Save your money for something good and enjoyable

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Blistering performances.

This Chinese movie is a visually stunning drama that convinces with two extremely talented main actors that incarnate two credible and fascinating characters. On one side, you have the charming, naive and shy student Wong Chia Chi who gets coincidentally involved into the resistance movement against Japanese occupation and the Chinese puppet government in Hong Kong back in 1938. She gets introduced to the social circle of Mister Yee's wife in order to approach, then seduce and ultimately trap him. The special agent and recruiter of the puppet government is brutal towards his enemies, emotionally cold and very experienced.Wong Chia Chi becomes Misses Mai and is able to seduce her target but when the resistance movement is ready to get the enemy killed, he moves to Shanghai with his family. The group's plans get discovered and result in a twisted crime after which the organization falls apart and disappears. Four years later, Wong Chia Chi also moves to Shanghai for studies and lives a solitary live in depression and poverty, abandoned by her father and her friends. She meets one of her old partners again who introduces her to an egoistic, pitiless and vengeful undercover agent of the Kuomintang who wants to finish what had begun four years ago. Wong Chia Chi takes the identity of Misses Mai again and soon meets her target on a regular basis. They start to have a relationship that is quite brutal, cold and physical in the beginning but the two solitary souls soon start to develop true emotions towards each other. As the resistance starts to concretely organize the assassination of the target, the matured young woman has to decide which path to choose.The story of this movie is intriguing thanks to a very strong acting and a progressive character development. The film features brutal and cold sex scenes close to a rape but these scenes ultimately get more and more aesthetic and passionate. This radical contrast perfectly portrays both characters and the essence of the movie. In many movies, sex scenes are not very well acted and remain superficial but these ones really make sense, incarnate a certain spirit and feel extremely real as if the two actors were truly in a relationship which is though not the case.The movie is quite slow paced in the beginning and takes some time to kick off which might be difficult for some people but at the same time, this flick gives us a credible portrait of the difficult life during the Second Sino-Japanese War. As it's often the case for contemporary Chinese movies, a lot of budget went into the beautiful costumes, the authentic decorations and the detailed locations. All these elements drown the viewer into a very credible past world and develop a great atmosphere.In the end, any fan of contemporary Chinese movies should check this solid production out. Be sure to view the almost flawless uncensored version that is much more authentic, complex and dynamic than the shortened one.

I was enthralled by Ang Lee's modern classic Brokeback Mountain. So I decided to check out Lust, Caution that got the golden lion at the Venice Film Festival. I am happy that this was the first Chinese film I saw as it is a true masterpiece.Wong Chia Chi is a shy, inexperienced University student who transforms into the wealthy, elegant Mrs. Mai to spy on the special agent Mr. Yee. Though their first attempt fails, she traps Mr. Yee the second time. But this time, their relation grows from violent, lustful to emotional, intense and passionate.Lust, love and betrayal are key-elements in the plot and Ang Lee juxtaposes them effectively. Even small, minute details are paid attention in the film. For instance, never again will you see (or play) Mahjong without recalling the opulent scene of the game in the beginning. The production design gives a magnificent look and, I assume, is historically accurate. Cinematography is excellent. The film is 160 minutes long and certain sequences are tiring and overwhelming to watch, especially the graphic sex scenes that display the elements of lust and passion. Nevertheless, the screenplay is captivating and the clandestine means of the group are amusing to watch.Tang Wei's performance belies that this was her very first film role. She is the lifeline of Lust, Caution. She is the naïve, shy girl of the university, the rebellious, patriotic spy and the silent, secluded, mysterious mistress of Mr. Yee. She breathes life into each of her dimensions and comes up with a mesmerizing performance that prompts you to watch the film over and over. Joan Chen is lovable as Mrs. Yee. Leehom Wang is perfect for the role. Tony Leung Chiu-Wai got an extremely tough role to which he has put commendable efforts.Lee's direction, what can I say? He is the master. I was speechless as the film ended. He is a director who surpasses expectations, although this was just his second film I saw. I was pleasantly surprised to see Indian actor Anupam Kher in the film as a jeweler. He was flawless as always.Ang Lee's Lust, Caution is a must watch – favorably the NC-17 version. Also, the film has wonderful music. It is pure art.

With excellent cinematography, impeccable direction, a haunting score and top-notch performances, why is 'Lust, Caution', such a ho-hum affair? For starters, so much of it is stretched out that we end up with only tidbits of compelling drama. This film could have and would have worked a lot better had about 45 minutes of celluloid found its way on to the cutting room floor.'Lust, Caution' is divided into two parts. The first part is set in Hong Kong in 1938, before the Japanese have occupied all of China. Leehom Wang does well in his first acting performance as Kuang Yu Min, a radical student at Lingnan University in Hong Kong. He conscripts a pretty, shy co-ed, Wong Chia Chi, to act in a patriotic play, designed to inflame the passions of a Chinese audience, who naively believe that they can defeat the Japanese, who are on the verge of taking over the entire country. Chia Chi is so successful in moving the audience to tears that Kuang becomes convinced that she could assist him and his acting group turned real-life conspirators, in a plot to assassinate Mr. Yee, a local party chief affiliated with the Wang Jingwei puppet government in mainland China. Kuang concludes that only Chia Chi can infiltrate Yee's organization and perhaps help facilitate his assassination.Chia Chi assumes the identity of Mrs. Mak, the wife of an import-export dealer and is introduced to Mrs. Yee, the wife of the intended target. While we're expecting some kind of exciting, assassination attempt by Kuang and his confederates in the first hour of the film, that never materializes as Mr. and Mrs. Yee unexpectedly move back to Shanghai. What we are treated to during the first hour is a long-winded sequence of "Mrs. Mak" playing Mahjong with Mrs. Yee and her social circle, Chia Chi being deflowered by one of Kuang's co-conspirators in order to gain some skill in seducing Mr. Yee and the clumsy murder of Tsao, one of Yee's subordinates, who pays a visit to the Kuang and company as they are packing up their bags following Yee's sudden departure from Hong Kong.While the conspirators are supposed to be the 'good guys', Ang Lee makes the point that they're really no better than Mr. Yee, who both use Chia Chi as a sex object. When she's forced to lose her virginity in such a mechanical way, Kuang wants her to understand that this is her service to a greater cause—at the same time, he does nothing to comfort her and worse, express any deep-felt feelings he has for her. All this only serves to harden Wong who later betrays the group. The betrayal at the film's climax is foreshadowed by the group's awkward attempt to train Wong as a seductress—this is where she really loses her enthusiasm for the group's cause.The second part of of 'Lust, Caution, takes place four years later in Shanghai. Kuang now is an undercover agent for the KMT, which seeks to undermine Japanese occupation rule and the Chinese puppet government. With her past contacts with Mr. Yee and his wife, Chia Chi again is able to infiltrate the Yee inner circle. This time she becomes Yee's mistress and most of the film deals with Yee and Chia Chi's relationship. Yee is first depicted as a sadist as he rapes Chia Chi during their first sexual encounter. Gradually he warms up to her and by film's end, he's buys her a very expensive diamond ring. By concentrating on the sexual relations between the two, Ang Lee sacrifices any chance to develop Yee's character. He's played by Tony Leung Chiu-Wai who desperately tries to humanize Yee by showing his tender side during love-making (although he's afraid of the dark, Yee eventually allows Chia Chi to place a towel over his eyes, connoting some vulnerability). But we surely would have liked to know more about Yee—for example, what does he exactly do in his job as head of the secret police? (I think that's a lot more interesting than all those sex scenes that go on ad infinitum). Why not more like the scene in the Japanese district where Yee confides to Chia Chi that he really despises the Japanese and their cause is lost? Now that's ambiguity (and we needed a lot more of that!).As for Chia Chi, her failure to help the good guys, is meant to be seen as tragic. While Mr. Yee plays with her emotions, she begs the KMT to act before she becomes an emotional basket case. Due to 'strategic concerns', Chia Chi is told to wait and before you know it, she's fallen for 'bad boy' Yee, hook, line and sinker. Lee seemingly sees her as a victim of a male chauvinistic society. Others might view her as a weak woman who had a job to do during wartime and betrayed her confederates, resulting in their tragic death.Chia Chi warns Mr. Yee at the film's denouement and he escapes with his life. I had no objection to Ang Lee trying to avoid a sentimental, happy ending. Given the time period the film is set in, there actually weren't too many happy endings for Chinese people under the Japanese occupation. Nonetheless, it sure takes us a long time to get there. But even if you're willing to go along with the film's glacial pacing, one is struck by the fact that this is not a film that appeals to the intellect. Rather, it's a film that relies merely on the sexual chemistry between the principals without bothering to virtually flesh out any other element of their personalities. The same can be said for the supporting players (the conspirators) who we find out next to nothing about.For all its wonderful atmosphere, 'Lust, Caution' serves up only a few surprises; along the way, its characters remain ciphers who we can hardly become involved with.

Movies have lot of sex as people are interested about it and it gives popularity to very poor movies also. However, I have seen only few movies which actually tell a story that would not be complete without showing bold sex scenes. The "Lust, Caution" is one of these movies.This movie is long and goes onward very slowly, but it manages to create a unforgettable atmosphere to a patient viewer. The set and actors make a good work in creating the picture of upper-class life in WWII in Hong Kong and Shanghhai and the resistance towards Japanese occupiers.The actual story is about a student girl who becomes an agent infiltrating near to Japanese supporting officials. The plot is quite simple, but it manages still leave a lot of thinking to the viewer.