Customer Reviews

Lust, Caution: The Story

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

(Afterword by film director Ang Lee and essay by James Shamus. Translated with a Foreword by Julia Lovell)

Anchor Books has printed Eileen Chang's short story, Lust Caution, just as it is about to be released as a major motion picture. Talking place in Japanese-occupied Shanghai of the 1940s, this storyline is equal parts spy-thriller and love affair. Chang's vivid descriptions of decadent Shanghai are candy for the imagination, and yet it's the heart and mind of heroine Chia Chih that hold the imagination captive. Chia Chih's story is told in only fifty pages, and yet I think one could spend a lifetime trying to understand this complex heroine. Why did she decide to do it? Was it worth it?

Though it is rich in character, I found this short story difficult to follow at first. Lust, Caution is incredibly terse. Eileen Chang packs quite a bit of punch in every single line of this short story. In fact, her word economy is so tight that I found myself confused in a few places. Anchor Books has helped out by packaging the short story along with an informative introduction by translator Julia Lovell, a reflection by film director Ang Lee, and a thoughtful essay by James Shamus.

I highly recommend reading these extra features as they add clarity and depth to the reading experience. In fact, I think this book would be a good pick for a summer book club. The afterward and the essay pose some great discussion questions, and they help to illuminate some of the deeper complexities in the story.

Lust, Caution is a short story that will sear itself into your memory for a long time. Thoughts of love, betrayal, trust, deception--these will all swirl around in your mind as you ponder the unexpected turn-of-events in this short story.

Author Eileen Chang, who herself lived in occupied Shanghai, has succeeded in sifting out the human element from the revolutionary events of her day.

Armchair Interviews says: A thought-provoking read worth your time.

It is difficult to fully appreciate the significance of this short novel in the English translation, and so for people who may not understand the original Chinese version, the key to understanding it is to watch the uncensored version of the film by Lee Ang as well. The sex scenes draws one's attention to the innermost feelings and thinking of a woman in love. Although the story was about a woman dedicated to a political cause and who was prepared to give up her life for it, ironically, gave it up for love.The story reveals in a sensual way, the mind and desires of a woman, and how she responded to the conflict between heart and mind; and how in a crucial moment in which in a briefest of time, she had to make a choice between duty and dereliction. No one reader may agree as to whether her choice was right or wrong, whether it was noble or foolish, but many will surely understand a woman better for it.

I read this book first in Chinese and then in English because I wanted to know how it got translated. Even for the Chinese reader Eileen Chang's original text could be hard to follow and necessitate rereading to fully grasp the details. Chang's writing is famously dense, lush, sensuous, and chock full of puns, symbolism and suggestions. She wrote with a vocabulary distinctive of her era and to her world. Her description of colors, for example, can be foreign to many contemporary Chinese readers. To translate her work will therefore inevitably strip the writing of that period flavor. Julia Lowell did an admirable job in presenting Chang's story in a very fluid and stylish manner in English, even if she could not adequately convey the mood that Chang evoked. In fact, it was easier to follow the plot by reading the English translation.

Unlike her other fiction pieces, Chang's Lust|Caution was extremely spare. Though Chang had always been precise and terse with her language she never skimmed on details. In Lust|Caution, however, she seemed to have deliberately skipped some descriptions. Chang provided the motive for the two central characters to become drawn to each other: Chia-chih and Mr. Yee chose their diametrically opposite paths during Japan's invasion of China but in the process both became emotionally repressed, insecure, and isolated. This void drew them together, but Chang only informed the readers twice that they had become intimate without further details. This was unlike her other novels/novellas in which she at least briefly described the seduction (Red Rose, White Rose) or what the character was thinking during intimate moments (Love in a Fallen City). Such deliberate omissions added to the mystique of Chia-chih's impulsive and fateful decision at the end, leaving readers lingering with imagination and postulation long after they finished the story. For Chang's fans, in particular, we wonder if the conciseness stemmed from Chang's reluctance to delve into a personal wound that inspired the story.

As in other stories by Ms Chang, the main character in "Lust, Caution" is a young woman who pours her love and generosity over a man who does not deserve her, even if she knows from the start that he is unworthy. Here, the main male character is Mr Ye, a Chinese who collaborates with the Japanese in the occupied Shanghai of the 1940s. The girl pays dearly her emotional involvement, with dramatic consequences for herself and other anti-fascists.
Beyond the picture of this epoch, which is very interesting and alive, the story focuses therefore on a more universal psychological question.

The English itself is not too difficult to understand, even for a non native speaker as myself. However, you need to read slowly -- even if you are a native speaker -- to catch the subtleties of the story. As I said, the key is in other Chang's stories ... and in the title of this one.

Eileen Chang's world is a woman's world with big attention for clothing, furniture, colors, smells, body details, and, of course, gossip. Her gender picture has dark colors for women (`real' concubines) and lighter ones for men. She is full of forgiveness for the latter in the face of the cynicism of the opposite sex. It is also a world of fortune tellers (very good business) and their `vengeful lovers locked in mortal combat' and of war, when husbands stay far away from home.

`In the Waiting Room', one hears that `since too many Chinese have died in the war, the men can marry again, and (their new wives) aren't even called concubines - they are second wives'.
`Great Felicity' is a story about marriage and its illusions.
`Steamed Osmanthus Flower' tells the story of `relationships with women of good families or with ladies of the demi-monde in search of a little romance outside working hours.'
`Lust, Caution' served as a basis for the screenplay of Ang Lee's masterpiece with the same title, a story about intelligence services, impetuous emotions and brutal politics. The movie is far better than the short story, where all the different scenes are too short and vastly underdeveloped.
By far, the best tale in this bundle is `Traces of Love' in the life of an old couple, with its perfect moods and its brilliant mix of past, present and future. While for the husband, `his love for the world was no longer love, it became compassion', for his wife `it's all for the money, of course ... the important thing is to get your hands on the money.'

Eileen Chang's stories paint a world full of competition for a reliable man, hidden frustrations, blatant hypocrisy and naïve illusions in the face of the fleetingness of life, where `the first time life was green, the second time, a dark red'.
Highly recommended.

This thin book provides all you need to enhance your movie viewing experience. The movie is well directed and very well performed by the cast. But Eileen Chang's story is better than the movie in many subtle ways. It is certainly worth the read. Very few people will need to see the script and other information that is included in the larger book.

The thing I liked the most about this book was that the story itself was interesting, it was based on real events, and it included a couple of surprising plot twists at the end that I enjoyed and that added considerably to the tale. I didn't care much for Ms. Chang's style of writing which, in my opinion, included too much attention to minute details that were not, in my opinion, relevant to telling of the story. But I can't complain too much about this because the story was so short that her dwelling on a few tedious details was not enough to bore me. Overall, I enjoyed this short story very much, and after reading this little book, I enjoyed watching the movie too.

As this short story has been made in to a 'major motion picture' one does trust that Hollywood does not eviscerate this lovely short story of its considerable character, charm, complexity and subtle. I would recommend that individuals read 'Lust,Caution' prior to trying to digest a Hollywood interpretation of the late Ms. Chang's considerable talent for telling a story.

This book is incredibly short. You can't cover much in less than seventy pages.

I felt ripped off. It felt like we were simply given an epilogue, two chapters as a beginning (this book has no chapters, by the way), and cut off abruptly. At the best, it could pass as a short story.

They say that translating from foreign languages tends to lose its original meaning more often than not. I'm afraid the old phrase is true once more. If this is really what Eileen Chang wrote to become a masterpiece, I don't enjoy it very much.

This is pretty much the only case I can think of in which the movie was way better than the book; most times, it's the opposite case.

The words are lovely and flow together nicely, considering it was translated from Chinese scripts written in the 1950s and 1960s, but I found nothing truly memorable or remarkable about this book. Seriously, the only thing I can recall of this novella is four Chinese women with a bunch of random Chinese men running around in the background over fried duck, dumplings, and giant wedding rings.

I contemplated buying the Chinese version instead, but I didn't. Now I wish I did.

well writtten and well plotted. but, unfortunately, [spoiler alert], I think this sents a very anti feminist message. If there is any more description about Mr. Yee that makes him seem redeemable, maybe I could understand why the protagonist fell in love. But in this story, it seems that the protagonist was willing to sacrifice her own life and her friends' lives, as soon as she saw a diamond ring (well, a six carat fancy pink diamond, maybe my heard would skip a beat too. :)) This portray women as weak and material driven.