I've heard a lot of gossip about them before this. At that time, the school was very strict, but the heroine dared to kiss her boyfriend by the trash can. The teacher invited her parents later. The young couple still dared to hold hands in the cafeteria with their heads held high. It's like a revolution. And I can only watch Winston and Julia in "Nineteen Eighty-Four", with an ambivalence of ridicule and envy towards them.
However, their relationship, with such a revolutionary combination, turned out to be just plain and boring things like "discussing pets at home". At the time I thought it was both ridiculous and sad.
Later I watched "If Love Had Providence". The male and female protagonists are like first love, sweet and green, but when they finally break through all difficulties to be together, instead of repeating her mother's tragedy, all they do is walk a country road together and smile silly.
So I came to the conclusion that dating is such a boring thing.
Of course, now that I know, most relationships are just eating, sleeping and watching movies.
Fortunately, Lust and Caution is not like that.
Zhang Ailing's original text said: "Although she hated him, her feelings for him in the end were so strong that it was irrelevant, but only had feelings." Although the context is very bad, this sentence is true.
Mr. Yi and Wang Jiazhi spent very little time together. Every time it was like a war, they had to guard against outsiders and each other. So no matter what they say or do, they always take every step of the way. This is to dig out the most terrifying part of the "civilized" side of civilized people, their hypocrisy, perfunctory, and selfishness. So the desire of the flesh appears precious and complex because of its simplicity.
I'm not going to go into too much detail about how sex suggests love in this movie, because there are obviously many more professional and profound people than me. Simply put, it's a primal desire. For Wang Jiazhi, who has not been deeply involved in the world, there is no doubt that it is a kind of intimacy. And for Mr. Yi, Wang Jiazhi's youthful beauty probably awakened something in him. What they have in common is that this is an escape from "civilization". At this moment, they can tear off the mask of alertness and don't have to test each other. Even if they still can't fully return to their desires, it is quite a naked competition. If they had any "certainty" about each other, it had to come from here, not language or something.
And Wang Jiazhi has done enough homework for Mr. Yi, and of course she has always understood him; but she wears so many masks, pretends to be Mrs. Mai, pretends to love him, and listens for information in a false way, and Mr. Yi can confirm her sincerity.
Probably because these have nothing to do with their identities. It doesn't really matter what she needs, what he's doing, who he is, who she is. All that stuff aside, they're just a bad man and a bad woman. All they can see through each other is their bad nature.
It seems like a complicated relationship, but as lovers, they don't get anything from each other except companionship. This is the ultimate simplicity, and the world is always composed of contradictions, which is also a kind of nature.
Therefore, if we talk about the topic of "'whitewashing the traitors' is really nonsense", it is meaningless in itself. I admire those who keep the so-called "right and wrong" in their hearts, but I believe in the complexity of human nature. Moreover, the position of "absolutely correct" for history is already biased.
But let's move on to the shallow topic of love and intimacy.
I've always felt that if there is anything scarier than love, it must be intimacy. Momentary impulses will fade, admiration will fade with the loss of mystery, but in the final analysis, people long to be understood, appreciated, and accompanied. This could be interpreted as selfishness, but in any case, he always longed for some kind of intimate connection with people. And in the same way, to understand him is to control him, to own him. Nothing is more real than the one held in the palm of your hand.
So regardless of love or hate, "just having feelings" is enough to be the strongest feeling. Wang Jiazhi and Mr. Yi probably have this kind of intimacy.
Of course it can't be called "love", love is too extravagant and requires too much effort, and neither of them can put each other first. Although in the end, the different choices made by Wang Jiazhi and Mr. Yi seem to imply the difference in rationality and sensibility between men and women, suggesting that Wang Jiazhi still gives everything for love. But I don't think that's necessarily the case.
Wang Jiazhi was in despair. In other words, she has nothing to miss and no bright future. Maybe the young people of that era had a more or less future. She agreed to this spy job in Shanghai, and her hasty decision was more or less a gamble, and more or less a desire to regain her self-esteem on the stage after experiencing the hardships of her family. After that, with Mr. Yi, the life was too tense, taking every step of the way, and naturally I didn't have the time to think about "why to start". Stripped of the dramatic blandness because it's too natural, something like that actually occurs at major turning points in all of our lives. There is no time to marvel, but to deal with the very thing itself with preoccupation, even numbness.
Does she understand politics? How much does the spy thing mean to her? In the final analysis, politics and times are nothing to Wang Jiazhi.
Eileen Chang writes, of course, is completely indifferent. But Ang Lee added a layer of youthful passion and desire to perform. Wang Jiazhi may not be as enthusiastic as Kwong Yumin, but as a Huadan, she naturally has enough pride and desire to perform. This is the beginning. Wang Jiazhi, who returned to Shanghai, slowly coincides with the one written by Zhang Ailing. If there is any difference, Tang Wei shows Wang Jiazhi's intelligence and cruelty in a more detailed way, a bit of cruelty and sincerity that has not been worn away, rather than the complete sophistication and indifference of Zhang Ailing. She is not attached to Mr. Yi, they are just as smart, selfish and restless.
Probably only Wang Jiazhi like this can get some real love from Mr. Yi.
Of course Mr. Yi loved her to the extent he could, otherwise he would not shed tears while listening to her singing "The End of the World", would not grit his teeth to the adjutant and say that it was not his ring, much less would not have lived in her once. There was such a fragile expression in the room. But his love is only so much, he can not even blame Wang Jiazhi for being a spy, but the result of separating love from work is naturally to execute her.
In the book, Eileen Chang also wrote that Mr. Yi knew that the Wang government could not last, and Li An expanded this sentence. Mr. Yi did not shy away from telling Wang Jiazhi about the secret service, but he deliberately said it bloody and cruel, like venting. This is of course the exposure of his inner fragility and unease, but to a certain extent, it is also his vent to Wang Jiazhi, for their mutual understanding and incomprehension.
Ang Lee is actually quite loyal to the original work. He uses images to restore and even expand the details in Eileen Chang's book. It's hard to imagine that anyone else could have photographed her book so well. What impressed me the most was the part after Wang Jiazhi let Mr. Yi go. Her inner panic, confusion, and real fear were all conveyed through the screen, which was terrifyingly real.
Looking back at Eileen Chang's original work, it is not inferior at all. But the mood of the two Wang Jiazhi is different. The one in the book, up until this time, was still thinking about whether she could hide in a relative's house to avoid the limelight. She was simply too calm, as if she didn't understand the meaning of what she did. And a detail was added in the movie, Wang Jiazhi threw the suicide capsule. I don't think she still has any hope for Mr. Yi, it's very likely that this is a virtual sense of heroism, because she has done another big thing, standing on the stage as the protagonist. But I prefer to understand it as her frankness about her actions.
This is the difference between Ang Lee and Eileen Chang. Zhang Ailing is indifferent in the final analysis. She feels that she has no choice but to be pushed by the times. She can only grab Mr. Yi like a life-saving straw. And Li Anxin is caring. He cared about this country, so he joined the political background and discussion, so he couldn't help but cut open the patriotism of these young people with a scalpel. He also cares about human nature, so both Wang Jiazhi and Mr. Yi know how to grieve and how to love.
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