Lust, Caution | |
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Theatrical release poster
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色,戒 (Sè, Jiè) | |
Directed by | Ang Lee |
Produced by |
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Screenplay by |
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Based on |
Lust, Caution by Eileen Chang |
Starring | |
Music by | Alexandre Desplat |
Cinematography | Rodrigo Prieto |
Edited by | Tim Squyres |
Production
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Distributed by | Focus Features |
Release date
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Running time
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158 minutes |
Country | United States China Taiwan |
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Budget | $15 million |
Box office | $67,091,915 |
Lust, Caution (Chinese: 色,戒; pinyin: Sè, Jiè; Jyutping: Sik1Gaai3) is a 2007 erotic espionage thriller film directed by Ang Lee, based on the novella of the same name published in 1979 by Chinese author Eileen Chang. The story is mostly set in Hong Kong in 1938 and in Shanghai in 1942, when it was occupied by the Imperial Japanese Army and ruled by the puppet government led by Wang Jingwei. It depicts a group of Chinese university students from the Lingnan University who plot to assassinate a high-ranking special agent and recruiter of the puppet government using an attractive young woman to lure him into a trap.
With this film, Lee won the Golden Lion Award at the Venice Film Festival for the second time, the first being with Brokeback Mountain. The film adaptation and the story are loosely based on events that took place during the Japanese occupation of Shanghai. The film's explicit sex scenes resulted in the film being rated NC-17 in the United States.
Hong Kong 1938
During the Second Sino-Japanese War, a shy, inexperienced university student, Wong Chia Chi, travels from Shanghai to Hong Kong and attends her first year at Lingnan University. A male student, Kuang Yu Min, invites her to join his patriotic drama club, and soon she becomes a lead actress, inspiring both her audience and her colleagues. Inspired by the troupe's patriotic plays, Kuang persuades the group to make a more concrete contribution to the war against Japan. He devises a plan to assassinate Mr. Yee, a special agent and recruiter of the puppet government set up by the Japanese Government in China. The beautiful Chia Chi is chosen to take on the undercover role of "Mrs. Mai", the elegant wife of a trading company owner. She manages to insert herself in the social circle of Mrs. Yee.