How Ang Lee’s Lust, Caution made waves for its sex scenes but overdid the caution

Although beautifully staged, this Hong Kong-US-China production starring Tony Leung and Tang Wei had a muddled story and misguided messages

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Tang Wei (left) and Tony Leung in a still from Ang Lee’s 2007 erotic spy thriller Lust, Caution. Photo: Edko Films

Published: 3:15pm, 20 Apr 2025Updated: 9:55am, 10 May 2025

The erotic spy thriller Lust, Caution achieved notoriety when it was released in 2007 as it was rumoured that the sex scenes between Tony Leung Chiu-wai and Chinese actress Tang Wei were the real thing.

Director Ang Lee, realising that the rumour was generating publicity, never explicitly denied or confirmed it, although interviews the director gave suggested that it was untrue.

In fact, the three relatively short sex scenes took a full 11 days to shoot and were constructed in the editing room from many hours of footage.

Lee’s assistant director described filming the sex scenes as “11 days in hell” and noted that “even Tony Leung, the seasoned actor who had been through it all, was close to collapse when he emerged from the small room 11 days later”.

But Tang, who had never acted in a film before, presumed the whole process was entirely normal, Lee said in an interview.

Outside the sex scenes, the Hong Kong-US-China production has less to offer than it promises. Although beautifully staged, the wartime thriller, based on a 28-page short story of the same name by Eileen Chang, is muddled in its exposition and misguided in its messages.