Lust, Caution
Lust, Caution (Chinese: 色，戒; pinyin: Sè, Jiè; Jyutping: Sik1Gaai3) is a 2007 erotic spy romantic mystery film[4] directed by Ang Lee, based on the 1979 novella by Eileen Chang.Lust, Caution is set in Hong Kong in 1938 and in Shanghai in 1942, when the city was occupied by the Imperial Japanese Army and ruled by the puppet government led by Wang Jingwei.The film is generally accepted to be based on the historical event of Chinese spy Zheng Pingru's failed attempt to assassinate the Japanese collaborator Ding Mocun.Male student Kuang Yumin invites her to join his patriotic drama club and she soon becomes a lead actress, inspiring both her audience and her colleagues.He devises a plan to assassinate Mr. Yee, a special agent and recruiter of the puppet government of Wang Jingwei set up by the Japanese occupation in China.Chia Chi is still a virgin, and she reluctantly consents to having sex with another student involved in the plot in order to practice her role as a married woman.Kuang enlists her into a renewed assassination plan to kill Yee, who has become head of the secret police department under the puppet government, and is responsible for torturing and executing resistance members working for the KMT.When Yee sends Chia Chi to a jewelry store with a sealed envelope, she discovers that he has arranged for a large and extremely rare six-carat pink diamond for her, to be mounted in a ring.The actors who played university classmates, spent six months of preproduction in Hong Kong just to get into character and understand the period before filming.[15] In the movie, Chia Chi's virginity is used as a symbol of both her status as an innocent woman and a barrier to the role she must play in order to prove her patriotism.[18] Sex and sexuality are used as tangible tools in proving patriotism in this film, and in each instance of Chia Chi's bodily sacrifice, she is representing the recognizable symbol of violation experienced by China as a nation while under Japanese occupation.[27] The following scenes were cut from the mainland China version: In a further example of censorship affecting the mainland China release of Lust, Caution, the line in which Chia Chi whispers "Go, go quickly" to the Japanese collaborator that she has fallen in love with in order to save him from capture and death; in the edited version, Ang Lee changes this to "Let's go" in order to redeem the lead protagonist's sabotage of the assassination attempt of Mr. Yee[29] by implicating them both in the escape rather than Chia Chi sacrificing herself and her classmates alone.This form of censorship was done in order to avoid criticism for glorifying a traitor such as Mr. Yee during a time of Japanese occupation in World War II.[36] In February 2009, during her absence from the movie industry, Tang was reported to have briefly attended drama classes at the University of Reading in the United Kingdom.The film was directed by Ang Lee, a Taiwanese citizen, and the actors/actresses are from mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the United States.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, alleging the characters were renamed to Wong Chia Chi and Mr. Yee in the film.[41] 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.[48] The mainstream media in Taiwan built up an enormous amount of anticipation and fever for the world premiere of Lust, Caution with a continuous gossip channel focused on the explicit and controversial portrayal of sexuality[48] which seemed to indicate to the positive, or at least curious reception of the film.[54] In Hong Kong, where the film was screened uncut, Lust, Caution grossed US$6,249,342 (approximately $48 million HKD) despite being saddled with a restrictive Category III rating.
Lust, Caution (novella)Ang LeeWang Hui-lingJames SchamusLust, CautionEileen ChangWilliam KongTony Leung Chiu-waiTang WeiAnupam KherJoan ChenWang LeehomShyam PathakRodrigo PrietoTim SquyresAlexandre DesplatRiver Road EntertainmentShanghai Film GroupFocus FeaturesChina Film Group CorporationEdko FilmsVeniceChinesepinyinJyutpingeroticromanticmystery filmthe 1979 novellaImperial Japanese Armypuppet governmentWang JingweiUniversity of Hong Kongspecial agentrecruiterhoney trapZheng PingruDing MocunGolden LionVenice Film FestivalBrokeback Mountainfilm adaptationSecond Sino-Japanese WarLingnan UniversityKuomintangJuntongTou Chung-huaChin Kar-lokLawrence KoFan Kuang-yaounsimulatedDecca RecordsMotion Picture Association of AmericaR ratingBlockbuster videoPeople's Republic of ChinaSingaporeHong KongTaiwanNew ZealandrefugeesStabbing18 U.S.C § 2257 noticeTian ZhuangzhuangThe Warrior and the WolfMaggie QUniversity of ReadingUnited KingdomShanghai Film Group CorporationZhejiangPenangMainland Affairs CouncilBest Foreign Film OscarRotten TomatoesMetacriticLeo Ou-fan LeeNew York Daily NewsLos Angeles TimesHugh GrantBryan AppleyardJapanese orthography that wasn't used before 1946Category IIISpider-Man 3Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix44th Golden Horse AwardsBest FilmBest DirectorBest ActorBest New PerformerBest Adapted ScreenplayHui-Ling WangBest ActressBest CinematographyBest Editing27th Hong Kong Film Awards44th Guldbagge AwardsBest Foreign Film65th Golden Globe Awards61st British Academy Film Awards2nd Asian Film AwardsBAFTA AwardsBlack Book (film)LumiereEuropean Audiovisual ObservatoryBox Office MojoBritish Board of Film ClassificationWayback MachineThe Hollywood ReporterCBC NewsRoutledgeThe GuardianReutersAppleyard, BryanLTI VehiclesVariety AsiaUSA TodayMainichi ShimbunAfter This Our ExileGolden Horse AwardsThe WarlordsRiding Alone for Thousands of MilesHong Kong Film AwardsAssemblyThe Golden CangueLove in a Fallen CityRed Rose, White Rose