When I first rented Lust, Caution (Se, Jie) all I knew about it was that it was rated NC-17, had subtitles, and was the only movie my boyfriend was interested in watching that night.  So we rented it.  Overall, I really did like the movie, and I think he did too, but it was very drawn out. 

The movie takes place during the second Sino-Japanese War where there is much resistance from students at a local university.  One group of Chinese students form a theater troop to perform plays that will help support the resistance, but soon enough they realize they want to do more than just act.  A plot is formed to assassinate Mr. Yee (Tony Leung Chiu Wai, who has over 80 film credits of which I’ve only seen this one), a higher ranked Chinese man who is working for the Japanese. They make an elaborate plot that boils down to them using one of their females Wong Chia Chi (Wie Tang in her debut film) to seduce him.  Being inexperience is their downfall and things fall apart.  Four years later, they get another chance.  Wong Chia Chi left the group and is going back to school when the group reconnects with her.  They are working for the resistance again and know that Wong Chia Chi is their only hope to get to Mr. Yee, so again she must go undercover and risk everything to bring down Mr. Yee. 

Based on the novel of the same name by Eileen Chang and directed by Ang Lee (Brokeback Moutain) Lust, Caution is a movie filled with tension.  Lee does a wonderful job of keeping the tension going throughout the film.  The audience never knows what to expect next, whether Mr. Yee will finally get caught, or Wong Chia Chi will be found out.  I was always trying to guess what would happen next.  Wai and Tang also did a great job in their roles as well.  Wai played the “bad guy” perfectly.  He was all smiles to his wife and her friends, but when he was away he let his animal side come out.  While Tang had to go from naïve school girl, to a married woman, back to her school girl, and then back to an all out seductress.  She played the part very believably and with a graceful ease.  I also felt that Wai and Tang had a certain chemistry that worked well for their characters, as they have some pretty intense sexual scenes (here’s where the NC-17 rating comes in).  The supporting actors were also very good, especially Lee-Hom Wang as Kuang Yu Min, the director/leader of the troop.  You could really feel his anguish for Wong Chia Chi as she fell deeper into the plot, and see he obviously cared for her a great deal from the time they first met to later in life.   

Like I mentioned earlier, this movie is subtitled.  This didn’t bother me, but sometimes the dialogue was so fast that I didn’t get a chance to read everything which was a bit annoying.  Also, the movie was far too long.  It runs about two and a half hours long, but it felt longer than that.  Not to say it was a bad movie, but for awhile it just dragged on and could have done well with some better editing and shorter scenes.  Speaking of scenes they could have shortened, I have to mention that there are some graphic sex scenes in the movie that may not be enjoyable for some people. I understand why there were in the movie, and appreciate them being there, but they could definitely have been shorter.  But they were essential to show the relationship between Wai and Tang’s characters. 

In the end I’d give Lust, Caution a B.  If you enjoy foreign films you’ll probably like this one too but, if you’re not a fan of them then I probably would not recommend this movie.