Under and Out of Socialism. Ang Lee’s Rehabilitation of Eileen Chang’s Lust, Caution

The essay examines how the Taiwanese, now U. S. based, director Ang Lee adapts Eileen Chang's novella "Lust, Caution", in the omonimous film. The story takes place during the Second World War in Shanghai - then occupied by the Japanese - intertwining the personal and the political, hitories and Story. By pointing at the difference between the novella and its cinematographic adaptation, the essay focuses on how war is portayed, particularly through the female figure of the spy. The political and ethical implications of the representation of past events in a present whereby China is still divided, and has almost cancelled that past, are also taken into account.