Lust, Caution - Ang Lee in Conversation with Linda Williams

Se, jie

(China | 2007 | 158 mins | 35mm)

35mm

Exec. Producers: Zhong-lun Ren, Darren Shaw, Dai Song
Exec. Producer/Writer: James Schamus
Producers: William Kong, Ang Lee
Writers: Wang Hui-ling, based on a story by Eileen Chang
Cinematographer: Rodrigo Prieto
Editor: Tim Squyres
Sound: Philip Stockton, Eugene Gearty, Drew Kunin
Music: Alexandre Desplat
Cast: Tony Leung, Tang Wei, Joan Chen, Wang Leehom

A special on-stage conversation with Ang Lee following a screening of LUST, CAUTION. With LUST, CAUTION, the ever-challenging Ang Lee summons the perilous worlds of sexual obsession and political resistance, set against the beguiling backdrop of a 1940s Shanghai steeped in seductive memory. It is the time of the Japanese occupation, and failed efforts have been made to assassinate the imperious official Yee (Tony Leung). The beaming but demure Wong Chia Chi (scintillating debutante Tang Wei) is recruited for yet another attempt. An actress in a patriotic theater troupe, Wong takes on the real-world role of Mrs. Mak, whose subterfuge will lead to the seduction of the philandering Yee via his wife (Joan Chen), a mahjong mistress. Based on the short story by much-admired Chinese novelist Eileen Chang and drenched in the softening hues of the period, Lee's lush re-creation of Shanghai throws caution to the wind and delves deeply into the consuming throes of sexual passion, further amplified by the dangers of deception.

About the Director:

Few directors can boast such a diverse reach within a film’s subject and style as the great Taiwanese-born Ang Lee. After securing a degree from the National Taiwan College of Arts, Lee came to the U.S. to be trained in filmmaking at New York University. Within a few years, he began directing his de facto “Chinese” trilogy, Pushing Hands, The Wedding Banquet, and Eat Drink Man Woman. This gave the inspired director entry to Hollywood where he released the Jane Austen adaptation Sense And Sensibility, then followed up with The Ice Storm, a scathing satire of East Coast suburbia, and Ride With the Devil, a searing look at the misfortunes of war. Lee briefly returned to Asia to complete his next film, the stupendously succcessful Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, recipient of ten Oscar nominations. Ang Lee’s wuxia martial arts epic, with its balletic fight sequences and fevered pursuit of love and chivalry, introduced the genre to new audiences. Lee would again inject a well-worn genre, in this case the western melodrama, with unexpected passion with the release of 2005’s Brokeback Mountain, winner of the Oscar for Best Director.

Linda Williams, PhD, is a Professor in the Departments of Film Studies and Rhetoric at UC Berkeley. Her books include Hard Core: Power, Pleasure and the Frenzy of the Visible; Playing the Race Card: Melodramas of Black and White, From Uncle Tom to O.J. Simpson, and the new release Screening Sex.

Presented in conjunction with the “On the Same Page” program of UC Berkeley’s College of Letters & Science and Pacific Film Archive.

In Person: Ang Lee

-- Steve Seid

---

Co-presenters

TaiwaneseAmerican.org