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Movies / Upcoming / Lust, Caution
Lust, Caution

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Lust, Caution (2007)

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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.

Australian Rating: R18+ [See Full Rating] High level sex scenes, Some violence

Runtime: 2 hrs 39 mins

Genre: Foreign Films

Australian Theatrical Release:
Jan 17, 2008 Wide

US 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

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1 - 20 (sorted by date; Australian critics are listed first)
Text View | 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 >> >|
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N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Sydney Morning Herald | comment Comment
01/18/08
Sydney Morning Herald
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Dark Horizons | comment Comment
01/15/08
Garth Franklin
Garth Franklin
Dark Horizons
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Like the many facets of a diamond, the human heart can find its lustre in dark places. Ang Lee's tortuous film about love and betrayal takes passion through highs and lows as it leads us through its tense and riveting journey

Full Review Source: Urban Cinefile | comment Comment
01/14/08
Urban Cinefile Critics
Urban Cinefile Critics
Urban Cinefile
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Lovers of genuine cinema will get blue balls

Full Review Source: CinePassion | comment Comment
08/27/09
Fernando F. Croce
Fernando F. Croce
CinePassion

Though his direction is unsurprisingly beautiful, the settings lush and the performances wonderful, no one apparently had the guts to insist Lee streamline his rambling story.

Full Review Source: Times-Picayune | comment Comment
07/24/09
Mike Scott
Mike Scott
Times-Picayune

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Orlando Sentinel | comment Comment
05/13/09
Roger Moore
Roger Moore
Orlando Sentinel

La mano experta de Ang Lee logra sostener el relato durante sus dos horas y media de duración, con algunos picos de intensidad en un par de escenas brillantemente resueltas.

Full Review Source: Uruguay Total | comment Comment
05/07/09
Enrique Buchichio
Enrique Buchichio
Uruguay Total
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Boston Phoenix | comment Comment
04/23/09
Peter Keough
Peter Keough
Boston Phoenix
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: NPR.org | comment Comment
10/18/08
Bob Mondello
Bob Mondello
NPR.org

For all Lee's meticulous control over this immaculately nuanced melodrama-thriller, there is a surprising lack of emotional draw.

Full Review Source: BrandonFibbs.com | comment Comment
02/28/08
Brandon Fibbs
Brandon Fibbs
BrandonFibbs.com

What lingers is the suspicion that women carry a burden of war they can't ever put down, and that even noble idealists can justify turning their girls into whores.

Full Review Source: I.E. Weekly | comment Comment
02/22/08
Amy Nicholson
Amy Nicholson
I.E. Weekly

Lee provides no such easy comfort, instead keeping audiences constantly off-kilter, purposefully frustrating them with character behavior that's just...wrong.

Full Review Source: Groucho Reviews | comment Comment
02/18/08
Peter Canavese
Peter Canavese
Groucho Reviews

There's no doubt while watching Ang Lee's Lust, Caution that you're in the hands of a supreme filmmaker.

Full Review Source: MovieMartyr.com | comment Comment
01/09/08
Jeremy Heilman
Jeremy Heilman
MovieMartyr.com

Lust - the word that speaks of inflamed passions, repressed longing and seriously naughty sex stands ill at ease with this rather languid exploration of freedom fighting during the Japanese occupation of Shanghai in the early 1940s.

Full Review Source: Eye for Film | comment Comment
01/07/08
Amber Wilkinson
Amber Wilkinson
Eye for Film

You leave the theatre a trifle exhausted but rewarded by a resonance few films possess.

Full Review Source: This is London | comment Comment
01/04/08
Derek Malcolm
Derek Malcolm
This is London

Saucy sex scenes apart, however, it’s hard to get drawn into a slow-moving, drawn-out story that takes two-and-a-half po-faced hours to reach its jarringly abrupt and confusing conclusion.

Full Review Source: thelondonpaper | comment Comment
01/04/08
Neil Smith
Neil Smith
thelondonpaper

A pleasure to watch a film as visually stylish as it is psychologically demanding. I wish it had been twice as long.

Full Review Source: Independent | comment Comment
01/04/08
Sukhdev Sandhu
Sukhdev Sandhu
Independent

A shocking disappointment.

Full Review Source: Independent | comment Comment
01/04/08
Anthony Quinn
Anthony Quinn
Independent

For his sheer muscular verve and ambition, Lee deserves a standing ovation.

Full Review Source: Guardian [UK] | comment Comment
01/04/08
Peter Bradshaw
Peter Bradshaw
Guardian [UK]
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Quietly mesmerising.

Full Review Source: Times [UK] | comment Comment
01/04/08
Nigel Andrews
Nigel Andrews
Times [UK]
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
 
 
1 - 20 (sorted by date; Australian critics are listed first)
Text View | 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 >> >|
all

Latest News for Lust, Caution

November 12, 2009: Five Favourite Films with Ang Lee
The rule that no two Ang Lee movies are ever the same is confidently kept intact with the release of his latest, Taking Woodstock, a comedy about the true story behind the... More...

May 17, 2009: Cannes 2009: RT Chats to Ang Lee and team Taking Woodstock
It's not every day you get to have lunch with Ang Lee, so when RT were invited to do just that today in Cannes we couldn't refuse. Also joining us, James Schamus, Demetri... More...

September 26, 2008: Maggie Q to Star in Zhuangzhuang's Latest Opens in new window
Maggie Q has signed on for Tian Zhuangzhuang's "The Warrior and the Wolf," stepping in for Tang Wei after Wei's appearance in "Lust, Caution" got her banned from Chinese screens. More...

February 18, 2008: RT on DVD: Cram For The Oscars With Michael Clayton, In The Valley of Elah, And More Out This Week
Ready those Oscar ballots! With the Academy Awards around the corner, it's time to start catching up on what you missed in theaters. Snap up this week's offerings for... More...

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