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'Lust, Caution' Box Office Hit in Taiwan

 
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summertime



Joined: 16 Dec 2004
Posts: 923

PostPosted: Mon Oct 08, 2007 3:05 am    Post subject: 'Lust, Caution' Box Office Hit in Taiwan

Oct. 5, 2007, 9:03AM

'Lust, Caution' Box Office Hit in Taiwan


By MIN LEE AP Entertainment Writer
© 2007 The Associated Press

HONG KONG — Ang Lee's award-winning Chinese-language spy thriller "Lust, Caution" has broken the 100 million dollar mark in his native Taiwan, a result usually only achieved by Hollywood blockbusters, one of the movie's investors said Friday.

"Lust, Caution" has made 128 million Taiwan dollars ($3.9 million) as of Thursday, Edko Films General Manager for Sales and Acquisitions Audrey Lee told The Associated Press in a phone interview.

Lee's younger brother and fellow filmmaker Lee Kang told the AP the results were surprising because the movie, which features explicit sex scenes, is banned from viewers younger than 18, as is the case in Hong Kong and Malaysia.

In Hong Kong, "Lust, Caution" has made 17.2 million Hong Kong dollars ($2.2 million) from its release on Sept. 26 to Thursday, Audrey Lee said.

By comparison, the Hollywood movie "Transformers" made 28.2 million Hong Kong dollars ($3.6 million) in the territory by its 11-day mark earlier this year.

The strong numbers were likely helped by Lee's household name status in the Chinese-speaking world and the director's recent promotional stops in both Hong Kong and Taiwan. Lee is considered a hero in his native Taiwan, where he grew up before studying theater and film in the U.S.

"Lust, Caution" also won the top Golden Lion prize at the recent Venice Film Festival.

The movie has also generated much buzz in Chinese-speaking communities for its strong sexuality. It features abusive and violent sex scenes and a variety of sexual positions.

"Lust, Caution," based on a short story by famed Chinese writer Eileen Chang, is about a group of patriotic students who plot to assassinate the intelligence chief in the Japanese-backed Chinese government during the World War II era.

Hong Kong actor Tony Leung Chiu-wai plays the intelligence official, Mr. Yi, while newcomer Tang Wei plays Chinese student Wang Jiazhi, who seduces Yi to pave the way for the assassination.

The film was not edited in Hong Kong or Taiwan but a version with fewer sex scenes recently cleared Chinese censors. Audrey Lee said a release date in China, the movie's biggest Chinese-speaking market, has not been set yet.

In Malaysia, where "Lust, Caution" was partly filmed, the movie was trimmed by 14 minutes for sex and violence and has made about 300,000 ringgit ($88,100) from 16 Malaysian screens in seven days, its distributor said Thursday.

Lee's previous movie, the gay romance "Brokeback Mountain," was not even shown in Malaysia because distributors thought it would not clear censors in this Muslim-majority nation.

Meanwhile, "Lust, Caution" has made $97,864 in the U.S. from 17 movie theaters as of Wednesday, according to the box office tracking Web site Box Office Mojo.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/fn/5190765.html
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summertime



Joined: 16 Dec 2004
Posts: 923

PostPosted: Mon Oct 08, 2007 10:13 pm    Post subject:

Taipei audiences lusting after Lee's film `Lust, Caution'


STAFF WRITER, WITH CNA

Tuesday, Oct 09, 2007, Page 2

Oscar-winning director Ang Lee's (李安) latest film Lust, Caution set a box office record in Taipei City over the last three days during the onslaught of Typhoon Krosa, a spokesman for the film's distributor said yesterday.

The spokesman for Buena Vista Film Co said that Lust, Caution, which won the Golden Lion Award at this year's Venice Film Festival, earned NT$11.19 million (US$343,400) at the box office in Taipei City from Friday through Sunday.

The film earned this amount at a time when many theaters were forced to close early because of the typhoon.

first two weeks

In its first two weeks of release, the film earned NT$72 million in Taipei City, breaking the previous record of NT$60.97 million held by Lee's Oscar-winning film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, the spokesman said.

He added that the film earned NT$150 million around Taiwan in the same period.

The numerous explicit sex scenes in Lust, Caution have attracted curious people who are not regular moviegoers, the spokesman said.

topics

In addition, many of the topics raised in the film continue to be hot topics of conversation on the Internet and on television programs, he said.

Lust, Caution, based on a short story by the late Chinese writer Eileen Chang (張愛玲), tells the story of a group of patriotic students who plan to assassinate a collaborationist intelligence chief in Japanese-occupied Shanghai during World War II.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2007/10/09/2003382332
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