A rich, beautifully detailed espionage thriller that captures the bygone days of Shanghai -- and 1940s Hollywood noirs' romantic evocations of same.
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
Lee is widely considered one of the greatest filmmakers in the world, and he ought to be a good deal better than this.
Surely some more details about the oppression and resistance of the era could have been squeezed into the nearly three-hour running time.
Lust, Caution is one of the few honestly observant political films, totally devoid of retrospective feel-good propaganda.
It’s positively amazing how boring so much sex can be when it subs for character development and compelling narrative.
For all its hothouse passions and sometimes brutally explicit sex scenes, the storytelling seems curiously stolid, the style too movie-ish for its own good.
Beautiful but remote...But fascinated or bored, you won't be able to deny the level of craftsmanship it displays.
An elegant film featuring a stunning debut feature performance by Tang Wei that serves to enlighten us about a little-known resistance movement by Chinese against the Japanese occupiers during World War 2.
Lee has outsexed Paul Verhoeven. (Who would have imagined that Michael Douglas and Sharon Stone's f--- of the century could look so tame?)
Quite rightly, this powerful, provocative film was awarded the Golden Lion for best picture at the 2007 Venice Film Festival.
The movie has more power than a conventional adventure film because it has more to say.
Conceptually, Lust, Caution has been thoroughly thought-through, down to every lipstick stain Wei leaves on her teacups.
Yes, the movie is called Lust, Caution. But what it really needed to be about was incautious love.
Lust, Caution is a sleepy, musty period drama about wartime maneuvers and bedroom calisthenics, and the misguided use of a solid director.
It's kind of a chinese 'Casablanca' set in 1942 Shanghai. This is an extraordinarily well-made movie, something we've come to expect from the man who gave the world 'Brokeback Mountain' and 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon'.
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September 26, 2008:
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