Lust, Caution () is a 2007 erotic spy film directed by Ang Lee, based on the 1979 novella by Eileen Chang. The story is set during World War II, when a group of Chinese students plot to assassinate a high-ranking official in the puppet government of Japanese-occupied Shanghai by luring him into a honey trap.
The film won Lee a second Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival after Brokeback Mountain.The awards of the Venice Film Festival on the Festival's site It propelled Tang Wei to stardom but also drew controversy for its explicit sex scenes, which resulted in a two-year ban imposed on her by the Chinese government.The bed scenes are real! "Lust and Caution" wins the championship of the 21st century's top 20 films! Ang Lee "uses the deepest love" and dares not remember (in Chinese) www.tw.news.yahoo.com The film grossed $67 million worldwide over a $16 million budget, making it the highest grossing NC-17 film of all time.
Plot Hong Kong, 1938 During the Second Sino-Japanese War, a shy and inexperienced university student, Wong Chia Chi, travels from Shanghai to Hong Kong to begin studying at Lingnan University. Male student Kuang Yumin invites her to join his patriotic drama club and she soon becomes a lead actress, inspiring both her audience and her colleagues. Inspired by the club's patriotic plays, Kuang persuades the group to make a more concrete contribution to the war against Japan. He devises a plan to assassinate Mr. Yee, a special agent of the puppet government of Wang Jingwei set up by the Japanese occupation in China. The beautiful Wong is chosen to take on the undercover role of "Mrs. Mak", the elegant wife of a trading company owner. She inserts herself into the social circle of Mrs. Yee.
Wong is still a virgin, and she reluctantly consents to having sex with another student involved in the plot in order to practice her role as a married woman. Attracted to Wong, Yee nearly falls for the trap but backs out at the last minute. Soon after, Mr. and Mrs. Yee move back to Shanghai, leaving the students with no further chance to complete their mission. While they are preparing to disband, a former subordinate of Yee turns up unannounced and tells them that he is aware of their plans. After a violent struggle, the students kill the subordinate and then go into hiding.
Shanghai, 1942 Three years later, in Japanese-occupied Shanghai governed by the Wang Jingwei regime, Wong again encounters Kuang, who is now an undercover agent of the Kuomintang (KMT) secret service, the Juntong, which is seeking to overthrow the Japanese occupation forces and the puppet government. Kuang enlists her into a renewed assassination plan to kill Yee, who has become head of Wang Jingwei's secret police department, and is responsible for torturing and executing resistance members. Wong's advances to Yee are reciprocated. During their first sexual encounter, Yee violently rapes Wong. Over the next few weeks, their sexual relationship becomes more consensual and affectionate.
When Wong reports to her KMT superior officer, she exhorts him to carry out the assassination soon, so that she will not have to continue her sexual liaison with Yee, but she is told that the assassination needs to be delayed for strategic reasons. Wong describes the emotional conflict she finds herself embroiled in, sentimentally bound to a man whom she is plotting to help assassinate. When Yee sends Wong to a jewelry store with a sealed envelope, she discovers that he has arranged for a large and extremely rare six-carat pink diamond for her, to be mounted in a ring. This provides the Chinese resistance with a chance to get at Yee when he is not accompanied by his bodyguards.
Soon after, Wong invites Yee to accompany her to collect the diamond ring. While entering the jewelry store, she notices that all those involved in the assassination plot are undercover outside. When she puts on the ring, she is overcome by emotion and quietly urges Yee to leave. Understanding her meaning, he immediately flees the shop and escapes the assassination attempt. By the end of the day, most members of the resistance group have been captured. Yee's deputy reports to him that they had been surveilling the cell for some time. An infuriated Yee demands to know why he was not informed, to which the deputy reluctantly cites Yee's relationship with Wong, before giving him the diamond ring they had recovered. Yee signs the resistance members' death warrants. Wong, Kuang and others are taken to a quarry to be executed. When Yee returns home that night, he sits on Wong's empty bed in the family guest room while his wife comes to ask him what is going on, since his secretary and two men took Wong's belongings and some papers from his office. Yee tells her that if anyone asks, she should say that Mrs. Mak has returned to Hong Kong, and then tells her to continue playing mahjong downstairs. He sits alone in the dark for a while before leaving the room.
Cast
Tony Leung Chiu-wai as Mr. Yee Tang Wei as Wong Chia Chi/"Mrs. Mak" Joan Chen as Mrs. Yee Wang Leehom as Kuang Yumin Tou Chung-hua as Old Wu Chin Kar-lok as Assistant Officer Tsao Chu Chih-ying as Lai Xiujin Kao Ying-hsuan as Huang Lei Lawrence Ko as Liang Junsheng Johnson Yuen as Auyang Lingwen/"Mr. Mak" Fan Kuang-yao as Secretary Chang Anupam Kher as Hali Salahuddin Shyam Pathak as Jewelry Shopkeeper Akiko Takeshita as Japanese Tavern Boss Lady Hayato Fujiki as Japanese Colonel Sato
Production The actors who played university classmates spent six months of preproduction in Hong Kong to get into character and understand the period before filming. During this period the group of actors, including Tang Wei and Wang Leehom, became very close friends.
Themes Background The original novella by Eileen Chang was sometimes credited to be inspired by the historical event of Zheng Pingru's failed attempt to assassinate the Japanese collaborator Ding Mocun.
Meaning of the title The title of the work, Lust, Caution, has a double meaning in Chinese. The character for "lust" (色, sè) can be read as "colour", while "caution" (戒, jiè) can be read as "ring", therefore the title can also read as "colored ring", an object that plays a pivotal role in the story. The two alternate readings of the title are interwoven into a cautionary tale of lust and love through the symbolic use of the ring.
Sexuality and power In the movie, Wong's virginity is used as a symbol of both her status as an innocent woman and a barrier to the role she must play in order to prove her patriotism. Wong's virginity is ultimately given as a sacrifice but consequently, her sexuality that has been awakened is used as a weapon against Mr. Yee in order to ensnare him into a relationship.
The portrayal of female sexuality and desire in the film emphasizes the shame and awkwardness of Wong's sexuality versus the role she must play as "Mrs. Mak", which serves the nation rather than her needs as a woman. Sex and sexuality are used as tangible tools in proving patriotism in this film, and in each instance of Wong's bodily sacrifice, she is representing the recognizable symbol of violation experienced by China as a nation while under Japanese occupation.
Through each of the sex scenes, a tangible but subtle difference can be seen in Wong Chia Chi's character as she becomes more comfortable with her sexual desires; a gradual acceptance of pleasure along with a growing role of dominance in hers and Mr. Yee's relationship as compared to the submissive and easily manipulated role she fills in the group of comrades that she is plotting against the Japanese and their collaborators with.
Eileen Chang's original work from which Ang is drawing from does not contain the sex scenes of the film, yet with their addition a change can be seen in the levels of participation and assertiveness from Wong Chia Chi and her own agency in them: the first sex scene focuses on the forced and unpleasant intercourse between the couple; stronger levels of consent and enjoyment from Wong is found in the second sex scene; finally, Wong Chia Chi has recognized her full agency in the third sex scene and is acting with assertion by taking control of her own desires and pleasure with Mr. Yee.
Soundtrack The music for Lust, Caution was created by French composer Alexandre Desplat. The soundtrack, which was released by Decca Records, contains 24 songs running at approximately 60 minutes in length.
Tracklist +1Lust, Caution2Dinner Waltz3Falling Rain4Brahms Intermezzo in A Maj Op 118 No 25Streets of Shanghai6Playacting7Tsim Sha Tsui Stroll8Exodus9Moonlight Drive10Shanghai 194211The End Of Innocence12Sacrifice13Remember Everything14Check Point15The Secret16Nanjing Road17On The Street18The Angel19The South Quarry20An Empty Bed21Dinner Waltz (Traffic Quintet)22Wong Chia Chi's Theme23Seduction24Desire
Release Lust, Caution 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 was rated NC-17 by the Motion Picture Association of America due to some explicit sex scenes. Lee stated that he would 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 released in the People's Republic of China was cut by about seven minutes (by the director himself) to make it suitable for younger audiences, since China has no rating system. Scenes of violence were also removed from the mainland version, and the total minutes of the cuts was around 30. The version released in Malaysia was approved by the Film Censorship Board of Malaysia without alterations and was rated 18SX—those under 18 are barred from the cinema. The uncut version was released on DVD in 2008, as well as R-rated version since certain rental outlets and stores like Blockbuster video did not carry NC-17 titles.
Home media In 2007, two DVD versions of Lust, Caution were released: the original NC-17 version and the censored R-rated version. On March 30, 2021, Kino Lorber released the NC-17 version of the film on Blu-ray.Kino Lorber | 2007 | 157 min | Rated NC-17 | Mar 30, 2021
Controversies Censorship
In a number of countries, notably China and India, the sex scenes had to be cut before the film could be released. In Singapore, the film's producers initially decided to release a cut version with an NC-16 rating, but a public outcry stating that the producers of the film were underestimating censorship standards in the country (the film was released uncut in Hong Kong and Taiwan) prompted them to eventually release the uncut version with an R-21 rating. The film is rated R18 and was released uncut in New Zealand.
The following scenes were cut from the mainland China version: Wong Chia Chi walking past dead refugees in the street Stabbing scene cut to only one knife stab Two of the sex scenes featuring Wong Chia Chi and a male student, and three featuring her and Mr. Yee A nude shot of Wong Chia Chi at a window Wong Chia Chi in bed after being raped by Mr. Yee Dialogue modified in diamond ring scene so that Wong Chia Chi did not betray the resistance by warning Mr. Yee.