Love, Hate?

October 7, 2007 12:26 AM

Question about Lust, Caution. Spoilers very likely inside.

Was it Stockholm syndrome or love that made her do it?

posted by b1tr0t to media & arts (3 comments total)

[mods: apparently the tags aren't unicode friendly?]
posted by b1tr0t at 12:27 AM on October 7, 2007

Or the pile of diamonds? Or the realisation that he loved her? Apparently, the character used for 'caution' can also mean 'ring', perhaps a suggestion that the ring has some importance to the outcome.
Her motivations may be more complex. The pivotal moment comes shortly after we see her express just how unhappy she has become from being used by the resistance.
Stockholm syndrome sounds unlikely to me because I had always taken that to imply more prolonged contact between victim and abuser. I think that the film suggests that Wong and Yee spent relatively little time together.

I suppose that we are meant to think that she fell in love with him. The author of the story the movie is adapted from was involved in a similar affair:

The story is an important piece among Chang's works, because the plot reminds many of Chang's own love story in Shanghai with Hu Lancheng, also a high-level Japanese collaborator working for the puppet government.

In the preface of her last short story collection in which Lust, Caution is included, Chang cited two lines of an ancient poem to express her attitude towards love: The feeling could only be recalled later, but when it happened, there was no reason (Ciqing Kedai Chengzhuiyi, zhishi dangshi yi wangran).

Chang and Hu's story caused a big stir among Shanghai's intellectuals. Many people could not understand why she chose a traitor, the most hated group aside from the occupying Japanese. Chang's response was two well-known lines later revealed in Hu's memoir: "Because he understands me, so I am merciful."
posted by Zetetics at 6:38 AM on October 7, 2007

There are a lot of interpretations floating around, but this one strikes me: she did it because she thought he loved her.
posted by of strange foe at 3:06 PM on October 7, 2007