Ang Lee throws Lust, Caution to the wind

Remember when people said Ang Lee was daring for sending some cowboys up to Brokeback Mountain?

It looks like he was just revving up.

Lust, Caution is already stirring up another storm. Ang Lee has put together another provocative movie that has already made the Motion Picture Association of America blush.

Focus Features sealed the deal today by refusing to blink.
Variety reports they will release Lust, Caution uncut with an NC-17 rating.

While a Mandarin Chinese language film that doesn't involve high flying martial arts probably wouldn't get too wide a release here as it is, this means hypocritical movie theater chains will officially ban it simple because of its scarlet rating. They will, however, gladly sell you ticketst to torture-porn movies where people sadistically kill each other in gruesome detail. Sex? That might corrupt you in America.

Last weekend, I actually saw the trailer for Lust, Caution, unaware of any of this controversy. It simply caught me off guard since this movie wasn't even on my radar. It's a pairing between an Oscar-Winning director, and one of the best actors I've been lucky to follow through years of Hong Kong cinema, Tony Leung. That alone ensures I want to see this movie.

Lust, Caution opens in New York in late September, trickling out elsewhere around the country in October.

It deserves to find an audience.