Brian in Mesa

Ang Lee to Direct Lust, Caution Next
Source: Focus Features
May 23, 2006

Ang Lee has pacted to make his second consecutive film, following his Academy Award win for directing Brokeback Mountain, with Focus Features. Lee will next direct Lust, Caution, an espionage thriller set in WWII-era Shanghai. Bill Kong, who previously produced Lee's hit Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, will produce the new film with the director. Focus Features CEO James Schamus, who will executive-produce Lust, Caution, made the announcement today.

The Chinese-language feature is being scripted by Wang Hui-Ling, who previously co-wrote Lee's Eat Drink Man Woman and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Lust, Caution is being adapted from a short story by the late Chinese author Eileen Chang. Focus will hold worldwide rights to the film, excluding Asia. Overseas sales and distribution will be handled by Focus Features International. Production is anticipated to begin in the fall.

As writer and producer, Schamus has collaborated with Lee on nine feature films. Brokeback Mountain, on which Schamus served as a producer, won, among other honors, 3 Academy Awards, 4 Golden Globe Awards, and 4 BAFTA Awards. The film is Focus' all-time top-grosser, with global ticket sales of over $178 million.

Kong has produced several films that Focus and/or Focus Features International have released, including Jet Li's Fearless, starring Jet Li and directed by Ronny Yu (which Focus' sibling company Rogue Pictures releases domestically nationwide on August 4th); and Zhang Yimou's Hero and House of Flying Daggers.

Schamus said, "I'm delighted that Ang is back with all of us here at Focus, and he's going to be making a very exciting film that's unlike anything he's done before. He and I glad to reteam with Bill and Wang again after our great success together on 'Crouching Tiger.' Like that picture, 'Lust, Caution' is a uniquely Asian story which, in Ang's hands, will surprise and attract audiences around the world."

Brian in Mesa

Lust, Caution

Release Date: September 28, 2007 (NY; additional cities: October 5)
Studio: Focus Features
Director: Ang Lee
Screenwriter: Wang Hui Ling, James Schamus
Genre: Thriller
MPAA Rating: NC-17 (for some explicit sexuality)
Website: Not Available

Starring: Tony Leung, Tang Wei, Joan Chen, Wang Lee Hom

Plot Summary: The new film from Ang Lee, the Academy Award-winning director of "Brokeback Mountain" and "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon." A startling erotic espionage thriller about the fate of an ordinary woman's heart, it is based on the short story by revered Chinese author Eileen Chang, and stars Asian cinema icon Tony Leung opposite screen newcomer Tang Wei. Shanghai, 1942. The World War II Japanese occupation of this Chinese city continues in force. Mrs. Mak, a woman of sophistication and means, walks into a café, places a call, and then sits and waits. She remembers... how her story began several years earlier, in 1938 China. She is not in fact Mrs. Mak, but shy Wong Chia Chi (Tang Wei). With WWII underway, Wong has been left behind by her father, who has escaped to England. As a freshman at university, she meets fellow student Kuang Yu Min (Wang Leehom) Kuang has started a drama society to shore up patriotism. As the theater troupe's new leading lady, Wong realizes that she has found her calling, able to move and inspire audiences – and Kuang. He convenes a core group of students to carry out a radical and ambitious plan to assassinate a top Japanese collaborator, Mr. Yee (Tony Leung). Each student has a part to play; Wong will be Mrs. Mak, who will gain Yee's trust by befriending his wife (Joan Chen) and then draw the man into an affair. Wong transforms herself utterly inside and out, and the scenario proceeds as scripted – until an unexpectedly fatal twist spurs her to flee. Shanghai, 1941. With no end in sight for the occupation, Wong – having emigrated from Hong Kong – goes through the motions of her existence. Much to her surprise, Kuang re-enters her life. Now part of the organized resistance, he enlists her to again become Mrs. Mak in a revival of the plot to kill Yee, who as head of the collaborationist secret service has become even more a key part of the puppet government. As Wong reprises her earlier role, and is drawn ever closer to her dangerous prey, she finds her very identity being pushed to the limit...