was she and that skinny guy in love
one of her classmates, the one who masterminded everything...
I find it interesting that noone has responded to your question.. I think that says something about the failure of this film.. failure to actually build any depth to the characters.. at the end "she" questions the "skinny guy" about why he didn't get with her back in HK.. that should have or perhaps could have been an emotionally devastating question considering everything she and he have been through.. instead it just leaves the audience thinking "oh he liked her heaps.. what a d***head" or something like that...
I don't know... As for your question.. I just found her character to be rather pathetic.. She was supposedly trying to help her country but then her actions put at risk all her collaboraters.. she saved a guy who was basically an *beep* what's sexy about that? The two main charaters never evolved.. great sex and moody glances do not necessarily make a good movie..
arghhh
This film really annoyed me!
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"These things mean more to a woman than most men can understand."
Apparently. I am a man and I hope I never value those personal desires enough to make a decision I know will get six fellow resistance fighters tortured and executed not to mention a bullet through my head as well. And hundreds if not thousands more will go on being tortured and executed as a man like Yee survives to go on with his brutal work. All the fluffy stuff in my heart shouldn't matter more than the consequences no matter how hard it is for others to understand.
But I realize it's all a movie. Let's just hope in this case life doesn't imitate art one day.
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"the students could have just stayed uninvolved and avoided this risk"
1) If Wong hadn't warned Yee in her own moment of weakness, the pain and death *would* have been avoided. It wasn't really their love of country that led to their downfall. The plan was working great until Wong broke emotionally.
2) I would agree that the patriotic-war emotion that drove Japanese nationalism to invade most of Asia caused needless suffering on a massive scale.
3) However, patriotic-war emotion in China is a different animal entirely. They were the ones invaded and being slaughtered by the millions, not the Japanese. If no one had joined the resistance, then even more Chinese and Americans would have died on the battlefield. The resistance did a great deal to help facilitate the Doolittle Raid, got the American pilots to safety, and helped with the campaign against the Japanese in Burma. If it had not been for the French Resistance, many more of the Allied forces on D-Day and in the French campaign would have been killed.
So I would argue that staying uninvolved would have created *even more* pain and suffering. Perhaps not to them directly and their loved ones, but certainly to hundreds if not thousands of soldiers on their side and their families. And Yee probably went on to torture and execute thousands more by virtue of their not getting to him.
I'm not excusing the basic motivation: an emotional "love of resistance," but I can't agree that when invaded like China was that an attitude of "let's just stay out of it and avoid the risk" would have resulted in the same overall amount of death and suffering. It would have been even worse if no one inside China were taking risks to accelerate the defeat of Japan.
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I thought it made perfect sense, from her perspective. She was beginning to fall in love with him in the start, and she sensed his attraction to her. But he was timid... he would not take the risk to reach out and take her. He did not volunteer to deflower her. He was devoted to China, but as a man, his actions toward her were barren.
She gradually lost her initial, strong feeling for him.
Contrast this with Yee. In context of the war, he was a right bastard, a traitor... but as a man, he was true to her. He was risking everything for her, in spite of the thousand things he feared (with good reason), and everything he might lose. He was afraid of the dakr, yet he bravely fought to have her, even though he had several times experienced infiltrators trying to seduce him in the past. He tried so hard to be strong. Yet her song for him touched him... she watched a hardened soldier melt and cry for her beauty. These things mean more to a woman than most men can understand.
The "skinny guy" was still in love with her throughout, tried indirectly to protect her, and felt horrible about risking her, putting her in danger. His kiss was something he'd been building up for a long time. He loved her, tragically. But she would not receive that kiss... because she did not love him in return. She had lost her heart to Yee.
I can sometimes follow why women are frustrated that many men don't understand them. ;-) It's fairly obvious that this story was written by a woman.
Agreed.
Feet on the ground
Head in the sky
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Do you really think if Mr. Yee had not been around no one would have been tortured and China during that time would have been rainbows and unicorns? Even if they had killed Yee, someone else would have stepped into his place.
I was born when she kissed me. I died when she left me. I lived a few weeks while she loved me.
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Did I say he wasn't a traitor? Did I say he didn't betray his people? Next time throughly read a post before you jump to accusations.
I take it that you have absolutely no knowledge of military history. If Mr. Yee a small pawn in the Japanese occupation of China had been killed, do you really think that little torture camp he had would have been stopped? Do you think the killing of one bit player would have ended the entire occupation? It may have given the resistance more strength but otherwise who knows. Someone could have come in that was even more callous and brutal. But enough with the coulda, shoulda, woulda, obviously this is a work of fiction.
I was born when she kissed me. I died when she left me. I lived a few weeks while she loved me.
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I'm not disputing your overall opinion, but Yee was not a 'small cog.' He was in fact the head of the secret police for the collaborationist head-of-government. That would place him very highly and disturb the operations of the already falling government.
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