MomoのKokoro

* Warning: spoilers ahead!! *

Edit: I watched it a second time and have included some further analysis.

Watched the unedited version with M-chan this weekend and it was a disturbing and thought-provoking movie.

I appreciated the fact that Lee Ang was able to prevent the graphic, and often violent, sex scenes from being merely salacious. In fact, these scenes were absolutely necessary to delve into the psyche of the main characters Wang Chia-Chi aka Mak Taitai (Tang Wei) and Mr. Yee (Tony Leung). It is in sex that they find release from who they are and what role they have to act in front of others. For these two, sex is about human connection, and rediscovering a humanity that war has forced deep within each of them.
I noticed the evolution of the sex scenes. It was initially rape, then sex, then lovemaking between the two. The final scenes evoke a tenderness and depth of feeling that had not been present at the start. The two are shown as a foetal union of tangled limbs, safe from the world when they are naked in each other's arms, safe from having to pretend to be who they are not.

While there is no escaping the fact that Mr Yee is a traitor, he derives no pleasure or satisfaction from his work. He is almost a dead man walking, performing the (distasteful) actions that keep him and his wife alive. This is man's survival instinct operating at its basest. The entry of Wang Chia-Chi into his life jolts him awake.

For Wang Chia-Chi, hers is a life disillusioned by the plot which went awry some three years ago in Hong Kong. Joining the resistance in Shanghai, she is really an empty shell of a woman whose main source of will to live is derived from the unsaid longing to complete what had been set in action years ago.

The reconciliation of the couple starts off violently enough, but as the affair progresses deeper, we see in their sexual unions the desperation to escape and the connection which makes both of them feel that they are still alive. Tony Leung's acting is superb in this movie. His eyes are able to convey subtle nuances of expression in a way that many actors aspire but fail to do and he really lets the viewer see how Mr. Yee the traitor exists in a painful, violent and unenviable space. Leung adds a remarkably moving human quality to the character.

Scenes that I found really memorable:
1) When Mak Taitai is invited to the Japanese Quarter to meet Mr. Yee. The Mandarin song that she performs for him is poignant, haunting and causes him (and me) to tear. And then they hold each other's hand, a simple gesture of affection but at the same time a powerful recognition that they are the only ones who can understand the other in a violent and chaotic world.

2) When Mak Taitai is incredibly touched by Mr. Yee's gift of a 6-carat diamond ring and torn by guilt about the plot to assassinate him (a chance possible only because he had got her this gift), she whispers brokenly that he must leave, "Kuai zou." She has to repeat it only once before he understands what she means in those two words and he dashes off in an almost comical scene. Minutes later, the streets are cordoned off and the resistance fighters are arrested. Wang and her accomplices die at the South Quarry, a sentence meted by Mr. Yee. While the other resistance fighters look at Wang in disbelief and anger, she seems serene till the last.
During the rewatch, I also saw why Wang was touched by Yee. His face was the most open it had ever been in the show; it was evident that he trusted and loved her. His unguardedness in her presence cracked Wang's resolve.

In a way, I see Wang's betrayal at the hands of her group (three years ago, with her body and her spirit) avenged by her saving of Mr. Yee. Mr. Yee was the only one who loved her as she loved him and her gift to him was his life. While it is likely that he will never trust anyone ever again, her whisper to him to "kuai zou" indicated the special place that he had in her heart. That is why Mr. Yee is incredibly grieved as he enters her room and sits on her bed, thinking of her even as she is being killed. Although Wang Chia-Chi was a spy, she was also the only woman who loved and understood him for who he was, and who loved him enough to give up her life for his.
In addition, I think Wang realized that although Yee did not know who she really was, Yee still loved her and protected her. It was a very different treatment from her comrades and the man she had initially liked (who was the first to turn away when the group decided she must have her first sexual experience).

The movie ends at this point, a depressing but prosaic view of what must go on. Mr. Yee will continue to live, for who wishes to die? But his is a dreary existence, haunted by the ghost of a former love and the lack of meaning which will mark each coming day.
One of the most touching and eerie scenes is the flashback that Wang has as she sits on the rickshaw and holds the cyanide pill in her hand. The flashback to four years ago, the innocent drama student that she had been, and the moment that everything changed when the group called her to join them. The music is incredibly sad and effective.

Posted in: Thoughts on Sunday, November 11, 2007 at