Variety says the MPAA has given Ang Lee’s Lust, Caution an NC-17 rating, and Focus Features has accepted it.
The erotic espionage thriller, co-written by Focus CEO James Schamus and Wang Hui Ling, will screen at the Toronto festival, then bow in New York on Sept. 28, as scheduled, and expand to additional markets on Oct. 5.
Based on Eileen Chang’s short story about a shy Chinese drama student drawn into an assassination plot against a Japanese collaborator during WWII, the Mandarin-language pic is one of the studio’s big hopes for the upcoming awards season. Tony Leung and newcomer Tang Wei star.
Focus screened the final cut for the MPAA late Wednesday afternoon and accepted the rating the same day.
“As with so many of his previous films, Oscar-winning director Ang Lee has crafted a masterpiece about and for grown-ups,” Schamus said.
Although the MPAA has yet to detail the reasons for the rating to Focus, the film does depict extended and vigorous lovemaking from a variety of provocative sexual positions, including full female frontal nudity.
