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Lust, Caution [2007] | ![Lust, Caution [2007]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51ddjzBUDIL._SL160_.jpg)
 enlarge | Director: Ang Lee
Actors: Tony Leung Chiu Wai, Joan Chen, Leehom Wang, Tang Wei
Studio: Universal Pictures UK
Category: DVD
List Price: £19.99
Buy New: £4.86
You Save: £15.13 (76%)
New (20) Used (10) from £4.25
Rating:  9 reviews
Sales Rank: 1374
Format: Pal
Language: Mandarin Chinese (Original Language)
Rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
Region: 2
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 152 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.4 x 5.4 x 0.6
EAN: 5050582548181
ASIN: B00149XOSQ
Release Date: April 28, 2008
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Condition: new and sealed
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Amazon.co.uk Review
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
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| Customer Reviews: Read 4 more reviews...
 Beauty Please - However It Comes... July 21, 2008
SJ Hennessy (UK)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Comparisons to the equally beautiful 'In The Mood for Love' are well targeted here and not just because of the Tony Leung connection. Lust, Caution exhibits the same muted (almost mutilated) sexual tensions against a back drop of middle-class, Western-obsessed indifference which suffocates in a vacuum of talking without communicating. Indeed, the title is like a road sign for those wishing to escape the numbness of existence: Danger follows if unheeded...
The performances are sublime as is the photography and editing (the Mah-Jong sequences deserve a special award) but it is the direction which triumphs. Ang Lee is the unchallenged master of cinema which finds beauty in an ugly world (The Ice Storm sprung to mind on several occassions) and here he surpasses all previous efforts. Tense, horrific, tragic and always, ALWAYS beautiful. If you care about cinema - watch this.
A deeply involving & sumptuous period production June 30, 2008
IJ (Liverpool, UK)
This film began and it wasn't quite what I was expecting- some people might say it's slow-paced, but to me it's just a languid, effortless type of story-telling that I really enjoy and which awards the viewer the time to become embedded in the period and enmeshed in the lives of its characters.
Having said that, for a large portion of the movie I was wondering when the lust, or indeed the caution in `Lust, Caution' might be utilized by any of the main characters, the majority of whom fling themselves into perilous situations with an alarming lack of concern for their own well-being. The sex scenes take place in the third act of the film and while certainly lustful, in my opinion are neither titillating nor sensual, but come as close to acts of aggression without depicting overt sexual violence as it's possible to get. They're disturbing scenes, but well handled by an experienced director.
The only other criticism I could make of this film relates to the subtitles. To me the dialect did not always sound authentic. The number of American colloquialisms in particular seemed out of place to me. I don't claim to know how film translations work- perhaps the exact words in Chinese are translated into English as they are spoken, but as this would allow for the possibility of the meaning behind specific Chinese phrases to be lost in translation, I assume it's more likely that in translating it's the Western terms that come closest to the meaning behind the Chinese phrases that are used, so that a Western audience can grasp more accurately the emotions and intentions of the characters from their dialogue. So that being the case, I would have preferred less of a heavy-handed approach being taken with the dialogue. Personally, a few more cryptic Chinese phrases would not have gone amiss.
Tony Leung gives a very convincing and sinister performance, one that's almost polar-opposite from his role in `Hero' (from which I was familiar with him) but one that's nonetheless charismatic, but it's Wei Tang who steals all the limelight- she doesn't look more than twelve years old (she's actually 28), but every gesture, every glance is incredibly well timed and simply hypnotic. If not for her this film would not be half as engaging. Joan Chen is also excellent in a lesser role.
I wasn't completely convinced by the ending- one simple gesture (albeit one fraught with cross-cultural meaning) between heroine and villain turning the tide of the story didn't quite ring true for me, but the film had to have some type of ending and Ang Lee's predilection for killing off his cast members as the curtains close not withstanding, the end product was very effective and rounded off an impressive whole.
`Lust, Caution' is a mesmerizing two and a half hours that you won't regret investing your time in.
 Uninvolving and ultimately without point June 16, 2008
Richard Thomson (London, UK)
1 out of 10 found this review helpful
After an interminable hour or so, Mr Nasty and Powerful of Shanghai gives Miss Confused of Hong Kong (mahjong player and shopper) a good slapping and more ("stressful job, m'lud; wife doesn't fulfil my needs..."). Terrible way to treat expensive silk. Miss Confused comes off badly. Mr Nasty doesn't. So what? The narrative is weak; the script is almost non-existent; no character is believable; acting is replaced by long, intense, meaningless stares to the side of the camera. It fails to connect on the human level. An expensive, unrewarding film with no redeeming feature.
wow May 30, 2008
J. YATES (London)
1 out of 7 found this review helpful
this film was not quite what i was expecting. its fantastic but be shore to watch it with the right people, there are some very grafic sex sceans ( ie dont watch it with your parents on a wednesday night, if your like my family your mum will leave the room ). The only down point for me was that it was in chineese and i cant read very fast ( but i suppose that my fult for not talking the language)
 Lovers of Brokeback Mountain should show caution over Lust! May 16, 2008
S. Annett (London)
6 out of 10 found this review helpful
I was lured into watching Lust, Caution because I liked Lee's work on Brokeback so much. Unfortunately, although this film is ravishingly beautiful to look at it every respect its a confection which was far too sweet and lacking in substance for my taste. Yes, sets, costumes, art direction, camerawork etc are world class. And the cast are beautiful beautiful beautiful. It all must have cost a fortune to make. But the story is incredible, the characters unbelievable and the dialogue is crude. Obviously a film in which the visuals were prioritised over everything else. It helps me appreciate how much a director like Lee needs a great script to keep them grounded. Whereas Brokeback really gave one an insight into an area of sexuality with which I am not personally acquainted, Lust left me as baffled by SM as ever! I should probably get out more.
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