Bankable director Ang Lee's spy thriller Lust, Caution has raked in 90 million yuan (about US$11.25 million) on the Chinese mainland since it opened at local cinemas on November 1, a source with the China Film Group Corporation revealed.

An company official surnamed Lai predicted that the box office gross for the film would exceed 100 million yuan "several days later".

The Bourne Ultimatum and Live Free or Die Hard, the next two foreign films introduced by the China Film Group Corporation, will hit Chinese mainland screens on Thursday.

"These two films will not greatly impact the box office of Lust, Caution, said Gao Jun, spokesman for the Beijing Film Association, one of the capital's major cinema lines.

Set in World War-II era Shanghai, Lust, Caution, starring mainland actress Tang Wei and Hong Kong actor Tony Leung Chiu-wai, is about a sexually-charged relationship between an undercover female student activist and a Japanese-allied intelligence chief.

Lee's movie, called Se, Jie in Chinese, has been a hot topic in the mainland media and among the public long before its official screening here due to its bold sex scenes. The movie has been given the restricted NC-17 label in the United States, banning viewers under 17.

In order to get approval for a mainland release, Lee, the Academy Award winning director of Brokeback Mountain, cut about seven minutes from the film. Despite being shorn of some of its sexual scenes, the film's mainland version has still won acclaim among most viewers.
 
(Xinhua News Agency November 15, 2007)

 

In a related story,  Clifford Coonan wrote:

 

BEIJING -- Ang Lee’s erotic spy thriller “Lust, Caution” may have lost its more daring sex scenes, but it’s still raising a blush among mainland Chinese auds and breaking new ground on the internet in terms of comments posted.

Some 1.5 million comments were blogged on the Sina website on the pic on November 6, making it the most commented-on film in Sina blog history. The number of comments in the debate about the movie has been rising by 100,000 a day since the Golden Lion-winning pic opened in China.

China’s social mores remain prudish about depictions of sexuality. And in the absence of a classification system, a big issue has been whether the movie is suitable viewing for all.

A large part of the debate is about the film’s sexy content, or rather the lack thereof, since Ang cut seven steamy minutes from the version shown on China’s big screens – in itself an achievement, it must be noted.

The two excised scenes – a scene of brutal sex and one acrobatic coupling – are doing busy trade on websites in China.

The comments posted run the gamut of views, and any similiarity to comments aroused by the screening of “Last Tango in Paris,” “Deep Throat,” or “9 1/2 Weeks,” is entirely coincidental.

“Chinese people are too narrow-minded. This is art. The press makes it out as if it is unbearably obscene. “Lust, Caution” is a good film,” ran one posting.

Another broad-minded webizen wrote: “I don’t understand why in China sex scenes have to be cut out while in the west people just show it.” However, those opposing the film were also set in their beliefs. “When a famous director makes this kind of movie, it’s called art. If it’s done by a nobody, then it’s called porn,” said one blogger. Another said it was a sign that directors and actors were low-class.

“One wants to make money, the other wants fame. It’s a pity they had to ruin such a nice script.” 

 

(Written by Clifford Coonan, 09 November 2007,  www.varietyasiaonline.com)