Asia Society presents Water and Oil: The Movies of Ang Lee; a complete retrospective from February 14-23 with select appearances by the filmmaker and collaborators.

Lust, Caution
Ang Lee, Taiwan/Hong Kong/China, 2007, 35mm, 157 min.
In Mandarin, Cantonese, and Japanese with English subtitles.

Eileen Chang’s short story about sex and espionage in Japanese-occupied China comes to life in a sumptuous historical epic that represents the mid-career culmination of Ang Lee’s artistic vision and a sterling feat of adaptation.

In Lust, Caution, a group of Shanghai drama students’ playacting becomes deadly serious when they decide to target an occupation collaborationist for assassination. Tang Wei stars as Wong Chia Chi, alias Mrs. Mak. Her friends relocate to Hong Kong for their mission and send her undercover to seduce a powerful collaborationist named Mr. Yee (Tony Leung Chiu-wai). Posing as a local businessman’s wife, she ingratiates herself with Mrs. Yee (Joan Chen) and soon begins an affair with her husband. As her friends continue to delay the assassination for lack of an opportunity, she’s spun into a deeper and darker web with Mr. Yee, who abruptly leaves town before the plan can come to fruition. Years later, the plot picks up in Shanghai, where a more mature but still young Wong finds herself falling in love with her sinister but seductive target. In the background, colonialism and occupation yield to early examples of globalization in a city full of British architecture, French cafes, and Indian jewelers (the film features a great cameo by Bollywood star Anupam Kher).

A sterling counter-argument to the puritan uptick in anti-sex-scene sentiment, Lust, Caution proves the profound narrative and psychological dimensions that can be communicated by intimate physical contact. Presented on 35mm.

Followed by a Q&A with Ang Lee.