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Lust, Caution (Widescreen Edition) by Ang Lee
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DVD Cover InformationActor: Chung Hua Tou, Joan Chen, Lee-Hom Wang, Tony Leung Chiu Wai, Wei Tang Director: Ang Lee Brand: Universal Producer: Ang Lee Producer: Dai Song Producer: Darren Shaw Producer: David Lee Writer: Eileen Chang Writer: Hui-Ling Wang Writer: James Schamus DVD: Region Code 1 Audio: Mandarin Chinese (Original Language); English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); French (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 5.1 Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD-Video, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen Picture Format: 1.85:1 Running Time: 159 minutes DVD Release Date: 2008-02-19 Audience Rating: NC-17 Studio: Universal Studios
Movie Reviews of Lust, Caution (Widescreen Edition)Movie Review: Sexual Espionage Gone Awry Summary: 3 StarsSet mostly in World War II Shanghai, director Ang Lee's follow-up to "Brokeback Mountain" is an overlong, ambivalent journey into Chinese sexual espionage. Lee aims for an epic grandeur that clashes with the traditional spy thriller - minus the sharp pacing inherent in the genre. Strong performances, impressive period detail and Rodrigo Prieto's mesmerizing photography cannot fully redeem the plodding narrative. By the time "Lust, Caution" reaches its downbeat conclusion, the dramatic impact has been dissipated. Not one of Lee's best films, but certainly worth a look.
Summary of Lust, Caution (Widescreen Edition)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 country, a 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). Lust, Caution, Ang Lee's follow up to Brokeback Mountain, for which he won the Academy Award? for Best Director, continues his exploration of people with a passion for each other trapped in a world where their passion could be life-threatening, but in a very different context this time. Set in China during the Japanese occupation of early World War II, the underlying plot concerns the story of young Wong Chia Chi (Tang Wei), an actress and member of a small group of student resistors planning to infiltrate the home of Mr. Yee (Tony Leung), a high-ranking collaborationist government official, in order to kill him for his role in the torture and executions of Chinese resistance fighters. Chi ingratiates herself with Yee's wife, the sophisticated and cultured Mrs. Yee (Joan Chen) under the guise of being the wife of a wealthy but unseen tycoon. Flashbacks tell the tale of how Chi came to be involved with the resistors: her acting ability is her most valuable asset, and her assignment is to act the role of Mr. Yee's lover, right down to the sex. The story of their love and the painful intimacy it involves for both of them is told through their sexual relationship, which starts out violently, drifts into S&M, and shifts with their feelings, moving from pain and fear to some sort of desperate connection. This is lust with a capital L; the film's sex scenes have become famous for their frankness and acrobatic portrayals (they took 12 days to film), but amazingly enough, it's never prurient. The nature of their sexual relationship, and not the sex itself, is the point. Chi falls in love with the man she's supposed to kill, but there is no stopping the mission and she knows it. The danger of it all collapsing for them both is ever present, and that's the Caution. The cinematography and direction in Lust, Caution is masterful, and every scene is beautiful. The film does drift into a languid pace, and at times one wonders why Lee would feel the need to draw it out at the expense of delaying the crucial climactic scenes. Still, it's a wonderful piece of storytelling that should only help solidify Ang Lee's place in cinematic history as a master of films that express the difficulty of being essentially human in an inhumane world. --Daniel Vancini
Stills from Lust, Caution (click for larger image)
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