Lust, Caution

Directed by Ang Lee and acted by Tony Leung and Wang Lee Hom. This movie is a must watch, but not in Malaysia. Coz they cut 10 bloody minutes of it and I'm pissed.

Anyway... getting on with the movie, here's what I wrote about the movie the other day in my online journal :


It's generally a good movie. Worth watching and I don't find it draggy even though the duration is about 3 hours. There was a part in the movie where Tony Leong jumped into the car after running out from the jewelry shop. I bet he had practice that jump a lot of times before the shooting coz it's a small car and he had to land perfectly in the back sit so that he wouldn't hurt himself. That move was really gaya.

Few specific scenes in Lust, Caution are still stuck in my head. I guess I’ve been pretty absorbed in the movie after watching it until now. All the drama that happened in it, quite overwhelming. The movie shows how rich man would most likely have a mistress outside and that the wife cannot say or do anything about even when she knows about the affairs. I guess it’s just the Chinese culture that women are less important and would be of lesser value compared to men. Or it’s just the fact that God made Eve out of Adam and Adam came into this earth first, hence, the gender status. I’ve been implied by someone that when you are born a woman, you would defiantly be a liability. Something that would ‘jatuh saham’ (depreciate) any minute from the day you were born. Is it really that sad case being a woman? Are we good for nothing other then being just human machines to produce babies and continue the cycle of life. Then, the other thing about women that I’ve been implied is that she would always have to stand by her man, even if she knows he’s having affair outside. Never to pack your bags and leave even when you are pretty much bleeding inside because of what you know and not being able to have a say in it. I’ve also been implied that a wife should treat her husband like he’s the king, treat him well to prevent him from going out to other woman. But then again, is that a guarantee that he would still not do it even when he’s treated the best at home? It’s like if you drive carefully on the road; does that mean that you would not get into an accident, even if a reckless driver hit you? I doubt what I've been implied.

When I come to think of it deeper, I do wonder if the matter starts at the marriage part. The time of “I do”s. Would it be better if couples don’t get married and just stay together under one roof? Or would it be better just to stay single? I view marriage in three different ways. The first is we get married because they are just plain insecure that the ‘partner’ might ‘fall-out’ of love and so they have to keep their ‘love’ lock up and marriage is the key to the lock. Second is when people are pressured by people around them, friends of theirs are all married, parents are bugging them to continue the line of family name, or even, if they plan to have children, the government in Malaysia wouldn’t let their children go to school if the child does not have a father’s name on the birth cert. So hence, they get married. The third is because of loneliness. Loneliness affects us mentally; it penetrates deep into our minds and tells us that we need someone to be with and that age is catching up and we can’t wait any longer. So why not just grab the next best thing that happen to us and settle down, despite really thinking if it was just a spur moment and that you are just merely convincing yourself that you really love the victim you grab. I personally fear that I might one day fall into one of the 3 categories that I’ve just mentioned.

A friend says that married people gets too comfortable and don’t worry THAT much anymore to keep their spouse happy. They just assume or know that their partner would probably stand by them. And that FEAR must be there to somehow control you. If you do not fear that your spouse will leave you, comfort would come in and you would not try hard anymore. And according to the friend of mine, that’s why a spouse who is ready to leave their partners is better. The partner wouldn’t screw up or at least would think twice or even thrice to have an affair on whether it’s worth the spouse leaving or not?

The again, in my opinion, it is true that a women should stand by her man. But there must be limits to it. There are hard times, when economics are down and things do sour for him, a woman should stand by him. There are times when he makes enormous mistakes in life, a woman should still stand by him. BUT when he has an affair outside, I see no reason why a woman should stand by him. UNLESS I am told that the woman loves him THAT much to let him continue his unreasonable affairs. Coz love conquers all, doesn’t it? [Should tell it to ALL the broken hearts in this world] Even that makes me wonder if she did it out of love or she’s just plain stupid. Maybe love is blind and deaf and mute and dumb too. Just maybe. Coz I want to be in love but I don’t want to be handicap.

u can still.

just that ppl in love are USUALLY blind to all the faults of their all-so-beloved

i think its possible to acknowledge the flaws. u dun have to pretend the other person is perfect.