While Ang Lee’s film Lust, Caution has been getting great reviews and doing extremely well at the box office internationally and in limited release in the states - there’s been a lot happening lately with the film - and not all of it great either - some of it seeming to have more to do with politics and being myopic than anything else.
Too Chinese?
Apparently the head of the production company that made Lust, Caution is weary of expanding the film in the U.S. because it’s a “very Chinese” film. Huh?
So martial arts and anything having to do with geisha is O.K. - but an art-house romantic war epic featuring Asian people might be too much for the general public to handle.
Banned from the Oscars
Even though Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon had few Taiwanese crew and actors associated with the film, it was still allowed to be nominated for the U.S. Academy Awards Best Foreign Language Film category - but this year - Taiwan’s Foreign Language Film Award Selection Committee was notified that Lust, Caution would not be allowed to compete in the category because it didn’t have enough Taiwanese crew working on it who were in “lead positions”.
So the director - famed director Ang Lee - and the screenwriter who are both Taiwanese aren’t “lead position” enough? Because one of the actors is from mainland China (Tang Wei) and they had a Mexican cinematographer and French composer it still can’t be a Taiwanese film?
It isn’t foreign language enough?
No Hong Kong Film Awards - Mostly
It seems HK is no different either. Because there weren’t enough people from Hong Kong working on the film - versus mainland China - the movie won’t be eligible for numerous awards, however it still will be able to compete for the best Asian film category at least - which allows any Asian film, regardless of how many people from HK worked on it.
