[psycho d]

Lust, Caution (2007). Ang Lee is no mouse when tackling seamy issues, and when he set out to create this sexual thriller, he tossed in the biggest kitchen sink ever. From the sex scenes to the production set, every single thing was done in a cyclopean magnitude. A racy little NC17 number, this one fully exposed the, er, many talents of Asia. The story itself was a simple one, allowing for an authentic time period ambiance. The lead actress, picked from a posse of around ten thousand hopefuls, had never been in a full production movie. Ang Lee spent 3 months training her for the role. It worked, and her lead role was phenomenal. Old hand Tony Leung's talents were used to create perfectly subdued character whose intensity shot out his eyes like elephants on a trampoline. As expected, the direction and camera work were sublime. The movie was rather long at 2 hours and 37 minutes, but not one scene was superfluous or gratuitous. In other words, this epic was worth every minute.
d