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Revision as of 19:35, 31 January 2008 editTheAsianGURU (talk | contribs)1,210 edits →Country of origin: Edit out bad format, grammar+dreadful English, unrelated & politically infused sections.← Previous edit Revision as of 13:32, 6 February 2008 edit undoSimplicityho (talk | contribs)38 edits Took away erotic. It's not an erotic thriller. The sex is there just to advance the plot, from what I have read.Next edit →
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'''''Lust, Caution''''' ({{zh-cp|c=色，戒|p=''Sè, Jiè''}}) is an erotic espionage thriller directed by ]-winning ] director ], based on ] published in ] by ] author ]. The film is Lee's second to win a ] at the ]. '''''Lust, Caution''''' ({{zh-cp|c=色，戒|p=''Sè, Jiè''}}) is an eespionage thriller directed by ]-winning ] director ], based on ] published in ] by ] author ]. The film is Lee's second to win a ] at the ].


The film adaption and the story are said to be loosely based on an actual event that took place in 1939-1940. It is the first ] rated film to be slated for wide distribution in the ] since '']'' (]). The film adaption and the story are said to be loosely based on an actual event that took place in 1939-1940. It is the first ] rated film to be slated for wide distribution in the ] since '']'' (]).

Revision as of 13:32, 6 February 2008

For the novella by Eileen Chang, see Lust, Caution. 2007 American film
Lust, Caution
Directed byAng Lee
Written byEileen Chang (story)
Hui-Ling Wang
James Schamus (screenplay)
Produced byAng Lee
William Kong
James Schamus
StarringTony Leung Chiu Wai
Tang Wei
Lee-Hom Wang
Joan Chen
Tou Chung-Hua
Chu Chih-Ying
Chin Kar Lok
Anupam Kher
CinematographyRodrigo Prieto
Edited byTim Squyres
Music byAlexandre Desplat
Distributed byFocus Features
Release dates24 September2007 (Taiwan)
25 September2007 (HK)
28 September2007 (USA, limited)
1 November2007 (China)
4 January2008 (UK)
1 February2008 (Sweden)
Running time158 minutes
CountryU.S. / China / Taiwan
LanguagesMandarin
Cantonese
Shanghainese
English
Japanese

Lust, Caution (Chinese: 色，戒; pinyin: Sè, Jiè) is an eespionage thriller directed by Academy Award-winning Taiwanese director Ang Lee, based on the short story of the same name published in 1979 by Chinese author Eileen Chang. The film is Lee's second to win a Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival.

The film adaption and the story are said to be loosely based on an actual event that took place in 1939-1940. It is the first NC-17 rated film to be slated for wide distribution in the United States since Showgirls (1995).

Cast

Overview

The story is mostly set in 1942 Shanghai under Japanese occupation. It depicts a group of patriotic Chinese students plotting to kill a member of the Japanese collaborationist government of Wang Jingwei, using a young woman as a lure.

Plot

"Mrs. Mak" (played by Tang Wei) -- a sophisticated and well-to-do woman -- sits, remembering in a café, how her story began several years earlier, in war-torn 1938 China. A shy student -- Wong Chia Chi -- has been left behind by her father, who has escaped to England. While in her freshman year at her university, a male student named Kuang Yu Min (Wang Leehom) makes her acquaintance. Kuang has started a dramatic theatre group, in which Chia Chi becomes leading lady, moving and inspiring both her audience and her new-found friend Kuang.

It is Kuang who devises a daring plan to assassinate Mr. Yee (Tony Leung), a high-ranking Kuomintang official with overt ties to the collaborationist government headed by Wang Jingwei, who was widely denounced as a national traitor. Chia Chi, already the star performer in the theatre group, is chosen to penetrate the police security surrounding the Yee family. In the guise of Mrs. Mak, she insinuates herself in the social circle of Mrs. Yee (Joan Chen). She catches the eye of Mr. Yee and tries to lure him into a location where he can be assassinated. In preparation for a possible affair with Yee, Chia Chi sacrifices her virginity to a fellow conspirator. The plot goes awry, and Wong flees, following an unexpected fatality.

In Shanghai three years later she again encounters Kuang, who -- now part of an organised underground resistance group seeking to overturn the Japanese occupation -- enlists her into a renewed conspiracy to kill Yee. By this time, Mr. Yee has become the head of the Nanjing regime secret-police working for the occupation to hunt down Kuomintang resistance agents.

Eventually, Chia Chi becomes the mistress of Mr. Yee. After several clandestine sexual encounters, Mr. Yee gives her a sealed envelope to deliver to a jewellery store. She believes the letter to be a covert message for the secret police. When she arrives at the shop, she is surprised to find that the message is his expression of his feelings towards her - he had purchased an enormous and extremely rare 6ct pink diamond for her.

In a meeting with her superior officer in the Chinese resistance, the officer states that they want to delay the assassination in order to get more information from Yee. Chia Chi vehemently objects, graphically describing her violent sexual encounters with Yee and their sadistic and emotionally tortuous nature.

In order to place Mr. Yee in a location where the Chinese resistance agents can kill him, Chia Chi asks to return to the jewelery store to look at the completed diamond ring. When they enter the shop, she notices the resistance agents awaiting to spring the trap. As Mr. Yee was unaware of his danger, Chia Chi finds herself in a situation in which even her identity itself is pushed to breaking point. She makes a split-second decision to expose the plot to Mr. Yee and let him escape before being killed.

By the end of the day, most of the resistance group including Kuang and Chia Chi herself, are captured. Mr. Yee signs their death warrants and the group members are executed that night, with Mr. Yee feeling the bed with his hands and sobbing alone in the same room Chia Chi used to stay in.

Releases and awards

Template:Infobox movie certificates The film premiered at the Venice Film Festival, where it won the Golden Lion, the second such award for Ang Lee. It was released in U.S. theaters on September 28, 2007, where it has been rated NC-17 by the Motion Picture Association of America due to graphic sexual content. Lee has stated that he will make no changes to attempt to get an R rating. After the movie's premiere, director Ang Lee was displeased that Chinese news media (including those from Taiwan) had greatly emphasized the sex scenes in the movie. The version to be released in the People's Republic of China has been cut by about 7 minutes (by the director himself) to make it suitable for younger audiences, since China has no rating system. The version released in Malaysia is shortened by 15 minutes and is rated 18PL - 18 and above. It swept the 2007 Golden Horse Awards by winning seven Awards, including Best Actor, Best Feature Film and Best Director.

Controversies

Sex scenes

In its uncut form, Lust, Caution features three separate graphic rapacious sex scenes, with full-frontal nudity. The ten minutes of sex scenes reportedly took a gruelling 100 hours to shoot, leading to speculations on whether the sex acts were simulated or real. In a number of countries, notably the People's Republic of China, Malaysia and (initially) Singapore, much of the sex scenes had to be cut before the film could be released.

Country of origin

The film was coproduced by the American companies Focus Features and River Road Productions, and Chinese companies Shanghai Film Group Corporation and Haishang Films and the Taiwanese Hai Sheng Film Production Company. The director is Ang Lee, who is a naturalized US citizen, and the actors/actresses are from mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan as well as the United States. It was shot in Shanghai, the neighboring province of Zhejiang, Hong Kong (at Hong Kong University), and some locations in Ipoh, Malaysia disguised as 1930/40's Hong Kong.

Originally, the movie's country was identified as 'China-USA' by the organizers of the Venice Film Festival, but after a complaint from Ang Lee's office, it was changed to 'Taiwan'. However, a few days later, the Venice Film Festival changed the film to "USA-China-Taiwan, China" on its official schedule. When the movie premiered at the event, Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council protested the Venice event's use of "Taiwan, China" to identify movies from the island and blamed China for the move.

After the premiere of the movie, Taiwan submitted the film as its best foreign film Oscar entry. However, Oscars asked Taiwan to withdraw the film because some key crew members were not locals. Oscars spokeswoman Teni Melidonian said in an e-mail organizers refused to accept the movie because "an insufficient number of Taiwanese participated in the production of the film," violating a rule that requires foreign countries to certify their locals "exercised artistic control" over their submission. The Golden Globe Award nominated the film with its origin as "Taiwan."

Defamation charge

On 13 September, 2007, an elderly lady Zheng Tianru staged a press conference in Los Angeles, claiming that the movie was about real-life events that happened in World War II, and wrongfully portrayed her older sister, Zheng Pingru, as a promiscuous secret agent who seduced and eventually fell in love with the assassination target Ding Mocun (she alleges that the characters were renamed to Wang Jiazhi and Mr. Yee in the movie). Taiwan's investigation bureau confirmed that Zheng Pingru failed to kill Ding Mocun because Zheng's gun jammed, rather than developing a romantic relationship with the assassin's target. Director Ang Lee maintains that Eileen Chang wrote the original short story herself, not about a real historical event.

Critical reception

As of January 17, 2008 on the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, 69% of all critics gave the film positive reviews, while scoring 54% among RottenTomatoes-designated "Top Critics." On Metacritic, the film had an average score of 60 out of 100, based on 34 reviews. However the film received almost unanimous praise from film critics in Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Jack Mathews of the New York Daily News named it the 5th best film of 2007.. Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times named it the 6th best film of 2007.

Etymology

  • In the Shanghainese dialect, the words "lust" (色) and "lost" (失) are homophones.
  • The translation of the Chinese title 色、戒 as "Lust, Caution" misses most of the sense of the original. The meaning of the second word is closer to "warning" or even "renunciation," and also alludes to the ring (戒指) to be worn by Wong Chia Chi.

Anachronisms

  • The Hong Kong sequences in the film set in the late 1930s (for example, from the film distributor's website: Windows Media file 5.2MB), include "London taxis" of two types (FX3,FX4) that were only manufactured from 1948 and 1958 onwards respectively .

References

  1. Coonan, Clifford (2007-10-17). "China delays embattled 'Lust'". Variety.
  2. Goldstein, Gregg (2007-08-24). "Focus won't sweat NC-17 for 'Lust'". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2007-09-09.
  3. 媒體猛炒性愛 李安痛心
  4. "No sex scenes in China's version of Lust, Caution". Retrieved 2007-09-13.
  5. ""Lust" to be shown in China after cuts". Retrieved 2007-09-13.
  6. "威尼斯影展將《色‧戒》當大陸片經李安抗議後改為台灣代表". Retrieved 2007-09-09.
  7. "64th Venice Film Festival - In Competition". Retrieved 2007-09-09.
  8. "Taiwan protests Chinese credit for Ang Lee's movie at Venice festival". Retrieved 2007-09-09.
  9. 「色‧戒」影射鄭蘋如？鄭家人不滿
  10. 湯唯情欲戲被指褻瀆烈士 <色戒>遭原型家人聲討
  11. "Lust, Caution - Rotten Tomatoes". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2007-10-30.
  12. "Lust, Caution (2007): Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 2007-10-30.
  13. ^ "Metacritic: 2007 Film Critic Top Ten Lists". Metacritic. Retrieved 2008-01-08.

External links

Films directed by Ang Lee
Preceded byStill Life Golden Lion winner
2006 		Succeeded byn/a
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