Lust, Caution (film)

Infobox Film
name = Lust, Caution

---

caption = Theatrical release poster
director = Ang Lee
producer = Ang Lee
William Kong
James Schamus
writer = Eileen Chang (story)
Hui-Ling Wang
James Schamus (screenplay)
starring = Tony Leung Chiu-Wai
Tang Wei
Wang Lee-Hom
Joan Chen
Tou Chung-Hua
Chu Chih-Ying
Chin Kar Lok
Anupam Kher
music = Alexandre Desplat
cinematography = Rodrigo Prieto
editing = Tim Squyres
distributor = Focus Features
Haishang Films
EDKO Film
Universal (DVD)
released = Taiwan
September 24, 2007
Hong Kong
September 25, 2007
USA
September 28, 2007 (limited)
runtime = Original cut
157 min.
Censored cut
149 min.
country = China
Taiwan
language = Mandarin
Cantonese
Shanghainese
English
Japanese
budget = $15,000,000
gross = $65,065,577
website = http://www.focusfeatures.com
amg_id = 1:351200
imdb_id = 0808357Infobox movie certificates
Australia = R
Canada (Ontario) = 18A
United_States = NC-17
Hong_Kong = III
France = 12
Ireland = 18
Italy = 14
Malaysia = R
Singapore = M18 (cut), R21 (full)
Germany = 16
United_Kingdom = 18

"Lust, Caution" (zh-cp|c=色，戒|p="Sè, Jiè") is a 2007 Chinese espionage thriller film directed by Taiwanese director Ang Lee, based on the short story of the same name published in 1979 by Chinese author Eileen Chang. Lee, an Academy Award winner, won his second Golden Lion Award at the Venice Film Festival with this film. The story is mostly set in Hong Kong in 1938 and in Shanghai in 1942, when the city was occupied by the Japanese and ruled by a puppet government of Wang Jingwei. It depicts a group of Chinese university students who plot to kill a high-ranking Chinese collaborator using an attractive young woman to lure him into a trap.

The film adaption and the story are loosely based on events that took place during the Japanese occupation of Shanghai. The film's explicit sex scenes resulted in the film being rated NC-17 in the US.

Plot

In Japanese-occupied Shanghai in the 1940s, a well-dressed, attractive young Chinese woman named "Mrs. Mak" (Tang Wei) is sitting in a café in a posh neighbourhood. When she makes a call to a male friend, her innocuous comments are a coded signal that prompts a cell of young resistance agents to load their weapons and spring into action. The film then goes back in time to the events in 1938 that led up to the transformation of the shy, inexperienced university student Wong Chia Chi into the glamorously-dressed and seemingly well-to-do Mrs. Mak, her cover role in the Chinese resistance. Chia Chi had been left behind in China by her father, who escaped to England. While in her freshman year at her university in Hong Kong, a male student named Kuang Yu Min (Wang Lee-Hom) invites her to join his patriotic drama theatre group. Chia Chi becomes a leading lady, inspiring both her audience and her new-found friend Kuang.

Fired up from the drama troupe's patriotic plays, Kuang urges the group to make a more concrete contribution to the war against Japan. He devises a plan to assassinate Mr. Yee (Tony Leung Chiu-Wai), a high-ranking official in the collaborationist government headed by Wang Jingwei, who was widely denounced as a national traitor. The attractive Chia Chi is chosen to penetrate the security surrounding the Yee family. In the guise of the elegant 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. When Mr. and Mrs. Yee move away, the plotters are almost exposed, and they are forced to go into hiding when they kill a collaborationist government agent.

In Shanghai, three years later, Chia Chi again encounters Kuang, who is now part of an organised underground resistance group seeking to overturn the Japanese occupation. He 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. During their first encounter Yee is sadistic and violent, but over the weeks that follow their sexual relationship becomes very passionate and deeply emotional, but also very conflicted for both of them, especially for Chia Chi, who is setting her lover up for assassination.

When Mr. Yee sends Chia Chi to a jewelery store with a sealed envelope, she is surprised to discover that he has purchased a large and extremely rare 6 carat pink diamond for her, to be mounted in a ring. This provides the Chinese resistance with a chance to get at Mr. Yee when he is not accompanied by his bodyguards. When Chia Chi reports to her superior officer in the Chinese resistance, she exhorts him to carry out the assassination soon, so that she will not have to continue her sexual liaisons with the brutal Yee, but the officer argues that the assassination needs to be delayed for strategic reasons. Chia Chi describes the inhuman emotional conflict she is in, on one hand sexually and emotionally bound to Mr. Yee and on the other hand part of a plot to kill him.

The next time Chia Chi and Mr. Yee meet, she asks him to go to the jewellery store with her to collect the diamond ring. As they enter the shop, she notices several resistance agents waiting to spring the trap. But when she sees the magnificent ring, and experiences Mr. Yee's love for her, she is overcome by emotion and breaks down and urges him to flee. Mr. Yee runs out of the shop and is rushed away by his driver, and escapes the assassination attempt. By the end of the day most of the resistance group including Kuang and Chia Chi herself are captured. It is revealed that Mr. Yee's deputy has been aware of the resistance cell, but did not inform Mr. Yee, both because of Mr. Yee's relationship with Chia Chi and because the deputy had hoped to use this opportunity to catch the resistance cell leader. Mr. Yee, emotionally in turmoil, signs their death warrants and the resistance group members, including Chia Chi, are led out to a quarry and executed. In the last scene, Mr. Yee sits on Chia Chi's empty bed in the family guest room, and informs his wife that their house guest is gone, and that she should not ask any questions.

Cast

* Tony Leung Chiu-Wai (梁朝偉 pinyin: "Liang Chaowei") ... Mr. Yee
* Wang Lee-Hom (王力宏 "Wang Lihong").. Kuang Yumin
* Tang Wei (湯唯 "Tang Wei") ... Wong Chia Chi / Mrs. Mak
* Joan Chen (陳冲 "Chen Chong") ... Mrs. Yee
* Tou Chung-Hua (庹宗華) ... Old Wu
* Chin Kar Lok (錢嘉樂) ... Assistant Officer Tsao
* Chu Chih-Ying (朱芷瑩) ... Lai Shu Jin
* Kao Ying-hsien (高英軒) ... Huang Lei
* Ko Yue-Lin (柯宇綸) ... Liang Junsheng
* Johnson Yuen (阮德鏘) ... Auyang Ling Wen / Mr. Mak
* Fan Kuang-Yao (樊光耀) ... Secretary Chang
* Anupam Kher ... Khalid Said ud-Din
* Shyam Pathak ... Jewellery shopkeeper
* Akiko Takeshita ... Japanese Tavern Boss Lady
* Hayato Fujiki ... Japanese Colonel Sato

Releases and awards

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.cite web|title= Focus won't sweat NC-17 for 'Lust'|url=http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/film/news/e3i5259606488c5ad20cc20a5480de02cdc|last= Goldstein|first= Gregg|publisher=The Hollywood Reporter|date= 2007-08-24|accessdate=2007-09-09] 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. [cite web |url= http://showbiz.chinatimes.com/Chinatimes/ExteriorContent/Showbiz/Showbiz-Page/0,4434,content+110511+112007090300232,00.html |title= 媒體猛炒性愛 李安痛心|accessdate=2008-08-16|language= Chinese] 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. [cite news | url = http://www.cbc.ca/arts/film/story/2007/09/12/lust-caution.html |title = No sex scenes in China's version of Lust, Caution|accessdate= 2007-09-13|date= 2007-09-12|publisher= CBC News] [cite news|url= http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070911/film_nm/china_film_dc_1 |title= "Lust" to be shown in China after cuts|accessdate= 2007-09-13] 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.

* Golden Horse Awards:
** Best Film
** Best Director (Ang Lee)
** Best Actor (Tony Leung)
** Best New Performer (Tang Wei)
** Best Screenplay - Adapted (Hui Ling Wang and James Schamus)
** Best Makeup & Costume Design (Pan Lai)
** Best Original Score (Alexandre Desplat)

The film was nominated for the Best Film in a Foreign Language Bafta in 2008.

Controversies

Censorship

In its uncut form, "Lust, Caution" features three episodes of graphic sex, with full-frontal nudity. The ten minutes of sex scenes reportedly took a gruelling 100 hours to shoot, and it has never been clarified by the film makers whether or not the sex scenes were simulated. [ [http://www.theage.com.au/news/film/fang-lee-cruel-but-true/2008/01/10/1199554807538.html 'Fang' Lee: cruel but true - Film - Entertainment - theage.com.au ] ] In a number of countries, notably the People's Republic of China and (initially) Singapore, many of the sex scenes had to be cut before the film could be released. In Singapore, while the producers initially released a cut version which was given an M18 rating, a public outcry on the perceived "immaturity" of Singaporean audiences compared to their Hong Kong and Taiwan counterparts (the film was released uncut in Hong Kong and Taiwan) prompted the producers to eventually release the uncut version, this time with a higher R-21 rating.

The following scenes were cut from the mainland China version : 1) Wong Chia Chi walking past dead refugees in street, 2) Stabbing scene cut to only one knife stab, 3) Of the five sex scenes (two with student, three with Mr. Yee), the second one with student and the third with Mr. Yee, 4) Nude shot of Wong Chia Chi at window, 5) Wong Chia Chi on bed after first sex scene with Mr. Yee, 6) Dialogue modified in diamond ring scene so that Wong Chia Chi did not betray by warning Mr. Yee.

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'.cite web|title=威尼斯影展將《色‧戒》當大陸片經李安抗議後改為台灣代表|url=http://www.atchinese.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=37267&Itemid=35|accessdate=2007-09-09|language= Chinese] However, a few days later, the Venice Film Festival changed the film to "USA-China-Taiwan, China" on its official schedule.cite web|title=64th Venice Film Festival - In Competition|url=http://www.labiennale.org/en/cinema/festival/program/en/14372.1.html|accessdate=2007-09-09] 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.cite web|title=Taiwan protests Chinese credit for Ang Lee's movie at Venice festival|url=http://www.cbc.ca/cp/entertainment/070828/e082804A.html|accessdate=2007-09-09] [cite web|title=Venice Film Fest faces faux pas over Taiwan|url=http://www.cbc.ca/news/story/2007/08/28/venice-taiwan.html|accessdate=2008-02-09]

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.

Defamation

On September 13, 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). [cite web |url= http://news.pchome.com.tw/entertainment/tvbs/20070913/index-20070913101808391700.html |title= 色‧戒」影射鄭蘋如？鄭家人不滿|accessdate=2008-08-16|language= Chinese] Taiwan's investigation bureau confirmed that Zheng Pingru failed to kill Ding Mocun because her gun jammed, rather than developing a romantic relationship with the assassin's target.Fact|date=September 2007 Director Ang Lee maintains that Eileen Chang wrote the original short story about herself, not about a real historical event. [cite web |url= http://ent.people.com.cn/BIG5/8222/86596/100104/100111/6262679.html |title= 湯唯情欲戲被指褻瀆烈士 <色戒>遭原型家人聲討|accessdate=2008-08-16|language= Chinese]

Critical reception

As of January 17, 2008 on the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, 70% of all critics gave the film positive reviews, while scoring 54% among RottenTomatoes-designated "Top Critics." [cite web|url=http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/lust_caution/ |title=Lust, Caution - Rotten Tomatoes |accessdate=2007-10-30 |publisher=Rotten Tomatoes] On Metacritic, the film had an average score of 61 out of 100, based on 34 reviews. [cite web|url=http://www.metacritic.com/film/titles/lustcaution |title=Lust, Caution (2007): Reviews |accessdate=2007-10-30 |publisher=Metacritic]

Jack Mathews of the "New York Daily News" named it the 5^th best film of 2007.cite web|url=http://www.metacritic.com/film/awards/2007/toptens.shtml |title=Metacritic: 2007 Film Critic Top Ten Lists |accessdate=2008-01-08 |publisher=Metacritic] Kenneth Turan of the "Los Angeles Times" named it the 6^th best film of 2007.

=Anachronisms= It has been noted by critics (including Bryan Appleyard [cite web |url= http://www.bryanappleyard.com/blog/2008/01/protocol-problem-and-lust-caution-taxi.php|title= A Protocol Problem and the Lust Caution Taxi|accessdate=2008-08-16 |last= Appleyard|first= Bryan|authorlink= Bryan Appleyard|date= 2008-01-21|work= Thought Experiments: The Blog|publisher= brianappleyard.com] ) that the Hong Kong sequences in the film set in the late 1930s [ See cite video |title= Lust, Caution (clip)|url= http://www.focusfeatures.com/clips/lust_caution/epk1-320x240.wmv|format= WMV|medium= Motion picture|publisher= Focus Features|accessdate=2008-08-16 (5.2 MB)] include "London taxis" of two types (FX3, FX4) that were only manufactured onwards from 1948 and 1958 respectively. [cite web |url= http://www.lti.co.uk/previous-models/fx |title= The FX series|accessdate= 2008-08-16|publisher= LTI Vehicles|year= 2006]

Box office

"Lust, Caution" was produced on a budget of approximately $15 million.cite web |url= http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=lustcaution.htm |title= Lust, Caution|accessdate= 2008-08-16|publisher= Box Office Mojo]

In Hong Kong, where it played in its full, uncut version, "Lust, Caution" grossed $6,249,342 USD (approximately $48 million HKD) despite being saddled with a restrictive "Category III" rating (the Hong Kong equivalent of NC-17). It was the territory's biggest-grossing Chinese language film of the year, and third biggest overall (behind only "Spider-Man 3" and "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix"). [cite web |url= http://www.boxofficemojo.com/intl/hongkong/yearly/?yr=2007&p=.htm|title= Hong Kong Yearly Box Office (2007)|accessdate= 2008-08-16|publisher= Box Office Mojo|date= ]

The film was also a huge success in China, despite playing only in a heavily-edited version. It grossed $17,109,185 USD, making it the country's sixth highest-grossing film of 2007 and third highest-grossing domestic production. [cite web |url= http://www.boxofficemojo.com/intl/china/yearly/?yr=2007&p=.htm|title= China Yearly Box Office (2007)|accessdate=2008-08-16|publisher= Box Office Mojo]

In North America, the NC-17 rating which "Lust, Caution" received is traditionally perceived as a box office "kiss-of-death". In its opening weekend in one US theatre, it grossed an excellent $63,918. Expanding to seventeen venues the next week, its per-screen average was $21,341, before cooling down to $4,639 at 125 screens.cite web |url= http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?page=weekend&id=lustcaution.htm|title= Lust, Caution - Weekend Box Office|accessdate= 2008-08-16|publisher= Box Office Mojo] Never playing at more than 143 theatres in its entire US run, it eventually grossed $4,604,982. As of August 15, 2008, it was the fifth highest-grossing NC-17 production in North America. [cite web |url= http://www.boxofficemojo.com/alltime/domestic/mpaa.htm?page=NC-17&p=.htm|title= Domestic Grosses by MPAA Rating - NC-17|accessdate= 2008-08-16|publisher= Box Office Mojo]

Worldwide, "Lust Caution" grossed $64,574,876.

DVD sales/rentals performance

In the United States, two DVD versions of this film were released: the original NC-17 version and the censored R-rated version. [cite web |url= http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk/content.php?contentid=66423|title= Lust, Caution (R1) in February - Artwork Updated|last= Foster|first= Dave|accessdate= 2008-08-16|publisher= DVD Times|date= 2007-12-30]

This film has generated more than $24 million from its DVD Sales and Rentals in the United States, [cite web |url= http://www.varietyasiaonline.com/component/option,com_myblog/show,5955|title= Dirty DVD sales|accessdate=2008-08-16 |last= Hendrix|first= Grady|date= 2008-04-23|work= Kaiju Shakedown blog|publisher= Variety Asia] an impressive result for a film that only grossed $4.6 million in limited theatrical release in the United States.

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" loses the pun it has in Chinese. The first character 色 can mean "color", second character 戒 can mean "ring", so the first and more apparent meaning of the title is "The Color Ring", referring to the precious color-diamond ring that at the last moment doomed the heroine's mission. 色 can also mean "lust", and in Chinese more specifically referring to sexual desire. In its other meaning, the second character 戒 is closer to "warning" or even "renunciation" than "caution". So, the second and more implicit meaning of the title is close to the English "Lust, Caution".

References

External links

* [http://www.filminfocus.com/focus-movies/lust-caution/movie-splash.php Official site] from Focus Features
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* [http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117946927.html?categoryid=1236&cs=1&query=Proceeding+with+%27Caution%27+"Proceeding with 'Caution"']
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* [http://www.spcnet.tv/Movies/Lust-Caution-p725.html Lust, Caution Reviews - spcnet.tv]