Ang Lee’s Brokeback Mountain follow-up trades rustic Wyoming for stylish Shanghai in an erotic thriller set as the Japanese are consolidating their occupation of China just before World War II. All of Lee’s films are evocative of place and time, and I was drawn into this world from the opening scene, which crackles with maj-jongg tiles being tossed about like the conversation of the women playing, talk of business deals, black market consumer goods, and romantic gossip. One woman is significantly younger than the others, a seemingly naive recent bride. She’s not, but that gets ahead of the story, an adaptation of a novella by Eileen Chang that is loosely based on fact.
The young woman, played by newcomer Tang Wei, is a university student recruited by an acting troupe who are also self-styled revolutionaries who amateurishly plot to assassinate a collaborator. Given a pseudonym, a false identity, and some clumsy, comical lessons in seduction, she becomes acquainted with the powerful man and her own sexuality.\
IMDB link
reviewed 11/02/07
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