What s it about?
Don t come looking for a history lesson and you ll fare well, watching this sexed-up espionage psychodrama. Ang Lee s follow-up to
Brokeback Mountain sees him return to Chinese storytelling and focussing on the dangerous glamour of Japanese-occupied Shanghai during WWII. Staying true to his trademark theme, exploring the tension between duty and desire , Lee zeroes in on the complicated tryst between a naive actor-assassin, Wong Chia Chi / Mrs Mak (Tang Wei) and her mark, the calculating, cruel Mr Yee (Tony Leung Chiu Wai). Lee is working from a short story by Eileen Chang but plays up the naked, theatrical cruelty of the union between Mrs Mak and Mr Yee.