LUST, CAUTION aka SE, JIE

Year: 2007
USA: Focus Features
UK: Universal Pictures
Cast: Tony Leung, Tang Wei, Joan Chen, Wang Leehom, Tou Chung Hua, Chu Chih-ying, Kao Ying-hsienmm, Ko Yue-Lin, Johnson Yuen, Chin Kar Lok, Yan Su, Caifei He, Ruhui Song, Anupam Kher, Jie Liu, Wang Hui-Ling, Akiko Takeshita, Hayato Fujiki, Yuji Kojima, Cheng Yu Lai, Dou Li
Director: Ang Lee
Countries: USA / China / Taiwan / Hong Kong
USA: 157 mins
UK: 158 mins
USA Rated: NC-17 for some explicit sexuality
UK Certificate: 18 contains strong sex
USA Release Date: 28 September 2007
UK Release Date: 4 January 2008


(Taiwan)

Synopsis

Directed by Ang Lee, the Academy Award-winning director of BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN and CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON, LUST, CAUTION is a startling erotic espionage thriller about the fate of an ordinary woman's heart. Based on the short story by revered Chinese author Eileen Chang, it 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 cafe, 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.

A freshman at university, she meets fellow student Kuang Yu Min (Wang Leehom). Kuang has started a drama society to shore up patriotism and Wong becomes 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). 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 but 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 unitl 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, but she finds her very identity being pushed to the limit...