Lust, Caution: Movie Review, DVD Review (2008)

Set in Japanese-occupied China, Ang Lee’s beautifully shot noir stars Tang Wei as Wong Chia Chi, who mixes into a group of young Chinese radicals who want to assassinate Mr. Yee (Tony Leung), a vicious Japanese sympathizer actively torturing his own people.

Because of her beauty, Chia Chi is chosen to seduce Yee with the sort of trap that’s responsible for the movie's NC-17 rating. The sex scenes in this film are ratcheted up to such a degree, some might feel as if they're being fanned by the Kama Sutra while watching it.

As for Chia Chi, she's startled to discover that she rather likes Yee's romantic kinks almost as much as she hates the man himself.

What's it all mean? Get ready--the graphic sex is a metaphor meant to literally evoke war's bondage and the freedom that can come when one releases oneself from their own repression.

Sound pretentious? It is, but Lee ("Brokeback Mountain," "Hulk") nevertheless stands tall as the most insatiable person in the room. He wants to know what happens when caution meets lust while a murder plot simmers on the back burner.

If you also want to know, rent the movie, but also know this--the pace can be excruciatingly slow, which is a mark against a film that might have been a vexing romp had, say, 45 minutes been cut from its 2 1/2-hour running time.

Rated NC-17. Grade: C

View the trailer below: