Still photograph of "Lust, Caution"(File Photo)
SHANGHAI, Sept. 12 -- DON'T expect any sex scene when you sit down to watch director Ang Lee's "Lust, Caution" on the mainland. The Taiwanese director has cut 30 minutes of steamy scenes from his award winning film for its mainland run, the Southeast Express reported today.
The film, which just won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, has triggered controversy because of its explicit violence and sex shots. It received the strictest US rating of "NC-17," which bans viewers younger than 17. Lee has refused to make any cuts to the American version of the film to get a different rating, even though NC-17 will keep it out of many theaters.
Cuts for the mainland include the sex scenes played by first-time actress Tang Wei and one of Asia's biggest screen stars, Tony Leung, as well as violent scenes played by Chinese-American pop star Leehom Wang, the report said.
The mainland debut will be delayed to late October from the scheduled September, the report said.
The movie is a World War II thriller set in Shanghai featuring long and sometimes violent sex scenes Lee has hinted were real.
The film is Lee's return to the theme of forbidden love after gay cowboy hit "Brokeback," but this time the setting is the teeming streets of 1940s Shanghai.
The film centers on a group of revolutionary students bent on killing a powerful political figure who collaborates with invading Japanese forces during the World War II.
