Just weeks (and many plot twists) later, Ms. Wei’s demure Wong finds herself transformed into Mak Tai Tai, a bourgeois, subtly sexy merchant’s wife who wears tightly tailored dresses and bright lipsticks. She has a mission to seduce Mr. Yee (played by heartthrob Tony Leung), a cruel Chinese political figure who was handpicked by the Japanese to stifle uprisings, so that her newfound rebellious cohorts can murder him.

Ms. Wei, with her chameleonlike abilities and elegant beauty, makes a bold, exquisite debut on the big screen, where she had to get naked and brutally freaky with Mr. Leung during some steamy sex scenes. All that tension Mr. Lee so masterfully built in his 2005 Oscar winner Brokeback Mountain was surely released for this film; sweaty torsos, hairy armpits, acrobatic positions and all. Not to mention long, silky legs. Tang Wei, we’ll never quit you!