Lust Caution (NC17 Rated Widescreen) (2007)

USA Today
3 stars out of 4 -- "[B]eautifully mounted....A deliberately paced tale of espionage and double-crosses....[It] has a literary feel, unfolding at a stately pace." 09/28/2007 p.4E

Empire
4 stars out of 5 -- "This is a film of deceptive subtlety that springs its climax like a steel trap....Both provocative and satisfying..." 01/01/2008 p.54

Total Film
4 stars out of 5 -- "Lee's saucy, sumptuous slow-burner is a complex, elegant seduction, drawing on Hitchcock..." 01/01/2008 p.42

Los Angeles Times
"[An] intense, psychologically intricate and sexually explicit film....LUST, CAUTION gets under your skin with its examination of what qualifies as love and what does not." 10/05/2007

Sight and Sound
"[I]n her screen debut as Wong, Tang Wei is as much a revelation as was Zhang Ziyi in CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON." 02/01/2008 p.72

Uncut
4 stars out of 5 -- "An exquisitely choreographed study of romantic deception...and a satisfyingly complex analysis of political expediency." 06/01/2008 p.124

Ultimate DVD
4 stars out of 5 -- "LUST, CAUTION is a detailed and compelling period piece, with a decidedly dark underbelly." 05/01/2008 p.107

ReelViews 9 of 10
Ang Lee's follow-up to Brokeback Mountain is Lust, Caution. The film's receipt of an NC-17 by the MPAA was dutifully noted by the mainstream media, as was the distributor's (Focus Features) decision not to appeal the rating. NC-17 movies aren't released often and, when they are, they rarely make an impression at the box office - some mainstream multiplex chains refuse to show them and some newspapers will not advertise them. This has earned the NC-17 the nickname of the "kiss of death"...Lust, Caution is one of those films that requires patience. Like cold water brought to a boil, it takes a long time but once the bubbles start appearing, the roiling is impossible to stop. Lee, who has never been one to stand pat or rest in a particular genre (this is, after all, a filmmaker who has been responsible for such diverse fare as Crouching Tiger, Hulk, and Brokeback Mountain) moves fluidly into new territory and conquers it with an ease that is almost breathless. Aided by the nuanced, forceful performances of his two leads, he has made Lust, Caution something to be seen and savored. - James Berardinelli
 
Chicago Sun-Times 8 of 10
Ang Lee's "Lust, Caution" is first languid, then passionate, as it tells the story of a young woman who joins a political murder plot and then becomes emotionally involved with her enemy. It begins at a 1942 Mah-Jongg game in Hong Kong, when erotic undertones become clearly audible to us, and then flashes back to Shanghai, 1938, during the Japanese occupation of China...There is not a frame of the film that is not beautiful, but there may be too many frames. Why does Ang Lee go into such depth and detail to establish this world, and why does he delay the film's crucial scenes? I don't know, but of course seeing the film the first time I didn't know that was what he was doing and grew restless before I grew involved. Asked to edit the sex scenes to avoid the dreaded NC-17 rating, Lee quite properly refused and was backed all the way by James Schamus, his co-writer and also, significantly, head of Focus Features, which is releasing the film...The nature of the sex is Lee's subject, and he is too honest to suppress that. His moments of full frontal nudity avoid the awkwardness of most movie sex scenes in which the lovers, although alone, carefully mask their naughty bits. The scenes are not edited for erotic effect, it must be observed, but are treated in terms of their psychological meaning. - Roger Ebert