by it. When she talks about her feelings to the young-leader she was in love with and the older ringleader (sorry, I saw the movie a few years ago so I forgot the names), they are both visibly uncomfortable and trying to ignore her speech, as if they just don't want to know. At least Yee is open and direct in his abuse, and eventually she starts feeling that he cares about her more than the others do (as we see in the ring scene, when she realizes that she did something for her he never did for his wife). And since she was basically being prostituted by her co-conspirators, she also might have felt some empathy for Yee's feelings of isolation and his own self-imposed position as the "whore" of the Japanese, as he put it.
Finally, I think a big part of what she did it was also because it was the only thing that she could do out of her own free will. Up the that point, she had been fulfilling the role that had been set out for her, doing what she was supposed to do; her final act was, consciously or subconsciously, the only act of defiance, the only choice she could still make on her own. Even if it resulted in her death.
Pain is to pleasure as disco is to punk.You need to live through one to fully appreciate the other.
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n_x
14 years ago
'Finally, I think a big part of what she did it was also because it was the only thing that she could do out of her own free will. Up the that point, she had been fulfilling the role that had been set out for her, doing what she was supposed to do; her final act was, consciously or subconsciously, the only act of defiance, the only choice she could still make on her own. Even if it resulted in her death.'
--
AMEN!
i too felt this as well--it was the first, the ONLY decision she made for herself.
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Desertman84
13 years ago
I have read the comments and a lot of people are still discussing on what made Wong Chia Chi/Mak Tai Tai did at the end of the film.It was apparent that many did not understand the reasons of her actions at the end. People may find it weird or disgusting BUT it apparently has to do with the psychological make-up of Mak.
First of all,we have to realize that Mak isn't a professional spy.She is a naive college student whose view of the world is not within the context of the people that she deals with when socializing with the Japanese collaborators while doing her work for the resistance.Also,it was clear in the film that she lacks a father figure as her dad left for England and got remarried while her mother died when she was very young. She found a father figure in Mr. Yee. Aside from that,Mak lacks experience in intimacy which can deepen a relationship with certain individuals. Mr.Yee was able to provide this to her through passionate (and rough) sex. That is why the sex scenes were important to demonstrate this to the audience. Finally,she was drawn to Mr Yee due to the latter's charm - a characteristic of people who rise to political ranks and find success in dealing with others in the government despite their actions of cruelties towards their countrymen. I believe that even the likes of Hitler and Stalin did possess charm and charisma to have become successful leaders and were effective in leading their people in doing evil deeds towards humanity.
In the end,Mak sufferred from Stockholm Syndrome which made her save Mr Yee at the end of the film. IT WAS NOT BECAUSE OF HER BEING A WOMAN BUT DUE TO HER PSYCHOLOGICAL MAKE-UP AS A WOMAN.
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alfred998
13 years ago
Why weren't there her co-conspirators when Yee runs out of the shop ? Or when she cames out ?
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championofcathay
12 years ago
they were already made and captured by Yee's 'subordinates' at that point. Yee was left completely in the dark and left to die.
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velli10501
10 years ago
Ivana, you make important points I have skipped over as I hastily reflect on this movie. Yes, she is used and abused. The movie points out the irony of such student movements--it is the men who make the decisions among themselves and employ the women as objects. Having talked with many women living through the sixties, on a much more benign level, this held true--The women of SDS made the coffee while the men played at being revolutionaries.
You also make a wonderful connection between the two characters, both of whom a you say, feel isolated, "pimped," though it could be said they pimp themselves out.
And finally you see her choice at the end in a kind of existential way I'd not at all considered. She finally does "act," at least out of a genuine feeling, as a subject rather than an object, although this costs her "friends."
Thank you for your fine ideas.
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