Customer Reviews
Lust, Caution 
2008-06-07
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.
Sex, danger 
2008-05-30
Probing, penetrative....
This is an riveting tale of murder, deceit, and compassion. Ang Lee sets a delicate pace that pulls you in and doesn't let you escape.
This story taked place during WWII. The beautiful Mak Tai Tai offers her body and spirit in exchange for the chance to assassinate the powerful Mr. Yee, whose domineering ways have been a major hindrance to the efforts of the resistance.
The way it all unfolds is super-intense. Mr. Yee trusts no one. The slightest slip--the wrong word, certain look, or hint of nervousness would mean instant death to the sexy spy.
The acting and visuals in this are quite amazing. The last part of this dangerous game is a total web of eroticism and passion that is very sexually graphic, at least in the NC-17 version. I heard the actress and her stunt doubles all got impregnated during these sequences, j/k.
This alluring thriller of espionage was brought to my attention by a goddess from the city, swamp, and desert. This is a sexy, well made film.
Ang Lee delivers erotic thriller 
2008-05-27
Admirers of director Ang Lee will admit is that no one can slot Lee's work into one category. What always fascinated me about this talented director is his ability to transcend culture barriers and simply tell a tale, fairy tale or a fantasy with his own voice that can be understood by every generation and every corner of the world. But his latest work ("Hulk and "Lust Caution") have somehow failed to impress. While Lee is wonderful in explaining why people are the way they are or why they turn out the certain way due to events that take place in their lives, his indirect approach to the "Lust Caution" story seems scatter brained and unnecesarily prolonged. The story is set in WWII China occupied by Japanese. Group of young university students sets out on their own to assasinate the collaborator who is responsible for the death of many Chinese resistance fighters. In the course of planning to assasinate the collaboator, the young rebels get into situation that alters all of their lives in a way that they will never be the same. A young woman, attracted to a leader of the resistance group is thrown in the role of seductress who and is tasked to lure collaborator into a trap that will lead to his assasination. In the course of time, she becames involved sexually with him and their relationship turns into a masochistic game of a cat and a mouse. Young woman's sexuality is a complicated one. Until the affair she never experienced sexual attraction or love and her inner innocence is having her feel burden of using her sexuality in order to murder a man she is attracted to. Her guilt is leading her to fall in love with a man that is cruel and heartless. But at he end of it all, she wishes to die because she can no longer accept rejection from her (forever lost) pure love, her father, her married lover. For her, death is almost a release from the world that has become too heavy and hopeless for her.
And the point is? 
2008-05-27
First off, the visuals are excellent. The depiction of the urban areas, and of a country under occupation , are powerful without being overwhelming, And yes, the consummation of the lust is riveting. Acting? Could not ask for more. But what exactly is the movie's point? Evil people can always act good sometimes, but good people can't be bad at any time? (Always known that.) Or maybe it is that women(as the writer of the short story upon which the movie is based purportedly put it), have sex and become emotional and wobbly at the knees but that to men sex is ,well, just sex.(Hope that is not the case.) There is an undertow that the female lead saw the evil guy as a father figure(she was dumped by her own father) but this is hinted at and never fully developed. Maybe it is just that evil is interesting (hard to disagree with that) and that decency is not(she tells the good looking but bland fellow student and fellow resistence fighter, near the end of the movie---when he tries to kiss her but she is already in the thrall of Mr. Evil, "Why didn't you do that three years ago?"). The movie is hollow at its core and all the artistic layering reminds you of the wives of the collaborator Chinese government officals---too much make up, lots of expensive clothes, and time on their hands.
Lust, Caution 2008-05-23
I have mixed feelings about this movie. It was well acted and had an interesting storyline. There was a lot of hype about the sex scenes being extremely erotic. I found them a little mechanical and ridiculous, to be honest, especially when they went on and on and on with absolutely no realistic passion from either party. The positions became laughable to me and the person with whom I was watching. Not my favorite and not even a turn-on. Sorry.
Loyalty overcome by longing -- in this sumptuously filmed tale of occupied China 2008-07-04
Wong Chia Chi is a young and inexperienced woman from Shanghai, studying at a Hong Kong university to escape from the Japanese occupation of her home city. She is soon caught up with a group of idealistic young revolutionaries, in a plot to assassinate Mr. Yee, a high ranking official in the collaborationist government. Posing as Mrs. Mak, the wife of a wealthy businessman, she insinuates herself into the family of Mr. Yee, eventually winning his trust and becoming his mistress. Trouble is, the line between her passions and her pretense begin to slowly crumble, leading to questions where her ultimate loyalties lie.
This is a gorgeously filmed and subtly acted story of love, lust and betrayal. It does plod along a bit after a while, but for the most part kept me engaged and interested in the ongoing intrigue. While there are several secondary characters, the focus is on the developing relationship, that begins as savage lust and becomes an intimate and tender bond. Mr. Yee -- played by Tony Leung -- is both ruthless and refined, troubled and self-possessed. Tang Wei plays Wang Chia Chi/Mrs. Mak -- and moves brilliantly between the wide-eyed curiosity and anguish of a bright young woman who has been abandoned by her father, and a demure but articulate and seductive Mrs. Mak.
It is a shame that most of the attention this film received on its release centered around the volatile and savage scenes of passion -- for which this film received an NC-17 rating -- since it is a carefully produced and effective period piece and the sex is filmed to portray character rather than to titillate. This review is based on the R-rated version which I saw on dvd, and in that version it struck me that the sex was filmed in a way that underplayed its eroticism. Or, a better way to put that is that the scenes convey two people who are unable to achieve intimacy -- and the only genuinely erotic scene of love play between them was their final intimate scene in which they are fully clothed and she sings to him. Only at that point did he let his guard down and when she touches his hand it is as if they are genuinely touching for the first time.
A Glamorous Noir Vision of China 2008-06-27
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.
Great characters, but needs more historical context 2008-06-14
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...
Loved this film 2008-06-09
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!
a dish best served cold 2008-06-09
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.
