The spy-game maneuverings provide some dramatic heft.
Lust, Caution (2007)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:139
Fresh:98
Rotten:41
Average Rating:6.6/10
Consensus: Ang Lee's Lust, Caution is a tense, sensual and beautifully-shot espionage film.
Rated: NC-17 [See Full Rating] for some explicit sexuality
Runtime: 2 hrs 39 mins
Genre: Foreign Films
Theatrical Release:Sep 28, 2007 Limited
Box Office: $4,436,160
Synopsis: The new film from Ang Lee, the Academy Award-winning director of "Brokeback Mountain" and "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon." A startling erotic espionage thriller about the fate of an ordinary... The new film from Ang Lee, the Academy Award-winning director of "Brokeback Mountain" and "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon." A startling erotic espionage thriller about the fate of an ordinary woman's heart, it is based on the short story by revered Chinese author Eileen Chang, and stars Asian cinema icon Tony Leung opposite screen newcomer Tang Wei. Shanghai, 1942. The World War II Japanese occupation of this Chinese city continues in force. Mrs. Mak, a woman of sophistication and means, walks into a café, places a call, and then sits and waits. She remembers…how her story began several years earlier, in 1938 China. She is not in fact Mrs. Mak, but shy Wong Chia Chi (Tang Wei). With WWII underway, Wong has been left behind by her father, who has escaped to England. As a freshman at university, she meets fellow student Kuang Yu Min (Wang Leehom) Kuang has started a drama society to shore up patriotism. As the theater troupe's new leading lady, Wong realizes that she has found her calling, able to move and inspire audiences – and Kuang. He convenes a core group of students to carry out a radical and ambitious plan to assassinate a top Japanese collaborator, Mr. Yee (Tony Leung). Each student has a part to play; Wong will be Mrs. Mak, who will gain Yee's trust by befriending his wife (Joan Chen) and then draw the man into an affair. Wong transforms herself utterly inside and out, and the scenario proceeds as scripted – until an unexpectedly fatal twist spurs her to flee. Shanghai, 1941. With no end in sight for the occupation, Wong – having emigrated from Hong Kong – goes through the motions of her existence. Much to her surprise, Kuang re-enters her life. Now part of the organized resistance, he enlists her to again become Mrs. Mak in a revival of the plot to kill Yee, who as head of the collaborationist secret service has become even more a key part of the puppet government. As Wong reprises her earlier role, and is drawn ever closer to her dangerous prey, she finds her very identity being pushed to the limit... --© Focus Features [More]
Starring: Tony Leung, Tang Wei, Joan Chen, Wang Lee-Hom
Starring: Tony Leung, Tang Wei, Joan Chen, Wang Lee-Hom
Director: Ang Lee
Director: Ang Lee
Screenwriter: Hui Ling Wang, James Schamus
Producer: Bill Kong, Ang Lee, James Schamus
Composer: Alexandre Desplat
Studio: Focus Features
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Reviews for Lust, Caution
Well crafted and painful to watch. Worth paying Matinee price if you can shake the discomfort off.
unfurls at the same pace as a doomed lotus blossom. And just as beautifully with the year's most sensuous cinematography
Ang Lee’s latest, Lust, Caution is a sluggish disappointment with a catchy title.
You'd be hard pressed to find a movie that's sexier, or sadder. It's a tragic film that's highly successful as both a wartime thriller and a tale of doomed love
Minus the sizzle of the NC-17-rated sex scenes, there's not much to maintain your attention in this plodding World War II spy thriller.
There is deception, suspicion and self-delusion, but it all seems rendered at arm's length, despite the consummate artistry of the filmmaking.
Both a cannily constructed spy thriller and a grim kind of love story.
Why does this hot-and-heavy love story feel so cold and clipped overall?
There is plenty of lust exercised in the athletic, don't-try-this-at-home sex scenes between Hong Kong star Tony Leung and the stunning Chinese newcomer Wei Tang.
Whatever misgivings there may be about it, this festival-winning film is a mesmerizing, rich experience.
Leung turns in his usual fine performance, and Tang shows evidence of the kind of chops that will guarantee her a long career. Maybe her next film will tell a better story.
Lust, Caution is a major film, but it feels like a minor work in Lee's canon.
Superbly written, beautifully shot and emotionally powerful espionage thriller with a terrific central performance from newcomer Tang Wei.
The primary question in Lust, Caution (Se, jie) is: "What is real?" The answers, nebulous and harsh, are suffused with cigarette smoke and punctuated by clacking mahjong tiles.
Given all the early furor about the film's NC-17 rating and its much-discussed sex scenes, Lust, Caution seems curiously sedate and unexciting.
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