Sunday, November 11, 2007

Se jie


The time is 1938, in occupied China. For the sake of "greater good", Wong Chia Chi, an ordinary, innocent young college girl, assumes the role of Mrs. Mak to seduce Mr. Yee, who is a high ranking official in Japanese-controlled government. She sacrifices her innocence and virginity to play the role of a seductress, but the war takes Mr. Yee to Shanghai before a rendezvous. For thee years afterwards she lives a life of self-enclosed hell, with no goal, ambition, or a plausible future. It is by chance that she again joins the resistance movement and resumes the role of Mrs. Mak. Only this time, the betrayal runs deeper and to everyone around her, including herself.
"When their sex drifts steadily into S&M, the nature of their relationship shifts. It is impossible to say that Wong Chia Chi/Mrs. Mak likes his tastes in pain and bondage, but they create a fearful intimacy that, for both of them, transcends their lives apart. And it is that tension, between private fascination and public danger, that gives the movie its purpose." - Roger Ebert


* * * * *
There was something in the heroine's looks that reminded me of myself. No, I am nowhere near her beauty, nor do I possess the delicate frame of a body like hers. But there was something within her, something in her eyes, that I could identify with. That something was defiance.
Lust, caution.

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