Ang Lee’s next film, “Lust, Caution,” should continue the director’s line of innovative, sometimes controversial films.
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Will the man who brought you flying martial artists and cowboy lovers rock you further with his new film?
Probably not right away. Director Ang Lee’s next release, “Lust, Caution,” will see United States territory this Friday. How much territory is not yet known, as the film was given the dreaded NC-17 by the Motion Picture Association of America, an act considered box office poison by industry analysts.
It’s no surprise that a Lee film is courted with controversy from the gate. One of his most successful, “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” won Best Foreign Language Film at the Oscars despite criticism of the sword-wielding movie’s American funding.
Comic book fans were not kind to “Hulk,” Lee’s interpretation of the not-so-jolly green giant. Leaping around like he didn’t weigh 12 million tons, followers of the Church of Marvel wanted a film that better represented the mutant hero. (They’ll get their wish when a Lee-free “The Incredible Hulk,” which has Edward Norton as Bruce Banner, hits theaters next year.)
Do we even need to get into “Brokeback Mountain”? Maybe Hollywood didn’t think anything of the content, but man did we pitch a fit. Apparently two men falling in love on a ranch triggers eloquent jokes and stabs from people who haven’t seen the movie. All involved players, especially stars Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal, deserve praise for tolerating the “Scary Movie 4” parody, much less the 12-year-old Jessica Turner’s lawsuit citing mental illness after seeing it in a classroom.
Now we have “Lust, Caution,” set during World War II Shanghai. An actress (Tang Wei) tries to play a rich woman searching for adventure to help a partisan group try to keep her country from foreign occupation.
The reason for the MPAA’s rating: “Strong explicit sexuality,” a typical NC-17 citation. Lee is admirable for allowing distribution company Focus Features to keep the rating, which usually limits the amount of theaters that will screen a movie. Judging from the Oscar buzz, it might generate acclaim anyway, proof that Lee doesn’t need the mainstream’s help to reach success.
