Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4608 in DVD
• Released on: 2008-04-28
• Rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
• Format: PAL
• Original language: Mandarin Chinese
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 152 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Lust, Caution, Ang Lee's follow up to Brokeback Mountain, for which he won the Academy Award® for Best Director, continues his exploration of people with a passion for each other trapped in a world where their passion could be life-threatening, but in a very different context this time. Set in China during the Japanese occupation of early World War II, the underlying plot concerns the story of young Wong Chia Chi (Tang Wei), an actress and member of a small group of student resistors planning to infiltrate the home of Mr. Yee (Tony Leung), a high-ranking collaborationist government official, in order to kill him for his role in the torture and executions of Chinese resistance fighters. Chi ingratiates herself with Yee's wife, the sophisticated and cultured Mrs. Yee (Joan Chen) under the guise of being the wife of a wealthy but unseen tycoon. Flashbacks tell the tale of how Chi came to be involved with the resistors: her acting ability is her most valuable asset, and her assignment is to act the role of Mr. Yee's lover, right down to the sex. The story of their love and the painful intimacy it involves for both of them is told through their sexual relationship, which starts out violently, drifts into S&M, and shifts with their feelings, moving from pain and fear to some sort of desperate connection.

This is lust with a capital L; the film's sex scenes have become famous for their frankness and acrobatic portrayals (they took 12 days to film), but amazingly enough, it's never prurient. The nature of their sexual relationship, and not the sex itself, is the point. Chi falls in love with the man she's supposed to kill, but there is no stopping the mission and she knows it. The danger of it all collapsing for them both is ever present, and that's the Caution. The cinematography and direction in Lust, Caution is masterful, and every scene is beautiful. The film does drift into a languid pace, and at times one wonders why Lee would feel the need to draw it out at the expense of delaying the crucial climactic scenes. Still, it's a wonderful piece of storytelling that should only help solidify Ang Lee's place in cinematic history as a master of films that express the difficulty of being essentially human in an inhumane world. --Daniel Vancini

Synopsis
After Brokeback Mountain and The Hulk, multitalented director Ang Lee returns to Asia with this Mandarin-language erotic drama. Lust, Caution pairs celebrated actor Tony Leung (2046) with gifted newcomer Tang Wei. In 1938, China is occupied by the Japanese, but it's not only the country's neighbours who are hated by the loyal Chinese. The nation's resistance also centres on those who willingly collaborate with Japan. Wong Chia Chi (Tang Wei) is part of an acting group, but their sights are set beyond the stage: they want to use their abilities to attack Mr. Yee (Leung), a known traitor. Wong poses as a businessman's wife, and she begins to lure Mr. Yee in, but they're separated before she has her chance. Three years later, they meet again in Shanghai, and a heated affair begins. As Wong grows closer to Mr. Yee, there is doubt that she can aid in her lover's downfall.
At times, Lust, Caution evokes memories of Wong Kar-Wai's In the Mood for Love. Both are heat-filled period films that feature Leung, but while the earlier picture focused on a love that was never consummated, Lust, Caution allows its lovers to realise their passion as often as one could imagine. Despite this, it never allows the sex to get in the way of the plot or the images. Director of photography Rodrigo Prieto has worked with directors as diverse and impressive as Oliver Stone, Julie Taymor, Spike Lee, and Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, and he continues this fine tradition with his second pairing with Lee after Brokeback Mountain. Here Prieto has a head start thanks to beautiful costumes and beautiful people, but this is another film that is simply gorgeous to look at.

Customer Reviews

Beautiful, deeply moving film that I cannot recommend highly enough
Lust, Caution (directed by Brokeback Mountain's Ang Lee) is set in Japanese-occupied China during the second world war. The sets are beautifully realised and the costumes are stunning.

The story deals with a young revolutionary who must seduce a Japanese collaborator (played by the always excellent Tony Leung Chiu Wai) in order to get close enough for the revolutionaries to assasinate him.

Some critics have called the film slow but I prefer to think of it as smouldering, the story does take a while to get going but I was never bored, the performances and atmosphere has me mesmorised.

This film is beautifully made, deeply moving and wonderfully acted. Yes there are 3 quite graphic sex scenes but I do feel they add to the story and help realise the attraction between the 2 man characters.

This is a wonderful film that fans of both Western and Eastern cinema should try.

Lee's combination of love and war stood out in this film
I enjoy watching Tony Leung in 2046, The Infernal Affairs Trilogy (Infernal Affairs 1 / Infernal Affairs 2 / Infernal Affairs 3) (Special Collector's Edition Box Set) and In the Mood for Love - Criterion Collectionso it was right for me to watch "Lust and Caution." This movie wasn't so hot in the theaters and targeted to a selective few. This movie starts with the Japanese occupying Shanghai during the second world war and resistance group member Wong Chia Chi (Tang Wei) is on a mission to assassinate Mr. Yee (Tony Leung), the head of China's Secret Service who's also a collaborator with the Japanese.

She's been groomed by a student theater group specializing in plays about propaganda and patriotism. Impressed by her acting skills she's recruited as a spy. She adopts the fake persona of a young wife with a lot of time on her hands, because her rich husband is away on business, and befriends Yee's gossipy mahjong playing wife (Joan Chen). She also infiltrates his bed, with the plan to seduce him and then hand him over to her patriot friends. He slipped through the net once before and now, three years later, she has him where she wants him. But lust gets in the way of her mission and she becomes unsure whether she wants to be his mistress or his murderer. There's no nookie until 90 minutes into the film, but it's well worth waiting for. Slapped with an NC-17 rating in the US, Lee refused to cut it but shaved off seven minutes for the Chinese censors.

In Hollywood standards I thought the sex segments were graphic and realistic, bringing to mind the "Did they? Didn't they?" of the frantic couplings of Julie Christie and Donald Sutherland in "Don't Look Now." The smoldering lovers reach many graphic sexual climaxes, but fail to achieve equivalent emotional peaks. The intensity of their relationship calls into question Wong Chia Chi's motives considering she's played as a half reluctant participant, coerced into carrying out Yee's abduction by the amateur resistance group.

Lee's late glamorous `30s Shanghai with its immaculate sets and women in perfect period costume gives Shanghai a romantic exoticism that belies the poverty and fear of the majority of its inhabitants. Beautifully shot, rich in color and full of intrigue Lee is less interested in the historical consequences of Japan's invasion of China and concentrates on the passionate - bordering on sadistic - relationship between his leads, see it for yourself it's a pretty good film.

Tense, Sensual, Espionage Film
'Lust, Caution' is a film based on a short story about Japanese- occupied Shanghai and Hong Kong during World War II. It is a film of espionage and carnal power. Ang Lee the famed director of 'Broke back Mountain' directed this film. Much as been made of the sexual component to this film. Sex is used as control in this situation and lends an air of the attitude and feelings of the main characters.

Wong Chia-Chi, Tang Wei, is a student and aspiring actress, when she is recruited by a young man to act in patriotic plays. Her most interesting part comes when acting leads to real life, and she is asked to seduce Mr. Yee. Tony Leung Chiu-Wai, plays Mr Yee with great constraint and control. He is a Japanese collaborator and has caused the deaths of many of their friends and collaborators. What Wong Chia did not count on was the deep feelings that surfaced within this relationship. She plays her part exceedingly well. This affair goes on until it is time for the final action. About to fulfill her mission, she has a change of heart and all the best laid plans are lost. The New York Times Critic, MANOHLA DARGIS has said, "Like too many films that try to put a human face on history without really engaging with it, "Lust, Caution" feels at once over padded and underdeveloped: it's all production design and not enough content." I disagree wholeheartedly with her review.

This was a film that began slowly and built to a tempo so that the history of the Japanese invasion was felt, and the hatred of the Japanese and those that worked with them against the Chinese was palpable. The story was finely wrought and the emotions were on view for all to see. The erotic component was a plus and conveyed the emotions that were too difficult to say.

"For Lee, it goes deeper, into areas of control. Yee approaches sex with the sadistic relish he'd use to torture a suspect, while Wong Chia-Chi acts the role of subservient vessel. When they both drop the masks and yield to grander passions, the effect is devastating. The actors deserve the highest praise. Leung goes places he's never been before as an actor. And newcomer Tang Wei gives a performance that will be talked about for years. Lee is a true master, and his potently erotic and suspenseful Lust, Caution casts a spell you won't want to break." Peter Travers

Highly, Highly Recommended. prisrob 03-28-08

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