Lust, Caution (film)

Lust, Caution Wong Chia Chi walking past dead refugees in street, 2) Stabbing scene cut to only one knife stab, 3) Of the five sex scenes , the second one with student and the third with Mr. Yee, 4) Nude shot of Wong Chia Chi at window, 5) Wong Chia Chi on bed after first sex scene with Mr. Yee, 6) Dialogue modified in diamond ring scene so that Wong Chia Chi did not betray by warning Mr. Yee.

Origin

The film was coproduced by the companies Focus Features and River Road Productions, and companies Shanghai Film Group Corporation and Haishang Films and the Taiwanese Hai Sheng Film Production Company. The director is Ang Lee, who is a naturalized US citizen, and the actors/actresses are from mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan as well as the United States. It was shot in Shanghai, the neighboring province of Zhejiang, Hong Kong , and some locations in Ipoh, Malaysia disguised as 1930/40's Hong Kong.

Originally, the movie's country was identified as 'China-USA' by the organizers of the Venice Film Festival, but after a complaint from Ang Lee's office, it was changed to 'Taiwan'. However, a few days later, the Venice Film Festival changed the film to "USA-China-Taiwan, China" on its official schedule. When the movie premiered at the event, Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council protested the Venice event's use of "Taiwan, China" to identify movies from the island and blamed China for the move.

After the premiere of the movie, Taiwan submitted the film as its best foreign film Oscar entry. However, Oscars asked Taiwan to withdraw the film because some key crew members were not locals. Oscars spokeswoman Teni Melidonian said in an e-mail organizers refused to accept the movie 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.

Defamation

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 . 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. Director Ang Lee maintains that Eileen Chang wrote the original short story about herself, not about a real historical event.

Critical reception

As of January 17, 2008 on the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, 70% of all critics gave the film positive reviews, while scoring 54% among RottenTomatoes-designated "Top Critics." On Metacritic, the film had an average score of 61 out of 100, based on 34 reviews.

Jack Mathews of the ''New York Daily News'' named it the 5^th best film of 2007. Kenneth Turan of the ''Los Angeles Times'' named it the 6^th best film of 2007.) that the Hong Kong sequences in the film set in the late 1930s include "London taxis" of two types that were only manufactured onwards from 1948 and 1958 respectively.

Box office

''Lust, Caution'' was produced on a budget of approximately $15 million.

In Hong Kong, where it played in its full, uncut version, ''Lust, Caution'' grossed $6,249,342 USD despite being saddled with a restrictive "Category III" rating . It was the territory's biggest-grossing Chinese language film of the year, and third biggest overall .

The film was also a huge success in China, despite playing only in a heavily-edited version. It grossed $17,109,185 USD, making it the country's sixth highest-grossing film of 2007 and third highest-grossing domestic production.

In North America, the NC-17 rating which ''Lust, Caution'' received is traditionally perceived as a box office "kiss-of-death". In its opening weekend in one US theatre, it grossed an excellent $63,918. Never playing at more than 143 theatres in its entire US run, it eventually grossed $4,604,982.

Worldwide, ''Lust Caution'' grossed $64,574,876.

This film has generated more than $24 million from its DVD Sales and Rentals in the United States, an impressive result for a film that only grossed $4.6 million in limited theatrical release in the United States.

Etymology

* In the Shanghainese dialect, the words "lust" and "lost" are homophones.
* The translation of the Chinese title 色、戒 as "Lust, Caution" loses the pun it has in Chinese. The first character 色 can mean "color", second character 戒 can mean "ring", so the first and more apparent meaning of the title is "The Color Ring", referring to the precious color-diamond ring that at the last moment doomed the heroine's mission. 色 can also mean "lust", and in Chinese more specifically referring to sexual desire. In its other meaning, the second character 戒 is closer to "warning" or even "renunciation" than "caution". So, the second and more implicit meaning of the title is close to the English "Lust, Caution".