• Directed by Ang Lee
• Starring Tang Wei, Tony Leun Chiu-Wai, Joan Chen, Wang Lee-hom
• Review of uncensored version at press preview on November 14, 2007 at House cinema; limited release (most likely censored) in Bangkok at the Siam, SF World, SFX Lad Phrao and House

As I post this, I was not able to determine just how much of the full version of Ang Lee’s Lust, Caution would be left after the Thailand Board of Censors was finished with it.

In limited release in Bangkok, this winner of the Venice Golden Lion is notorious for its explicit, extended sex scenes. That such a film would somehow be screened at all in Thailand is unthinkable, except for the fact that it’s a foreign film, and doesn’t comment on Thai culture or Buddhism. So maybe it will get a pass? Doubtful. After all, it’s been cut in China, and has been slapped with the rarely used, stringent NC-17 rating in the United States. Culture nannies the world over are doing their darndest to make sure this film isn’t viewed by the general public.

Anyway, after seeing the full version for a press screening last week, it’s difficult to imagine how the film could be cut, because it seems that each movement, glance, close-up, strand of armpit hair and bouncing testicle is significant to the telling of this story.

Lust, Caution is a tension-filled, film noir spy romance, set in Hong Kong and Shanghai during World War II. Tang Wei portrays the heroine, Wong Chia Chi, a mousy college student who reluctantly joins a university theatre troupe. At the fervent urgings of its nationalist leader Kuang (Wang Lee-hom), the troupe becomes an independent resistance spy cell, with the mission of assassinating a collaborationist Chinese intelligence official, Mr Yee (Tony Leung Chiu-Wai). Wong will portray the glamourous wife of an import-exporter, Mrs Mak, and befriend Mr Yee’s wife (Joan Chen), and catch the eye of the lustful, but cautious Mr Yee.

Tang Wei, making her feature debut, is a joy to watch as she makes the remarkable transformation from the shy, pig-tailed Wong to the gorgeously provocative devil in a cheongsam, Mrs Mak.

Lust, Caution pulls the wool over your eyes, lulling you into a false sense of security. It’s never clear who is deceiving who, or whether he knows that she knows that he knows that ... ah heck, never mind. It’s all such an engrossing tale, it’s best to just sit back and take it.

The ending is a bit of puzzler, though, with no clear losers or winners – maybe everybody lost. All that’s left is to sit on on the edge of the bed, spent.