MovieChat Forums > Se, jie (2007) Discussion > It is not only a love movie , but also a...

It is not only a love movie , but also a Hitchcock-style movie too!

posted 17 years ago by murphytalk
8 replies | jump to latest

It took me more than one hour to read this loooooooooong post which analyze this movie on on tianya.cn,one of the largest online forum in China:

http://cache.tianya.cn/publicforum/content/filmtv/1/210295.shtml

Too much are hided behind the scenes ... to figure them out you have to watch this movie for more than one time.

some hints:

Mr.Yee's secretary works for Japanese directly, and observes Mr. Yee.
Mr.Yee's driver(the one ) and the middle-aged female servant reports to the secretary actually.

Later in the movie,Mr.Yee actually had become a sort of double-spy.He knew the Japanese is going to be defeated(remember what he said about the Japanese to Miss Wang,aka Mrs. Mai,in the japanese Izakaya?),and started to work for the nationalist party government in Chongqing (remember they mentioned the lost US weapons? why they said the Japanese are looking for the weapons too?)

There were two assassination teams.Because Mr. Yee had turned to the nationalist party government, the original plan to assassinate him had already be aborted(Kuang told Wang that they have to wait for orders,why there were alway no such orders? the students had been given up by the nationalist party government,only they themselves did't know it).

....

BTW, have you noticed that there is a scene in the movie in which a Hitchcock movie poster is shown?

Oh boy,it's time to go back to the theater to solve the puzzles! :)

[–] 17 years ago

[deleted]

[–] tiggerwill 17 years ago

I liked how it showed clips from an Ingrid Bergman film and a Cary Grant film, both stars of Notorious.

[–] rosiepink 17 years ago

Yes, I was suspicious, too, that Yee was actually a double agent. Because Wong Chia Chi never discovers who has the missing shipment of weapons, I suspected that Mr. Yee has either sold it to a third party or is actually working for a third party. Also how would he know that Japan will be defeated? The Japanese officials he work for would not speak that way since that would be treasonous talk. But the main thing I found suspicious is at the end of the movie, Mr. Yee is told that several papers from his office have been removed. What on earth would he have in his office that his superiors don't know about?

[–] PVarjak 16 years ago

Murphy, I don't think you're entirely correct. It is mentioned early in the movie that the household staff (housekeeper, driver, etc.) come from Yee Tai-Tai's home village and actually spy for HER. That's why, early in the film, the housekeeper/maid insists that Mak Tai-Tai take her car for her 'early appointment.'

The 2 movie posters I noticed were for 'Penny Serenade,' and 'Suspicion;' both from 1941 (and thus correctly timed for the movie) and both dealing with troubled relationships. If anything, 'Lust Caution' is more a 're-working' of Hitchcock's 'Suspicion' than 'Notorious.'

[–] pegasus8228 16 years ago

roget ebert in his review, mentioned that he put 2 and 2 together and 'notorious'!

(yes, notorious was a post-war movie)

[–] PVarjak 15 years ago

I just saw your post. I'm not sure what you mean though. What are you saying Ebert said? That it was like Notorious? And even if he said that, it hardly makes that conclusion definitive, or written in stone. And I didn't say that Notorious WASN'T a 'postwar' movie. I simply mentioned that I saw the posters for 'Suspicion' and 'Penny Serenade' in this movie, which makes it period correct.

[–] nonon99_99 16 years ago

This in-depth reading on Lust.Caution is a master work! Someone should translate it into English and let the film community learn it. Thank you murphytalk for introducing us this study. The complexity of Lust.Caution is beyond belief and so far still very few people are able to see through it.

[–] rwilliams4823 15 years ago

Just viewed the DVD a couple of nights ago.

Yes, I agree. A political thriller as well as a love story. Context is so important. Juxtapose nationalism, cultural contraints and loyalty with love and eroticism. What a superior collaboration!! Ang Lee's superior sensitivities are on display.

Bravo!!!