Lust, Caution (Widescreen, NC-17- Rated Edition)

Lust, Caution (Widescreen, NC-17- Rated Edition) | Loved this film

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Lust, Caution (Wid...

	Lust, Caution (Widescreen, NC-17- Rated Edition) Focus Features, 2008 average customer review:based on 101 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Provocative thrilling and passionate Lust Caution is the daring new film from acclaimed Academy Award®-winning director Ang Lee (Brokeback Mountain; Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon). Set against the backdrop of a transforming countrya young woman finds herself swept up in a radical plot to assassinate a ruthless and secretive intelligence agent. As she immerses herself in her role as a cosmopolitan seductress she becomes entangled in a dangerous game that will ultimately determine her fate. Erotic breathtaking and suspenseful this award-winning film is being called "exquisitely beautiful" (Roger Ebert Chicago Sun-Times) and "lushly sensual" (Leah Rozen People).System Requirements:Running Time: 159 Mins.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA/PSYCHOLOGICAL DRAMA Rating: NC-17 UPC: 025193330628 Manufacturer No: 62033306

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Lust, Caution

Ang Lee, a master film maker, always surprise the audience. His movie is much better than Zhang Yimou or Chen Kaige, the aging fifth generation Chinese directors.

As always, this movie was censored in mainland China. Up to 15 minutes of the movie was cut before its debut in Chinese cinema. Tang Wei, the leading actress, was even banned for two years by Chinese authority due to her nude performance. This is ridiculous. Why bother to see it in cinema? We have a huge pirate DVD industry.

Loved this film

Another film I purchased after renting it. I only wish I had seen it on the large screen....one would really have the feeling of being there in this time period.

Brilliant editing, filming, script, performances, story telling as well as sensual.... it is a breathtaking film!

Highly recommended!

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A Glamorous Noir Vision of China

Chinese auteur Ang Lee is the chameleon of directors. Who else has such a broad, genre-busting resume? A period piece based on a beloved classic of English literature (Sense & Sensibility); a superhero flick (The Hulk); a meditation on dysfunctional 1970s suburbia (The Ice Storm); another period piece about two doomed cowboys in the love that dared not speak its name in 1950s Wyoming (Brokeback Mountain). Lee returns to his country and language of origin with "Lust, Caution". This follow-up to 2005's "Brokeback" explores lust of a more traditional sort between a beautiful young woman and a powerful man in 1942 Shanghai. Complicating what would otherwise be a straightforward clandestine affair is that the man is a high-ranking official in the Chinese collaborationist government and the lovely young woman is a member of the resistance fighter cell targeting him for assassination. Her mission: get close, really close, to her target, close enough so that he will fall in love with her, drop his guard and therefore become vulnerable. The plan works, but it works too well, as the Chinese Mata Hari finds herself falling for the man she is on a mission to kill.

Not since "The Last Emperor" has China looked so glamorous on film. Equally glamorous and a real find is its leading lady, Tang Wei, in, remarkably, her first feature film. She gives a nuanced and gutsy performance in a grueling and often brutal role, as her character undergoes a transformation from naive schoolgirl to glamorous, capable espionage agent and sexually conflicted woman. The graphic scenes of rough sex (featuring at least 47 positions from the Kama Sutra) were an integral part of the director's vision, but the violent coupling of this pair is profoundly unsettling. Tang's high-ranking lover is played by Tony Leung, but not the Tony Leung of "L'Amant", the reminiscent love scenes notwithstanding. This Mandarin-language film presents a challenge for English-speaking viewers to keep up with the subtitles, but it presents a facet of Chinese history that is rarely explored on film. We have many films featuring the French Resistance, but none, until now, depicting its Chinese counterpart. A demanding but worthwhile film-viewing experience.

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a dish best served cold

I have to admit I did not read the original story this movie based on.
With that aside, I find this movie ending very " disturbing ".
May be Mr. ang lee do not want to excrcise too much artistic freedom ( ala that Demi Moore's Scarlet Letter fiasco ), but a director's cut is in order with alternate endings.
1. The bad guy died in hails of bullets......happy ending but no depth.
2. The bad guy and girl died in hails of bullets..... better ending, it shows girl died for country and " love/lust " .
3. Final scene shows girl playing mah-jong with ring on finger..... best ending, total betrayal of country and submission to love/lust.

As it is now, it's like a dish that's once great but a bit cold..... something is missing and it's not a good feeling.

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Great characters, but needs more historical context

I recognize that many aspects of this movie are nothing short of greatness. Ang Lee has once over outdone himself in a new genre - that said, "Lust, Caution" is deeply lacking as a Chinese movie published to the Western world. While the characters' actions are moving, there is not enough historical context to explain their motivation. For example, the audience is not introduced to any of the horrendous crimes on the part of the Chinese collaborator guy that justify the plots against him. There was even less mention of what was happening to China at the time, which diminishes the blood-pumping patriotism that is at the heart of the struggle against the lust/love. Equally unexplained was why the resistance made the decisions they made, which just makes the movement look ineffective if not stupid.

As a short story on paper, the plot may have been crafted to leave plenty of room for a reader's imagination to ponder on the morales. As a feature-length film on the big screen, the same plot is just too unsatisfying, especially to an audience who are not necessarily familiar with its background.

Good stuff. It just had the potential to be SO much better...

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