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How entertaining? ★★☆☆☆
Thought provoking? ★☆☆☆☆ 3 March 2014
This article is a review of DANGEROUS LIAISONS.Seen as part of the Pan-Asia Film Festival 2014. (For more information, click here.)
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“A young gentleman should have class, and some sense of restraint,” Du Ruixue (Lisa Lu)
Once one has read Pierre Choderlos de Laclos’ seminal novel, and watched nearly half a dozen adaptations, isn’t it time for a refresh when it comes to interpretation? As period renditions go, the team up of director Stephen Frears-writer Christopher Hampton has yet to be beaten. VALMONT, UNTOLD SCANDAL and now the Shanghai-set DANGEROUS LIAISONS (2012) have thrown their hats into the ring to underwhelming effect. Ahead of its time, the novel (published in 1782) was extremely female-aware in its portrayal of emotional exploitation. Maybe we could even call the work an early feminist tome. Society’s double standards, when it comes to sexual games, are writ large across the pages. Therefore, in ages and places where there is a significant differentiation in rights/statuses between the genders, every such refashioning of the book is saying, effectively, the same thing. Providing a much-needed contemporary spin, CRUEL INTENTIONS gave the audience the modern American high school as the arena – social mores were updated.
Feelings of ennui seeped in early to DANGEROUS LIAISONS, as plot point after plot point remained the same. Nothing new is being offered here. Filmmakers, how about setting future revamps of the novel in the modern world of the corporate office, or the halls of government? Also, the book is epistolary in structure, how about playing with the medium of cinema in a similar vein?
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Shanghai 1931, Mo Jieyu (Cecilia Cheung) has been jilted by a famous tycoon, Jin, in favour of a sixteen-year-old schoolgirl, Beibei (Candy Wang). Jieyu, still a beauty, is on the cusp of middle age and seeks revenge on her ex-lover by attempting to corrupt his bride-to-be. No slouch, Jieyu is director of the Hudong Bank, yet pride and cruelty fuel her. A widow since 20, marriage is permanently off the cards due to no desire to be any man’s possession. Her confident in sexual conquests is Xie Yifan (Dong-gun Jang), the city’s most caddish playboy. Running out of challenging sport, malaise has set in for him, until an upright distant cousin, Du Fenyu (Ziyi Zhang), comes into his sphere. A bet is placed between Yifan and Jieyu: If the former seduces the goodly Fenyu, then the latter will be his prize.
Decadent, immoral aristocrats are the targets of DANGEROUS LIAISONS’s opprobrium. The novel was unveiled on the cusp of the French Revolution, and here the Japanese have invaded Manchuria, and full-scale war is only six years away. (Comparisons to Jean Renoir’s LA RÈGLE DU JEU (1939) can be made.)
Opulent production design is one of the few highlights here. Seductions are rushed or unbelievable. Hysterics or moist eyes are meant to represent ardour. Frisson, which should have been abundantly present, is conspicuously absent. Ziyi Zhang is wasted (contrast her steely performance in THE GRANDMASTER), just called upon to act well behaved or scandalised. DANGEROUS LIAISONS’ grace note is a criminally sentimental conclusion to an unsubtle production. Where is the necessary bite?
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