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Se, jie (2007)

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'Shanghai' Goes to Thailand
2 April 2008 (StudioBriefing)
Thailand will stand in for China after the Chinese government refused to allow The Weinstein Co. to film its movie Shanghai in Shanghai, the New York Post reported today (Wednesday). "After spending three months in Shanghai doing pre-production, China decided they didn't want us there. They took our permit away," Harvey Weinstein told the newspaper's "Page Six" column. The government's decision, he added, forced him to travel all over Southeast Asia to scout locations. He said that the government had pulled a number of other Western film permits in reaction to the controversial sex scenes that appeared in Taiwanese director Ang Lee's award-winning Lust, Caution, which was filmed in China but condemned by Chinese cultural officials.

How Will They Produce the Oscars?
10 January 2008 (StudioBriefing)
Speculation continued to mount in Hollywood Wednesday about how the Oscars might be produced if the writers' strike is not settled by February 4. "We are going to do it," producer Gil Cates told the Associated Press Tuesday. "I can't elaborate on how we're going to do it, because I don't want anybody to deal with the elaboration in a way that might impact its success." Some speculated that the ceremonies could be produced in animation (writers of animated programs are not covered by the WGA contract). Others, that it could be produced by David Letterman's Worldwide Pants, which has signed an interim agreement with the WGA. And Britain's Guardian newspaper proposed a "Team America Oscars" in which puppets, like those used in Matt Stone and Trey Parker's Team America: World Police, would stand in for the stars. "At least an hour could be devoted to recreating the sex scenes between Tony Leung and Wei Tang in Lust, Caution," the newspaper said.

BAFTA Rising Star Nominees Announced
9 January 2008 (WENN)
Shia LaBeouf, Sienna Miller and Ellen Page have all been nominated for the Orange Rising Star award at the British Academy Film And Television Awards (BAFTAs) this year. The actors will compete against Sam Riley, star of Joy Division biopic Control and Lust Caution's Wei Tang for the prize, which seeks to recognize up-and-coming performers demonstrating "exceptional talent." The category was established in honor of late casting director Mary Selway, who died in 2004, with the inaugural honor going to Scottish actor James McAvoy. Casino Royale star Eva Green, who won the award last year, announced the nominees on Tuesday, saying, "This year's five nominees are all actors who have really stood out in their work and I'm sure we'll see a lot more of them throughout 2008." The honor is the only one of the BAFTAs voted for the public. The winner will be announced at the official ceremony on February 10.

Ang Lee Finds Sex Scenes Tough
4 January 2008 (WENN)
Chinese film stars Tony Leung and Wei Tang spent two weeks filming sex scenes for Lust, Caution - because director Ang Lee found the experience "exhausting." Lee admits he was forced to halt filming several times as shooting the steamy scenes was too challenging. He explains, "If we were shooting a porno film, we would have done all those scenes in two days. After half a day, I'd have to call a stop because it's so exhausting. Physically it's not that difficult, but it's mentally exhausting."

China Warns Directors of Films With Erotic Scenes
31 December 2007 (StudioBriefing)
China's state-run Administration of Radio, Film and Television has warned Chinese film directors and studios that they will be subject to the "heaviest punishment" if they include erotic scenes in their features. "Violating studios might face the harshest punishment of revoking permits for shooting films," it added. Moreover, the censorship body warned, any film director submitting movies with erotic content to overseas film festivals could be subjected to a five-year ban from the movie industry, according to Beijing News. The newspaper listed the following banned content: rape, whoring, obscene sex exposing human genitals, or sex freaks, vulgar conversations, nasty songs and sound effects with sexual connotation. The director Ang Lee recently recut his film Lust, Caution for Chinese consumption to conform to state rules regarding erotic subject matter.

'Lust, Caution' Wins Big at Taiwanese Golden Horse Awards
10 December 2007 (WENN)
Ang Lee's controversial Lust, Caution dominated the Golden Horse Awards in his native Taiwan on Saturday, taking home seven trophies including Best Film and Best Director. The erotic World War II drama also won prizes including Best Actor for Tony Leung, Best Newcomer for Tang Wei and Outstanding Taiwanese Filmmaker Of The Year for Lee. Elsewhere, Lust, Caution star Joan Chen won Best Actress for her role in another movie, The Home Song Stories, and Tony Cheung collected Best Supporting Actor for his performance in The Drummer. Lust, Caution is ineligible to enter the 2008 Academy Awards race for Best Foreign Film after Oscar bosses decided too few people from Taiwan were involved in making the movie.

'I'm Not There' Leads Spirit Nominations
28 November 2007 (WENN)
Director Todd Haynes' quirky, all-star Bob Dylan-inspired movie I'm Not There is set to be the toast of the IFC Independent Spirit Awards in Santa Monica, Los Angeles in February, after landing the event's first Robert Altman Award. Announced at the Spirit Awards last year, the honor is given to the director, casting agent and cast of an outstanding indie movie. In I'm Not There, Heath Ledger, Richard Gere and Cate Blanchett are among the actors who conjure up the spirit of Dylan at different stages of his life for the offbeat biopic. The movie was also nominated for the Spirits' Best Film prize, where it will compete with Julian Schnabel's The Diving Bell And The Butterfly, Juno, A Mighty Heart and Paranoid Park. Blanchett and Marcus Carl Franklin earned Best Supporting Actress and Actor nods respectively for their portrayals of Dylan, and Todd Haynes is a Best Director nominee. Other four-film nominees are acclaimed coming-of-age film Juno, The Diving Bell And The Butterfly and The Savages.

Meanwhile, Ang Lee's controversial Lust, Caution is also a multi-nominee; the film's stars Tony Leung and Tang Wei are up for Best Actor and Actress honors, while Rodrigo Prieto's cinematography is also under consideration. French actress Julie Delpy's 2 Days In Paris earned her a First Feature nomination; she'll be up against Jeffrey Blitz's Rocket Science, which garnered three nominations. In the lead acting categories, Angelina Jolie is an immediate favorite for her role as grieving Mariane Pearl in A Mighty Heart. Jolie will compete against Sienna Miller (Interview), Parker Posey (Broken English), Ellen Page (Juno) and Tang Wei. Leung will be up against Pedro Castaneda (August Evening), Don Cheadle (Talk To Me), Philip Seymour Hoffman (The Savages) and Frank Langella (Starting Out In The Evening) in the Best Actor category. The nominations were announced on Tuesday morning by Lisa Kudrow and Zach Braff.

China Warns of Viruses Infecting Uncensored 'Lust, Caution' Videos
19 November 2007 (StudioBriefing)
China is attempting to discourage potential moviegoers from downloading the uncensored version of Ang Lee's Lust, Caution by warning them that the pirated version often contains software viruses. Some seven minutes of explicit sex scenes were removed from the film before it could receive permission to be shown in Chinese theaters. It has nevertheless earned more than $12 million at the Chinese box office, a blockbuster figure in that country. Li Ting of Rising International Software Co. told Reuters that online bootleggers "are taking advantage of popular entertainment hotspots for movies and music to attack personal computers and spread viruses."

Chinese Law Student Sues Censor Board
14 November 2007 (StudioBriefing)
Angry that Chinese censors ordered graphic sex scenes removed from Ang Lee's Lust, Caution, a Chinese student at China University of Political Science and Law in Beijing has filed a lawsuit against the State Administration of Radio Film and Television, alleging that it had infringed on his "consumer rights" and "society's public interest," the Beijing Times reported today (Wednesday). The student, Dong Yanbin, is demanding that the board apologize and pay him the equivalent of $67 for "psychological damages." Analysts believe that it is unlikely that Chinese courts will accept the case.

Sexy 'Lust, Caution' a Hit in China
7 November 2007 (StudioBriefing)
Ang Lee's Lust, Caution, which was released in the U.S. with the highly restrictive NC-17 rating after its producers decided that explicit sex scenes should not be removed, has become a hit in China even with those scenes cut. China Film Group, the movie's distributor, said today (Wednesday) that the film has earned $5.4 million in its first four days of release. Chen Ji, manager of Oriental New Century Theater in Beijing, told the state-run Xinhua News Agency, "The movie has so far had the best box-office returns of all the movies shown in our theater over the past three months." Some industry analysts had predicted that the movie, the winner of the top award at the Venice Film Festival, would perform poorly in Chinese theaters if pirated DVDs, with the sex scenes left intact, competed with it.

Studio Cautious Over 'Caution'
23 October 2007 (StudioBriefing)
Focus Features has indicated that Ang Lee's award-winning Lust, Caution may never receive a wide release in the U.S. Focus CEO James Schamus told the Associated Press in an email that the U.S. movie market is "insanely overcrowded." He added, "Every art-house film that tries to go wide is having trouble, so while we are going out in every major market and getting great numbers, we are being very cautious until we see how the market shakes out." He called Caution "a very Asian film ... whose politics and sexuality are challenging." So, it would seem, is the film's NC-17 rating. Shamus said that newspapers in Salt Lake City are refusing to carry ads for the movie.

New Delay in China for Ang Lee Film
18 October 2007 (StudioBriefing)
Despite the fact that director Ang Lee has reportedly trimmed about eight minutes of the most explicit sex scenes from his Chinese-language Lust, Caution, the film has yet to be passed by Chinese censors and its release date has now been pushed back to November 1, distributor China Film Group confirmed Wednesday. Pirate copies of the award-winning film, already a hit in Hong Kong (which appoints its own film-review board), are being pedaled on the streets of many major Chinese cities -- presumably without cuts, making the delayed release on the mainland of even greater concern.

Heartbreaks at the Box Office
8 October 2007 (StudioBriefing)
The box-office turned out to be a heartbreaker on many levels over the weekend. First of all, the DreamWorks/Paramount release The Heartbreak Kid, which analysts had predicted would trounce the competition with ticket sales of $24-28 million, took in only $14 million. The fantasy film The Seeker: The Dark Is Rising, from 20th Century Fox and Walden Entertainment, which critics had compared (mostly unfavorably) with the Harry Potter movies, bombed in its debut with just $3.75 million, averaging just $1,186 per theater. Analysts had predicted it would earn $9-12 million. Theaters showing Sony TriStar's Feel the Noise felt mostly silence as the movie tanked with just $3.4 million. Overall, revenue for the top-12 movies added up to just $65.7 million, down 35 percent from the comparable weekend a year ago. There were a couple of bright spots obvious in the weekend tally. The Dwyane "The Rock" Johnson movie The Game Plan fell just 29 percent and remained the box-office leader with an estimated take of $16.3 million. The art houses continued to boom. Michael Clayton, starring George Clooney, opened with $704,000 in 15 theaters, averaging $47,000 per theater. (It is due to open wide next weekend.) Fox Searchlight expanded The Darjeeling Limited to 19 theaters, where it grossed a solid $552,000 -- or $29,100 per theater. Focus Films moved Ang Lee's NC-17-rated Lust, Caution into 17 theaters, where it grossed a strong $368,831 -- or $21,700 per theater. And Warner Bros.' put a digitally remastered "director's cut" of the classic Blade Runner into one theater in New York and another in Los Angeles, where it took in a surprising $95,000 -- or $47,500 per theater.

The top ten films for the weekend, according to studio estimates compiled by Media by Numbers: 1. The Game Plan, $16.3 million; 2. The Heartbreak Kid, $14 million; 3. The Kingdom, $9.3 million; 4. Resident Evil: Extinction, $4.3 million; 5. The Seeker: The Dark Is Rising, $3.7 million; 6. Good Luck Chuck, $3.5 million; 7. Feel the Noise, $3.4 million; 8. 3:10 to Yuma, $3 million; 9. The Brave One, $2.3 million; 10. Mr. Woodcock, $2 million.

Movie Reviews: 'Lust, Caution'
1 October 2007 (StudioBriefing)
Ang Lee's Lust, Caution, which recently won the top prize at the Venice Film Festival despite mixed reviews from critics there, didn't do much better with critics in New York, where it opened this past weekend. Manohla Dargis in the New York Times said that it "feels at once overpadded and underdeveloped: it's all production design and not enough content." Likewise Claudia Puig in USA Today called it "beautifully mounted but rather unmoving." Lou Lumenick in the New York Post admitted that after 90 minutes of the 2 1/2-hour film, "I was struggling to stay awake." Moreover, he wrote, the performances "are so flat that you don't really much care what happens to anybody." On the other hand, John Anderson in Newsday commented that "there is an unstinting integrity to Lee's imagery, be it seductive, violent or violently erotic."

'Bourne' Knocked From Overseas Perch
1 October 2007 (StudioBriefing)
The month-long reign of The Bourne Ultimatum at the top of the overseas box office ended this past weekend as the Adam Sandler movie, I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, took over the lead. The comedy took in $9.3 million. Meanwhile, Ang Lee's controversial Lust, Caution, opened in 95 theaters in Taiwan with $2.9 million, a September record.

'The Kingdom' Rocked by 'The Game Plan'
1 October 2007 (StudioBriefing)
A lot more surprising than the outcome of any wrestling match, The Game Plan earned an estimated $22.7 million at the box office over the weekend, beating the hands-down favorite, The Kingdom, which came in at $17.7 million. The Kingdom earned about as much as analysts had predicted, but some of them doubted that The Game Plan, which stars former wrestler Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, would even take in half as much as it eventually did. A third newcomer, Feast of Love, was more famine than feast as it settled for just $1.8 million and failed even to make the top-ten list. Last week's No. 1 film, Resident Evil: Extinction dropped by two-thirds, taking in just $8 million. Two films opening only in New York produced outstanding results. The Darjeeling Limited, with Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody and Jason Schwartzman, earned $140,000 in just two theaters, making its $70,000-per-theater average the best of the year. Taking in only slightly less than that was the Ang Lee NC-17-rated Lust, Caution, which played in just one theater and earned $61,700.

The top ten films for the weekend, according to studio estimates compiled by Media by Numbers: 1. The Game Plan, $22.7 million; 2. The Kingdom, $17.7 million; 3. Resident Evil: Extinction, $8 million; 4. Good Luck Chuck, $6.3 million; 5. 3:10 to Yuma, $4.2 million; 6. The Brave One, $3.8 million; 7. Mr. Woodcock, $3 million; 8. Eastern Promises, $2.9 million; 9. Sydney White, $2.7 million; 10. Across the Universe, $2.05 million.

Lee's Film Applauded in His Homeland
25 September 2007 (StudioBriefing)
It may have received mixed reviews from critics at the recent Venice film festival -- where it nevertheless was awarded the top Golden Lion award -- but, according to news reports from Taipei, Ang Lee's Lust, Caution received widespread approval from moviegoers when it premiered in the Taiwan capital Monday night. Lee is regarded as a cultural hero in the country, once called Nationalist China to differentiate it from the Communist-ruled mainland. A small controversy erupted in Venice when the film was identified as having been produced in "Taiwan, China." Although a government committee permitted the film to be shown uncut in Taiwan, Lee agreed to remove about 30 minutes of explicit sex scenes from the film for its release on the mainland. (It has been rated NC-17 in the U.S.) At a forum for young directors in Hong Kong Sunday Lee said he did not expect the movie to be a big success in the U.S. "Its pace, its film language -- it's all very Chinese," he said. "It's not very audience-friendly for a market like the U.S."

Lee Cuts NC-17 Film So It Can Be Viewed by Chinese Kids
12 September 2007 (StudioBriefing)
Although Ang Lee's Lust, Caution has been rated NC-17 by the MPAA for explicit sex scenes, the film has been reedited for showing in China so that it can be seen by children, according to the state news agency Xinhua. Xinhua reported today (Wednesday) that the Chinese-language film was personally cut by Lee himself "to protect its integrity." The wire service indicated that 30 minutes of scenes with sexual and violent content were excised. "The spirit of the film remains despite the cutting and the fluency will not be affected," Lee told Xinhua. In a separate interview with today's (Wednesday) USA Today, Lee said that he included the explicit sex scenes because "it's just the movie I wanted to make. I didn't care if it would lose money." He acknowledged that "I'm kind of a big figure in filmmaking over there [China] and also culturally. It's a lot of burden on my shoulders."

Ang Lee's Den of Lions
10 September 2007 (StudioBriefing)
For the second time in three years, a film by Taiwanese director Ang Lee has won the top Golden Lion award at the Venice Film Festival. His controversial Chinese-language drama Lust, Caution, which drew an NC-17 rating from the MPAA for its upcoming U.S. release, was regarded as a surprise winner. Critics had greeted it with vastly divergent reviews. Lee's victory comes two years after accepting the Golden Lion for his equally controversial Brokeback Mountain. Other winners included Brad Pitt, who received a best actor award for his performance as the famed outlaw in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, and Cate Blanchett, who was voted best actress for her role as the young Bob Dylan in Todd Haynes' I'm Not There. (The film also tied for the Special Jury Prize with the French film The Secret of the Grain.) Brian De Palma received the runner-up Silver Lion award for his Iraq war drama, Redacted. Pitt received news of his surprise win at Venice while attending the Toronto Film Festival. He told the online Hollywood Today: "The nicest thing is how excited my friends are for me and ... to be amongst the lineage of people that have also been bestowed this honor. It's a really nice honor. I could try to play it down, but it's great fun."

Ang Lee Triumphs at Venice Film Festival
10 September 2007 (WENN)
Director Ang Lee has triumphed at the Venice Film Festival - by winning the event's top award for the second time in two years. The filmmaker was awarded the Golden Lion for Lust, Caution at this year's festival in Italy; the same honor he won in 2005 for Brokeback Mountain. He dedicated his prize to iconic Swedish director Ingmar Bergman, who died in July. Cate Blanchett was named Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival for her role in Bob Dylan biopic I'm Not There, while Brad Pitt was awarded the Best Actor honor for The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford, although neither star was at the ceremony to collect their prize. Pitt told reporters at the Toronto Film Festival, where he is promoting the outlaw movie, "I could try to play it down, but it's great fun. The nicest thing is how excited my friends are for me and to be amongst the lineage of people that have also been bestowed this honor. It's a really nice honor." Other winners included Brian De Palma, who was honored for Best Direction for Iraq War drama Redacted. British director Ken Loach was awarded Best Screenplay for It's a Free World, while Italian director Bernardo Bertolucci was lauded with a special award for his work in cinema, which includes Last Tango In Paris and The Last Emperor.

Lee's 'Lust' Censored in China
4 September 2007 (WENN)
Ang Lee's new thriller Lust, Caution has been cut for Chinese audiences, just a week after U.S. censors gave the film a restricted rating. The Taiwanese film-maker admits Lust, Caution is "unsuitable for children" but was surprised it had fallen foul of censors in north America. Last month, the Motion Picture Association of America gave Lust, Caution an NC-17 rating, which means only adults aged 18 and over can watch the movie. Screen Daily reports explicit scenes in Lust, Caution will be censored for the Chinese audience.

Ang Lee Sidesteps Controversies Over His Latest Film
31 August 2007 (StudioBriefing)
Oscar-winning director Ang Lee (Brokeback Mountain) sidestepped a couple of controversies when they were raised at the Venice Film Festival Thursday. Attending the festival to promote his upcoming NC-17-rated Lust, Caution, Lee feigned political innocence when asked about a complaint lodged by the Taiwan government over the festival's decision to designate the film as coming from "Taiwan, China." "I don't really have that much to say," Lee told reporters. "They seem to be changing it from one to the other. Once you find out, please let me know." Later, when asked whether the two stars were actually engaging in sex during a torrid scene in the movie, Lee answered obliquely with a question of his own. "Have you seen the film?" he asked.

Venice Makes Its Annual Splash
29 August 2007 (StudioBriefing)
The 75th annual Venice Film Festival is scheduled to open today (Wednesday) with a screening of Atonement, starring Keira Knightley and James McAvoy. Reporters attending the festival have expressed high regard for the festival's selections this year. They include the controversial Ang Lee drama, Lust, Caution, which was slapped with an NC-17 rating by the MPAA last week because of its sexual content. Focus Features, which is releasing the movie on September 28, has said that it will not contest the rating -- often regarded as a mark of death, since many newspapers refuse to carry ads for films bearing the rating and many theater chains and individual theaters refuse to show them. However, raising a bigger to-do in Venice has been the decision of the festival organizers to note that the film was made in "Taiwan, China." The government of Taiwan -- often referred to as Nationalist China -- has complained that the designation makes it appear as if Taiwan is ruled by the mainland government -- often referred to as Communist China.