The new film from Ang Lee, the Academy
Award-winning director of “ Brokeback Mountain ” and
“Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.” A startling erotic
espionage thriller about the fate of an ordinary woman’s
heart, it is based on the short story by revered Chinese
author Eileen Chang, and stars Asian cinema icon Tony Leung
opposite screen newcomer Tang Wei. Shanghai, 1942. The World
War II Japanese occupation of this Chinese city continues in
force. Mrs. Mak, a woman of sophistication and means, walks
into a café, places a call, and then sits and waits. She
remembers…how her story began several years earlier, in 1938
China . She is not in fact Mrs. Mak, but shy Wong Chia Chi
(Tang Wei). With WWII underway, Wong has been left behind by
her father, who has escaped to England . As a freshman at
university, she meets fellow student Kuang Yu Min (Wang
Leehom) Kuang has started a drama society to shore up
patriotism. As the theater troupe’s new leading lady, Wong
realizes that she has found her calling, able to move and
inspire audiences – and Kuang. He convenes a core group of
students to carry out a radical and ambitious plan to
assassinate a top Japanese collaborator, Mr. Yee (Tony
Leung). Each student has a part to play; Wong will be Mrs.
Mak, who will gain Yee’s trust by befriending his wife (Joan
Chen) and then draw the man into an affair. Wong transforms
herself utterly inside and out, and the scenario proceeds as
scripted – until an unexpectedly fatal twist spurs her to
flee. Shanghai, 1941. With no end in sight for the
occupation, Wong – having emigrated from Hong Kong – goes
through the motions of her existence. Much to her surprise,
Kuang re-enters her life. Now part of the organized
resistance, he enlists her to again become Mrs. Mak in a
revival of the plot to kill Yee, who as head of the
collaborationist secret service has become even more a key
part of the puppet government. As Wong reprises her earlier
role, and is drawn ever closer to her dangerous prey, she
finds her very identity being pushed to the limit...
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