Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} Lust Caution The Story the Screenplay and the Making of the Film by Eileen Chang Lust, caution : the story, the screenplay, and the making of the film. A major motion picture (2007) from Oscar-winning director Ang Lee ( Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon; Brokeback Mountain ): an intensely passionate story of love and espionage, set in Shanghai during World War II. In the midst of the Japanese occupation of China and Hong Kong, two lives become intertwined: Wong Chia Chi, a young student active in the resistance, and Mr. Yee, a powerful political figure who works for the Japanese occupational government. As these two move deftly between Shanghai’s tea parties and secret interrogations, they become embroiled in the complicated politics of wartime—and in a mutual attraction that may be more than what they expected. Written in lush, lavish prose, and with the tension of a political thriller, Lust, Caution brings 1940s Shanghai artfully to life even as it limns the erotic pulse of a doomed love affair. Lust, Caution: The Story, the Screenplay, and the Making of the Film. Now a major motion picture from Oscar-winning director Ang Lee ( Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Brokeback Mountain ): an intensely passionate story of love and espionage, set in Shanghai during World War II. In the midst of the Japanese occupation of China and Hong Kong, two lives become intertwined: Wong Chia Chi, a young student active in the resistance, and Mr. Yee, a powerful political figure who works for the Japanese occupational government. As these two move deftly between Shanghai's tea parties and secret interrogations, they become embroiled in the complicated politics of wartime — and in a mutual attraction that may be more than what they expected. Written in lush, lavish prose, and with the tension of a political thriller, Lust, Caution brings 1940s Shanghai artfully to life even as it limns the erotic pulse of a doomed love affair. Lust, Caution: The Story, the Screenplay, and the Making of the Film. A major motion picture (2007) from Oscar-winning director Ang Lee (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon; Brokeback Mountain): an intensely passionate story of love and espionage, set in Shanghai during World War II. In the midst of the Japanese occupation of China and Hong Kong, two lives become intertwined: Wong Chia Chi, a young student active in the resistance, and Mr. Yee, a powerful political figure who works for the Japanese occupational government. As these two move deftly between Shanghai’s tea parties and secret interrogations, they become embroiled in the complicated politics of wartime—and in a mutual attraction that may be more than what they expected. Written in lush, lavish prose, and with the tension of a political thriller, Lust, Caution brings 1940s Shanghai artfully to life even as it limns the erotic pulse of a doomed love affair. From Eileen Chang to Ang Lee : Lust/Caution. In 2007, Ang Lee made an espionage thriller based on the short story "Lust, Caution" by Eileen Chang, China’s most famous female author of the twentieth century. The release of the film became a trigger for heated debates on issues of national identity and political loyalty, and brought unexpectedly harsh criticism from China, where Ang Lee was labelled a traitor in scathing internet critiques, whilst the film's leading actress Tang Wei was banned from appearing on screen for two years. This book analyses Ang Lee’s art of film adaptation through the lens of modern literary and film theory, as well as featuring detailed readings and analyses of different dialogues and scenes, directorial and authorial decisions and intentions, while at the same time confronting the intense political debates resulting from the film’s subject matter. The theories of Freud, Lacan, Deleuze, Bataille and others are used to identify and clarify issues raised by the film related to gender, sexuality, eroticism, power, manipulation, and betrayal; the themes of lust and caution are dealt with in conjunction with the controversial issues of contemporary political consciousness concerning patriotism, and the Sino-Japanese War complicated by divided historical experiences and cross-Taiwan Strait relationships. The contributors to this volume cover translation and adaptation, loyalty and betrayal, collaboration and manipulation, playing roles and performativity, whilst at the same time intertwining these with issues of national identity, political loyalty, collective memory, and gender. As such, the book will appeal to students and scholars of Chinese and Asian cinema and literature, as well as those interested in modern Chinese history and cultural studies. ‘Lust, Caution’ and the MPAA. “Lust, Caution,” which starts a limited release Friday, received an NC-17 rating from the Motion Picture Assn. of America last month that the film’s distributor, Focus Features, and Oscar-winning director, Ang Lee, did not appeal. The film’s title could be the unofficial motto of the MPAA’s rating system. A spy thriller with erotic elements set in World War II-era Shanghai, “Lust” contains enough nudity and graphic sex that the filmmakers saw no point in disputing that adults are, in fact, its target audience. But the rating severely restricts the filmmakers’ ability to distribute and market the movie, which has thus far received mixed reviews on the festival circuit. You can get a look at the original offending documents in “Lust, Caution: The Story, the Screenplay, and the Making of the Film.” The book includes the screenplay written by Wang Hui Ling and Focus Chief Executive James Schamus, as well as Eileen Chang’s short story, from which they adapted their script. Various crew members -- Oscar-nominated cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto, script supervisor Sherrie Liu, Oscar-nominated editor Tim Squyres -- contribute brief essays on translating challenging aspects of the screenplay into its final visual form. First assistant director Roseanna Ng’s amusing little entry, “Eleven Days in Hell,” details the human toll of filming three minimal-crew “love” scenes in tiny rooms. Meanwhile, Kevin S. Sandler, assistant professor of media arts in the producing program at the University of Arizona, has written a wide-ranging analysis of the history and effect of the NC-17 rating called “The Naked Truth: Why Hollywood Doesn’t Make X-Rated Movies.” Sandler argues in his book that the NC-17 rating protects the industry more than it does young viewers. Because of the resulting limitations in advertising and distribution, and the contractual requirement for most filmmakers to deliver R ratings, NC-17 movies remain rare, and the rating is almost always triggered by sex, not violence. Sandler dissects most of the usual touchstones since the rating was invented in 1990 (“Henry & June,” “Bad Lieutenant,” “Showgirls”), but also analyzes the skewed deference shown major studios and heavyweights such as Steven Spielberg, who have long had greater leverage within the ratings system than independent producers when it comes to depictions of violence that garner more permissive ratings. Throughout the book, Sandler makes extensive use of the archived papers of Richard Heffner, who was chairman of the MPAA’s Classification and Rating Administration from 1974 to 1994. Given the imbalance in how the rating is applied, the implicit sexual embargo that comes with the NC-17 is just another manifestation of the infantilization of an American society that uses little cartoon blobs to pitch mood-altering drugs in television commercials. In any case, any organization that considers pubic hair and orgasms (see “The Cooler” and “Boys Don’t Cry,” which had to trim those visuals to achieve an R) more damaging to a teenage mind than the graphic depictions of torture (see “Hostel: Part II”) should itself be, well, restricted. Using technology to his advantage. Score another matchmaking deal for YouTube and Craigslist, the hip and unruly cousins of Hollywood’s standard discovery channels. Aspiring screenwriter John Sparano has both to thank for the most recent option on his original screenplay “What You Can Do for Your Country.” Sparano has had four original screenplays optioned over the years, and he wrote and directed a short film, “Reality School,” that played the L.A. Short Film Festival in 2002. Long practiced in finding creative opportunities to get his screenplays in people’s hands (like inadvertently picking up a nearby producer’s home wireless network on his laptop, then asking around the neighborhood for his address so he could plant a script in his mailbox), Sparano responded to a Craigslist ad for an unpaid production designer job on the Universal lot with Roberts/David Films (“Strangers With Candy”). Sparano has taken unpaid Craigslist gigs for videos and commercials before -- usually if they promised a usable credit -- and one of his short scripts was recently filmed by a director who found him through the site, but he remains justifiably cautious. “If [Roberts/David] weren’t on the lot I never would have bothered,” says Sparano, who’s a production shopper on projects such as “Poor Things” and F/X’s “The Riches.” “Because my ultimate goal with this is to meet people and push things. It turned out they were for real.” The design gig was for a spoof of Avril Lavigne’s “Girlfriend” music video performed by comedienne Joy Gohring (“Good Girls Don’t. . . ") in the guise of her well-feathered alter ego, widowed Southern Sen. Kim McFriendly, a fake presidential candidate for 2008 ( www.kimmcfriendly.com). Once the Lavigne spoof was shot, Sparano slipped producer Lorena David, also a director (“Extreme Dating”), a copy of “What You Can Do.” The story of a promiscuous, twentysomething woman running for Congress not as a button-down Hillary Rodham Clinton type but as a woman with her feminine qualities on full display, “Country” explores women-in-politics terrain similar to that of the McFriendly clips. Five years ago, Roadside Attractions (“Lovely & Amazing”) optioned “Country” and temporarily attached director Jim Fall (“The Lizzie McGuire Movie”). Now David has taken a six-month option on the screenplay and says she plans to shop it as her next directing project. “Sometimes great ideas come together during the most bizarre circumstances,” Sparano says, “and online sites like Craigslist and YouTube are replacing conventional pitch meetings and film festivals. I probably would have made some excuse not to do the video if I didn’t have something that the parties involved were already passionate about. I felt like my odds were pretty good.”