Just caution

God, I just watched the movie by Lee Ang, "Lust,Caution". Yes Singapore (unfortunately again) got the NC16 version which means about 10 minutes of erotic sex scenes were cut so that those above 16!!! are safe to watch.

In WWII-era Shanghai, Wong Chia Chi (Tang Wei) is a Chinese college student who gets involved with a drama club after meeting Kuang Yu Min (Want Lee Hom), a charismatic fellow classmate. While Wong is happy performing on the stage, Kuang asks her to take on a very dangerous role in real life. She is to transform herself into Mrs. Mak and make friends with the wife (Joan Chen) of a major Japanese collaborator, Mr. Yee (Tony Leung), only to ensnare him into an affair so that her Kuang and his cohorts can kill him. However, the plan fails to work out at the time, but after several years pass, Kuang re-enters Wong's life, whereupon he asks her to resume their deadly mission.

I happened to think that 3 particular so called sex scenes are so very crucial to the emotions and angst portrayed by the characters. But all were CUT. I feel Tang Wei and Tony Leung, the lovers, gave an average performance, Tang with her intense enigmatic pouting and Tony with his piercing roving eyes. And why was Joan Chen casted as Tony's wife, too old looking. The worst was Wang Lee Hom, with his ABC accented mandarin, and stony acting. His casting is a bit salah (wrong), as Lee Hom is such a clean cut pretty boy, how to act as a rugged rebel? Lee Ang should have casted Edison Chen or Chang Chen instead.

After Brokeback Mountain, Lee Ang did not throw caution to the wind with "Lust,Caution" story line, literally speaking. Yawn.