Lust, Caution by Eileen Chang

Lust, Caution by Eileen Chang

A major motion picture (2007) from Oscar-winning director Ang Lee (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon; Brokeback Mountain): an intensely passionate story of love and espionage, set in Shanghai during World War II.

In the midst of the Japanese occupation of China and Hong Kong, two lives become intertwined: Wong Chia Chi, a young student active in the resistance, and Mr. Yee, a powerful political figure who works for the Japanese occupational government. As these two move deftly between Shanghai's tea parties and secret interrogations, they become embroiled in the complicated politics of wartime--and in a mutual attraction that may be more than what they expected. Written in lush, lavish prose, and with the tension of a political thriller, Lust, Caution brings 1940s Shanghai artfully to life even as it limns the erotic pulse of a doomed love affair.

Eileen Chang, a novelist, essayist, and screenwriter, was born into a wealthy Shanghai family in 1920. While the city was under Japanese occupation in 1941, she began to write the stories and essays that cemented her literary renown. She fled China in 1952 to avoid the Communist Party's influence, eventually settling in the United States in 1955. She continued to create novels, short stories, essays, and Hong Kong film screenplays. Her writings became extremely successful in the Chinese-speaking world in the 1970s.

Chang became increasingly reclusive as her celebrity grew, and she was discovered dead in her Los Angeles residence in 1995. Her writings are still being translated into English. Ang Lee directed a cinematic adaptation of her novella Lust, Caution, which was released in 2007.