From Eileen Chang to Ang Lee: Lust/Caution

Description

In 2007, Ang Lee made an espionage thriller based on the short story "Lust, Caution" by Eileen Chang, China's most famous female author of the twentieth century. The release of the film became a trigger for heated debates on issues of national identity and political loyalty, and brought unexpectedly harsh criticism from China, where Ang Lee was labelled a traitor in scathing internet critiques, whilst the film's leading actress Tang Wei was banned from appearing on screen for two years. This book analyses Ang Lee's art of film adaptation through the lens of modern literary and film theory, as well as featuring detailed readings and analyses of different dialogues and scenes, directorial and authorial decisions and intentions, while at the same time confronting the intense political debates resulting from the film's subject matter. The theories of Freud, Lacan, Deleuze, Bataille and others are used to identify and clarify issues raised by the film related to gender, sexuality, eroticism, power, manipulation, and betrayal; the themes of lust and caution are dealt with in conjunction with the controversial issues of contemporary political consciousness concerning patriotism, and the Sino-Japanese War complicated by divided historical experiences and cross-Taiwan Strait relationships. The contributors to this volume cover translation and adaptation, loyalty and betrayal, collaboration and manipulation, playing roles and performativity, whilst at the same time intertwining these with issues of national identity, political loyalty, collective memory, and gender. As such, the book will appeal to students and scholars of Chinese and Asian cinema and literature, as well as those interested in modern Chinese history and cultural studies. Cover Half Title Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents List of figures List of tables Notes on contributors Acknowledgments Introduction 1 Adaptation as translation, betrayal, or consumption 2 Eros, subjectivity, and collective memory through performance 3 Identity politics and global cultural economy Notes Part I: Adaptation as translation, betrayal, or consumption 1. Montage of attractions: juxtaposing Lust/Caution Montage initiated: Deutscher Schäferhund Deutscher Schäferhund redux Dialectical montage: juxtaposition, collision Montage of attractions: is it real, the sex? 1 Attraction as action construction, not the static reflection of an event 2 Real attraction relies on the spectator’s reaction, not merely the performer’s skill 3 The spectator’s reaction should derive from an emotional shock Conclusion: rewriting and overwriting Eileen Chang Notes 2. Two versions of Sejie: fiction and film – views from a common reader Eileen Chang’s fiction Ang Lee’s film Notes 3. Sado-masochism, steamy sex, and Shanghai glitter: what’s love got to do with it? A ‘philologist’ looks at Lust/Caution and the literary texts that inspired it Notes 4. Cannibal, class, betrayal: Eileen Chang and Ang Lee Animal magnetism Comparison with Ri Koran Real sex Notes Part II: Eros, subjectivity, and collective memory 5. Eros impossible and Eros of the impossible in Lust/Caution: the Shanghai lady/baby in the late 1930s and early 1940s “The Lust/Caution phenomenon”: politics, mass media, and the box office in post-colonial Taiwan, Hong Kong, and China The integrity of the film structure and the disintegrity of the story strategy From Eros to Eros impossible: story, script, and screen Conclusion Notes 6. Self as performance, lust as betrayal in the theatre of war Notes 7. The “real” Wang Jiazhi: taboo, transgression, and truth in Lust/Caution Bataille: taboo and transgression – heightening the allure of transgression Mahjong, high society, and Western cultural influences Duplicity in other Ang Lee works, and the “real” Wang Jiazhi Part III: dentity politics and global cultural economy 8. Becoming noir Sartor resartus: leitmotive film or film noir? Becoming noir The state of film noir studies, or The Big Sleep The Nietzschean turn The state of noir, or Deleuze with Lacan The nation and the whores Notes 9. Woman as metaphor: how Lust/Caution re/deconstructs history “Saving history”: whose history? Performativity and patriotism A woman who refuses to cooperate The image of a collaborator Woman: metaphor for the “age of innocence” Notes 10. Transnational affect: cold anger, hot tears, and Lust/Caution Not hot sex but cold anger: the clash of the hanjian 漢奸 and the global man Hot tears of the Cold War: the collision of the patriotic and the diasporic Nostalgic homecoming or affective becoming: Shanghai as routes Notes Filmography Bibliography Index