Culture & Lifestyle

Shukan Bunshun (2/21)

"The first time I watched the love scenes in the finished film, I was surprised," admits Tang Wei, the 28-year-old actress who plays the romantic female lead opposite Tony Leung in the 2007 Ang Lee production, "Lust, Caution."

Based on a novelette by Eileen Chang and directed by Ang Lee -- Academy Award-winning director of "Brokeback Mountain" and "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" -- the film premiered at the 64th Venice International Film Festival and, reports Shukan Bunshun (2/21), immediately won praise for its steamy sex scenes.

The story takes place in Shanghai in 1942, when the city was occupied by the Japanese military. Wang Chia-chi, a student active in the resistance, is given the suicidal assignment of seducing Mr. Yee, a powerful official in the puppet government that has been collaborating with the hated Japanese occupiers, and setting him up for elimination.

Once Wang and Yee establish that their physical attraction is mutual, the defloration scene follows soon afterwards, with Ms. Tang shown gasping in pain as she loses her virginity. By the next cut, however, she's already rooting like a veteran trooper, squatting above him, impaled on his organ and grinding her hips.

And that's just the beginning. What we're destined to see is the 1942 Chinese version of the famous "Shijuhatte," the full set of 48 acrobatic positions as recorded in the Japanese Kama Sutra. Lusty lover Leung has his wild way with Wei, meting out an exquisite spanking with a leather belt, binding her hands behind her back, and then assuming the "Shikikomata" (Closed Loins) position, in which, as she faces down, he lies on top and penetrates her while pressing her legs inwards with his thighs for an extra tight fit.

Soon thereafter Leung lies flat on his back with Tang lying on her back above of him, her arms outstretched, in the position called "Shumoku Zori" (the Toppled Hammer). They then assume the position known as "Honkomagake" (Authentic Horseback Riding"), with Leung's upper body slightly leaning back and his hands on the floor, and Wei straddling him with her back towards him.

The camera subsequently zooms in on Leung's bare buttocks as he plunges away at his leading lady in the missionary position.

The two then pant, gasp and moan in ecstasy in their orgasmic finale, as he lifts up one of her legs and penetrates her from behind, in the posture known as "Kamo no Irikubi" (Duck Neck).

As the titles scrolled past and the curtain descended that weekday afternoon, Shukan Bunshun's reporter writes, the air in the theater hung heavy, perhaps from the exhalations of its audience. Middle aged women could be heard shifting in their seats, their plastic shopping bags making "kasakasa" rustling sounds.

"That girl was really pretty," one is heard to remark. "Yes, but a little on the skinny side," her companion nods.

"Well, I'm a little surprised," said a sixtyish matron. "I didn't expect it would go that far."

"It was great. During the second bed scene, the music changed, and you could almost feel the heat between the performers soar" --- this, Shukan Bunshun reports in astonishment, from a woman in her 50s who said she had come to see the film for the third time.

"In the uncut foreign version, Leung's male organ can be seen too," a film critic tells the magazine.

Will this perhaps lead middle-aged ladies to start flying abroad, to indulge themselves in a view of the unexpurgated version?

Who knows? Going to watch "Lust, Caution" with an open mind may even succeed in putting some sparks back into middle-aged couples' flagging affections. But the raunchy scenes are not for everyone. Shukan Bunshun cautions against couples going to see it on their first date. Or families taking along their kids -- who might ask their parents embarrassing questions afterwards. (By Masuo Kamiyama, contributing writer)