Lust, Caution

The title of the work, Lust, Caution, has a double meaning in Chinese. The character for "lust" (色, sè) can be read as "colour", while "caution" (戒, jiè) can be read as "ring", therefore the title can also read as "colored ring", an object that plays a pivotal role in the story. The two alternate readings of the title are interwoven into a cautionary tale of lust and love through the symbolic use of the ring.[10]

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. Chia Chi's virginity is ultimately given as a sacrifice but consequently, her sexuality that has been awakened is used as a weapon against Mr. Yee in order to ensnare him into a relationship.[16][17]

The portrayal of female sexuality and desire in the film emphasizes the shame and awkwardness of Chia Chi's sexuality versus the role she must play as "Mrs. Mak", which serves the nation rather than her needs as a woman.[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.[19]

Through each of the sex scenes, a tangible but subtle difference can be seen in Wong Chia Chi's character as she becomes more comfortable with her sexual desires; a gradual acceptance of pleasure along with a growing role of dominance in hers and Mr. Yee's relationship as compared to the submissive and easily manipulated role she fills in the group of comrades that she is plotting against the Japanese and their collaborators with.[19]

Eileen Chang's original work from which Ang is drawing from does not contain the sex scenes of the film, yet with their addition a change can be seen in the levels of participation and assertiveness from Wong Chia Chi and her own agency in them: the first sex scene focuses on the forced and unpleasant intercourse between the couple; stronger levels of consent and enjoyment from Chia Chi is found in the second sex scene; finally, Wong Chia Chi has recognized her full agency in the third sex scene and is acting with assertion by taking control of her own desires and pleasure with Mr. Yee.[19]

In 2007, two DVD versions of Lust, Caution were released: the original NC-17 version and the censored R-rated version.[25] On March 30, 2021, Kino Lorber released the NC-17 version of the film on Blu-ray.[26]

In a number of countries, notably the People's Republic of China and India, the sex scenes had to be cut before the film could be released. In Singapore, the film's producers initially decided to release a cut version with an NC-16 rating, but a public outcry stating that the producers of the film were underestimating censorship standards in the country (the film was released uncut in Hong Kong and Taiwan) prompted them to eventually release the uncut version with an R-21 rating. The film is rated R18 and was released uncut in New Zealand.[27]

The following scenes were cut from the mainland China version:

• Wong Chia Chi walking past dead refugees in the street
• Stabbing scene cut to only one knife stab
• Two of the sex scenes featuring the student, and three featuring Mr. Yee
• A nude shot of Wong Chia Chi at window
• Wong Chia Chi in bed after first sex scene with Mr. Yee
• Dialogue modified in diamond ring scene so that Wong Chia Chi did not betray the resistance by warning Mr. Yee.[28]

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.[29][30] Chia Chi's betrayal of her classmates and China as a nation in order to save a traitor was received by some mainland Chinese audiences with distaste, with some media websites referring to the film as an insult to China.[30]

The film's end credits ends with a 18 U.S.C § 2257 notice.[31]

The film's sexuality brought critique from The Women Film Critics Circle (WFCC), who decried Ang Lee's adaptation as a "Hall of Shame" film that glorifies the torturous Stockholm syndrome-like relationship between Wong Chia Chi's "Mrs. Mak" and her colluding lover/target Mr. Yee.[32]

The sexual violence that Chia Chi experiences from the men in Ang Lee's film adaptation of Lust, Caution is not explicitly described or outlined in the original novella written by Eileen Chang, rather the unspoken violence that is experienced is a representation of the everyday and intrusive violence felt by those living under colonial occupation.[33]

Tang Wei was ostracized from the mainland Chinese movie industry and did not work for three years because the State Administration of Radio Film and Television (SARFT) disapproved of her sexual acts in the film.[34] All print ads and video content using Tang's image were removed and her endorsements were discontinued.[35] She was set to star in Tian Zhuangzhuang's big-budget period film The Warrior and the Wolf (2009), but was replaced by Maggie Q.[36] Director Ang Lee released a statement saying that he is "very regretful" over Tang's blacklisting and that he "will do everything I can to support her in this difficult time".[37] Co-star Tony Leung stated that "our work is only to express our roles and I don't think that an actor should be blacklisted because of this" and that "the whole crew should have a responsibility. We are a team and not an individual, and I'm a part of this team".[38] 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.[39]

The film was co-produced by American companies Focus Features and River Road Productions, Chinese companies Shanghai Film Group Corporation and Haishang Films, and the Taiwanese Hai Sheng Film Production Company. 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. It was shot in Shanghai, the neighboring province of Zhejiang, Hong Kong (at Hong Kong University), and some locations in Penang and Ipoh in Malaysia used as 1930s/1940s Hong Kong.

Initially, the film's country was identified as "China-USA" by the organizers of the Venice Film Festival. However, the Venice Film Festival changed the film to "USA-China-Taiwan, China" on its official schedule shortly thereafter.[40] When the film premiered at the event, Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council protested the Venice event's use of "Taiwan, China" to identify films from the island and blamed the People's Republic of China for the move.[41][42]

After the film's premiere, Taiwan submitted the film as its Best Foreign Film Oscar entry. However, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences asked Taiwan to withdraw the film because key members of the film crew were not locals. Academy spokeswoman Teni Melidonian said in an e-mail organizers refused to accept the film because "an insufficient number of Taiwanese participated in the production of the film," violating a rule that requires foreign countries to certify their locals "exercised artistic control" over their submission.

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.[43] 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.[44] Ang Lee maintains that Eileen Chang wrote the original short story as fiction.[44]

On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 72% based on 148 reviews, with an average rating of 6.60/10. The site's consensus reads: "Ang Lee's Lust, Caution is a tense, sensual and beautifully-shot espionage film".[45] On Metacritic, the film had a weighted average score of 61 out of 100, based on 35 reviews.[46]

The Chinese press gave the film generally positive reviews. In analyzing how successful Lee's film was as an adaptation of Eileen Chang's short story, literary critic Leo Ou-fan Lee wrote in Muse Magazine that he 'found [his] loyalties divided between Eileen Chang and Ang Lee. But after three viewings of the film, I have finally opted for Lee because deep down I believe in film magic which can sometimes displace textual fidelity.'[47] In an earlier issue of Muse however, film critic Perry Lam had criticized Lee's direction: 'in his eagerness to make the movie appealing to a mass audience, Lee seems guilty of sentimentalism.'[48] Sentimental or not, there is certainly a palpable trace of Lee's sympathy for Chang's personal love life, "It was hard for me to live in Eileen Chang's world...There are days I hated her for it. It's so sad, so tragic. But you realize there's a shortage of love in her life: romantic love, family love." He added, "This is the story of what killed love for her."[49]

Audiences across Taiwan received the premiere of Lust, Caution with excitement stemming from pride over the fact that Ang Lee hails from Taiwan and the fact that the film received many international awards.[50] 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[50] which seemed to indicate to the positive, or at least curious reception of the film.

Jack Mathews of the New York Daily News named it the 5th best film of 2007.[51] Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times named it the 6th best film of 2007.[51]

British actor Hugh Grant is on record as being fan of the film.[52]

It has been noted by critics (including Bryan Appleyard[53]) that the Hong Kong sequences in the film set in the late 1930s[54] include "London taxis" of two types (FX3, FX4) that were only manufactured onwards from 1948 and 1958 respectively.[55] The film features Japanese orthography that wasn't used before 1946 in a classroom scene. Tony Leung's wrist watch is not period-accurate for the 1930s. The size is much larger than a men's rectangular-shaped watch from this period.

Lust, Caution was produced on a budget of approximately $15 million.[56]

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. It was the territory's highest-grossing Chinese language film of the year, and third highest overall (behind Spider-Man 3 and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix).[57]

The film was also a box office success in mainland China despite the cuts made to allow screening. There, the film grossed US$17,109,185, making it the Mainland's fifth highest-grossing film of 2007 and third highest-grossing domestic production.[58]

In North America, the film received NC-17 rating, which severely limited the number of cinemas willing to screen it. In its opening weekend in one U.S. theater, the grossed $63,918.[56] Expanding to seventeen venues the next week, its per-screen average was $21,341, before cooling down to $4,639 at 125 screens.[59] Never playing at more than 143 cinemas for the duration of its entire U.S. run, the film ultimately grossed $4,604,982.[59] As of August 15, 2008, the film was the fifth highest-grossing NC-17 production in North America.[60] Focus Features was very satisfied with the United States release of this film.[61]

Worldwide, Lust, Caution grossed $67,091,915.[56]

The film has generated more than $24 million from its DVD sales and rentals in the United States,[62][63] an impressive result for a film that only grossed $4.6 million in limited theatrical release in the United States.[56]