Bankable director Ang Lee's spy thriller Lust, Caution
has raked in 90 million yuan (about US$11.25 million) on the
Chinese mainland since it opened at local cinemas on November 1, a
source with the China Film Group Corporation revealed.
An company official surnamed Lai predicted that the box office
gross for the film would exceed 100 million yuan "several days
later".
The Bourne Ultimatum and Live Free or Die
Hard, the next two foreign films introduced by the China Film
Group Corporation, will hit Chinese mainland screens on
Thursday.
"These two films will not greatly impact the box office of
Lust, Caution, said Gao Jun, spokesman for the Beijing
Film Association, one of the capital's major cinema lines.
Set in World War-II era Shanghai, Lust, Caution,
starring mainland actress Tang Wei and Hong Kong actor Tony Leung
Chiu-wai, is about a sexually-charged relationship between an
undercover female student activist and a Japanese-allied
intelligence chief.
Lee's movie, called Se, Jie in Chinese, has been a hot
topic in the mainland media and among the public long before its
official screening here due to its bold sex scenes. The movie has
been given the restricted NC-17 label in the United States, banning
viewers under 17.
In order to get approval for a mainland release, Lee, the
Academy Award winning director of Brokeback Mountain, cut
about seven minutes from the film. Despite being shorn of some of
its sexual scenes, the film's mainland version has still won
acclaim among most viewers.
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(Xinhua News Agency November 15, 2007)