25 out of 25 people found the following review helpful:
Love & war
chungking from from London,
5th January, 2008
A war time drama set during the Japanese occupation of China in the 1940’s. A group of Chinese students decide to form as a resistance to Japanese occupation. They target a high ranking Chinese collaborator Mr Yee, (Tony Leung), and their plan is for a young woman in their group, Wang Jiazhi (Wei Tang), to seduce him, though she has not had a lover before. Their plan fails and they disband, but are re-united three years later, now part of a larger resistance group, and with Wang Jiazhi’s help, have another chance to kill Mr. Yee. But when Wang Jiazhi starts a relationship with Mr Yee, the two of them get caught up in the intensity of their emotions. A mature, measured, slow burning emotional espionage thriller. Like ‘Brokeback Mountain, Ang Lee’s characters are imbued with love’s frailties and creeping emotional frustration. They all reach a point where in-decision, usually due to feelings they don’t want to acknowledge, costs them dear. A great film. Would make a good double bill with Paul Verhoeven's Black Book.
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