Lust, Caution
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Metascore
61 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 35 Critics What's this?

User Score
6.4 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 95 Ratings

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  • Starring: Joan Chen, Tony Leung Chiu Wai, Wei Tang
  • Summary: Shanghai, 1942. Japan's World War II occupation of this Chinese city continues in force. Mrs. Mak, a woman of sophistication and means, walks into a café, places a phone call, and then sits and waits. She remembers how her story began several years earlier, in China in 1938. She is not in faact Mrs. Mak, but shy Wong Chia Chi. 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. 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. Each student has a part to play; Wong will be Mrs. Mak, who will gain Yee's trust by befriending his wife 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. (Focus Features)… Expand

Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 21 out of 35
  2. Mixed: 12 out of 35
  3. Negative: 2 out of 35
  1. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Ken Fox
    100
    Lee has perfectly captured the details, textures, sights and sounds of a China caught between East and West, occupied by an ancient enemy and quaking on the eve of an earth-shaking revolution.
  2. Empire
    Reviewed by: Damon Wise
    80
    A beautifully rendered, long, drawn-out but ultimately very satisfying story of betrayal and revenge in an uneasy setting of wartime paranoia.
  3. The New Yorker
    Reviewed by: Anthony Lane
    60
    Running two hours and forty minutes, never finds the same balance: by the time he gets to the lust, it is too late to throw caution to the winds.
  4. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Lou Lumenick
    38
    Lust, Caution could have done with a lot more lust and a lot less caution.

See all 35 Critic Reviews

User Reviews

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Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 21 out of 24
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 24
  3. Negative: 3 out of 24
  1. TimC.
    10
    This is a great film if you understand Chinese language and the historic background. It kept me focused throughout the entire movie. Ang Lee knew that there could be cultural barrier for westerners watching this movie, for he said he cared most about how Taiwanese and Chinese people viewed the film. Sense of patriotism exhibited during the Japanese occupation and Chinese feeling about traitors is not easily appreciated. By the way, it is largely based on a true story.… Expand
  2. nate8
    8
    -tension builds in Leung's silences, Tang's glances, spy angst, and Japanese occupation, then explosive in sex and murder
    -title themes refle    ct emotions of the time, possibly Japanese regional ambition and international diplomacy (?)
    -good substories of acting, mahjong, and women's roles
    -big historical events not detailed or tightly tied to plot development    … Expand
  3. CjK.
    7
    Acting was superb. plot abit draggy.
  4. JonN.
    1
    A very disappointing movie! I was offended on behalf of Asian women everywhere! The movie perpetuates dangerous stereotypes about Asian women, namely that if you rape them and then buy them a big diamond, they will be willing to betray their country and condemn themselves and their friends to death. This especially disappointing in light of the fact that in reality the Chinese woman spy in question didn't betray her country-she failed in her mission, only because her gun jammed! The truth would have made a much more compelling story! Do we really have to sit through another misogynistic movie which portrays Asian women as mindless sex-toys? Shame on you Ang Lee! I would expect this kind of drivel from Hollywood-but you are an Asian man! Professor Jon.… Expand

See all 24 User Reviews

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