Lust, Caution

There's more caution than lust in Ang Lee's tastefully erotic espionage thriller, a beautifully staged and exquisitely photographed drama about a Chinese student (Tang Wei) turned amateur resistance agent in Japanese-occupied Shanghai in 1942. Hong Kong star Tony Leung Chiu-Wai is magnetic as her target, a collaborator working for the Japanese, and the virginal student is cast as his mistress. All that passion and suspicion and fear reduced to glances and brushes of skin until the affair hits NC-17 territory with explicit coital scenes of flesh on hot, sweaty flesh, desire exploding into animal sex, it's a genuine shock amidst the elegant direction of Lee, who even shoots squalor with grace and beauty. Lee feels his way beautifully through the girl's emotional turmoil but it may not be enough to get some audiences through 160 minutes of dancing around their feelings. Also includes the making-of featurette "Tiles of Deception." Available in the original theatrical NC-17 version and a separate R-rated version.