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MOVIES / ON DVD / LUST, CAUTION
Lust, Caution

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Lust, Caution (2007)

70%
75%
87%
N/A
N/A
N/A
70 %
Reviews Counted: 132 Fresh: 92  Rotten:40 Average Rating: 6.6/10
 
Consensus: Ang Lee's Lust, Caution is a tense, sensual and beautifully-shot espionage film.
 

How does the Tomatometer work?

The Tomatometer measures the percentage of positive reviews from Approved Tomatometer Critics for a certain movie.[-]

Rated: 18

Runtime: 2 hrs 39 mins

Theatrical Release: 04-01-2008

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 woman's heart, it is based on the short story by revered Chinese author Eileen Chang, and stars... 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]

Genre: Foreign Films

Starring: Tony Leung, Tang Wei, Joan Chen, Wang Lee-Hom

Director: Ang Lee
Screenwriter: Hui Ling Wang, James Schamus
Producer: Bill Kong, Ang Lee, James Schamus
Composer: Alexandre Desplat

DVD Info

Release:

Jul 2, 2009

[DVD Details]

DVD Features:

  • Region 1
  • Snap Case
  • Anamorphic Widescreen - 1.85

Audio:

  • Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround - French, Mandarin, Japanese
  • Subtitles - English (SDH), English, French, Spanish - Optional

Additional Release Material:

  • Featurette TILES OF DECEPTION, LURID AFFECTIONS

Reviews

 
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1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
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Ratings Image
3/5

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

Full Review | comment Comment
01/04/08
Derek Malcolm
This is London
Ratings Image
3/5

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 | comment Comment
01/04/08
Neil Smith
thelondonpaper
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
Ratings Image
N/A

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

Full Review | comment Comment
01/04/08
Sukhdev Sandhu
Independent
Ratings Image
2/5

A shocking disappointment.

Full Review | comment Comment
01/04/08
Anthony Quinn
Independent
Ratings Image
4/5

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

Full Review | comment Comment
01/04/08
Peter Bradshaw
Guardian [UK]
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
Ratings Image
N/A

Quietly mesmerising.

Full Review | comment Comment
01/04/08
Nigel Andrews
Times [UK]
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
Ratings Image
4/5

The intensity of the sex is far more honest and revealing than the secrets each lover tries to hide.

Full Review | comment Comment
01/04/08
James Christopher
Times [UK]
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
Ratings Image
3/5

Lust, Caution is strangely engrossing but the fairly straightforward plot does not justify the running time.

Full Review | comment Comment
01/04/08
Sun Online
Ratings Image
3/5

Isolated moments of high drama and some startlingly intimate sex scenes sadly fail to galvanise a turgid and overlong whole.

Full Review | comment Comment
01/04/08
Neil Smith
Channel 4 Film
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
Ratings Image
3/5

Unfortunately, the scenes between the sex and violence, while beautiful, will test your patience.

Full Review | comment Comment
01/04/08
David Edwards
Daily Mirror [UK]
Ratings Image
4/5

Lee’s saucy, sumptuous slow-burner is a complex, elegant seduction, drawing on Hitchcock but putting a singular stamp on a rich spread of spies and sex, repression and sacrifice. Just don’t try those moves at home…

Full Review | comment Comment
01/04/08
Kevin Harley
Total Film
Ratings Image
4/5

A mesmerising study in emotional cruelty.

Full Review | comment Comment
01/04/08
Paul Arendt
BBC
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
Ratings Image
4/5

Beautifully shot, the period detail is exquisitely, and obsessively, realised.

Full Review | comment Comment
01/04/08
Ruth Ford
Sky Movies
Ratings Image
4/6

Its dark romanticism lingers in the mind.

Full Review | comment Comment
01/04/08
Wally Hammond
Time Out
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
Ratings Image
4/5

A beautifully rendered, long, drawn-out but ultimately very satisfying story of betrayal and revenge in an uneasy setting of wartime paranoia.

Full Review | comment Comment
01/04/08
Damon Wise
Empire Magazine
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
Ratings Image
4/5

Superbly written, beautifully shot and emotionally powerful espionage thriller with a terrific central performance from newcomer Tang Wei.

Full Review | comment Comment
10/20/07
Matthew Turner
ViewLondon
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review | comment Comment
09/08/07
Screen International
Ratings Image
6/10

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

Full Review | comment Comment
02/28/08
Brandon Fibbs
BrandonFibbs.com
Ratings Image
3/4

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

Full Review | comment Comment
02/18/08
Peter Canavese
Groucho Reviews
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review | comment Comment
01/18/08
Sydney Morning Herald
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