In my opinion, this is a better movie than Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000), Ang Lee's blockbuster which he directed seven years before this one.

From Wikipedia;
The title of the work, Lust, Caution, has a double meaning in Chinese. The character for "lust" (色, sè) can be read as "colour", while "caution" (戒, jiè) can be read as "ring", therefore the title can also read as "coloured ring", an object that plays a pivotal role in the story. The two alternate readings of the title are interwoven into a cautionary tale of lust and love through the symbolic use of the ring.

This would be a better description for any preview:
"During World War II, a secret agent Wong Chia Chi, must seduce then assassinate an official, Mr. Yee, who works for the Japanese puppet government in Shanghai. Her mission becomes clouded when she finds herself falling in love with the man she is assigned to kill."

This is one of those movies where you would pee in your pants rather than take your eyes off the movie and go to the bathroom!

Year 1938: Hong Kong - college student Wong Chia Chi (Tang Wei aka Rebecca Tang) joins with a young man, Kuang Yu Min (Leehom Wang) and his college thespian group to put on patriotic plays to unite the local people against the invading Japanese military. However, Yu Min then rallies the students to attempt to assassinate a local Chinese man, Mr. Yee (Tony Leung) who works for the Japanese under the local puppet government. Chia Chi assumes the identity of Mrs. Mak, with another student assuming the role of Mr Mak, an import-export businessman and her husband.

Their plans fail as Mr. and Mrs. Yee leave for another city abruptly; however, they were able to kill another Chinese subordinate of Mr. Yee who did not accompany him abroad.

The acting troupe scatters to different places after the assassination.

Year 1942 - Shanghai - Chia Chi moves in to a house left by her father, but is forced to sell it and live on a government subsidy with her aunt; she is allowed to study with some of money from her house being sold. She runs into Yu Min, who has trained as a Chinese spy. he wants her to assume the identity of Mrs. Mak again and again try to set up Mr. Wu up to be killed again, who now sniffs out and kills Chinese operatives for the Japanese in Singapore,

The movie is so complete in everything seeming to be in the right place. The detail that they went to in order to film this movie is almost unbelievable! Everything from costumes, vehicles and such were painstakingly reproduced in order to make this film!

The cinematography is excellent, the music is the only thing that was not perfect to me; the single-stringed instruments which were common then drive me up the wall to a certain extent..Sorry!

The main cast perfectly portray falling in love over time, and seem to develop intimacy with each other, much to the detriment of the female lead, and her college friends! Rebecca Tang, even though it was her first movie, is breath-taking in the period costume, mesmerizing in the sex scenes and absolutely convincing in her transition from a student bent on revenge and assassination to a woman deeply and completely in love with the man who would order her and her colleague's death.

In my first viewing of this movie, I realized what was happening and I was wondering is the Kuomintang (KMT) was going to pull her off the assignment or not before something 'bad' happened to her.

Tony Leung, who I had never seen in a movie before, was great as a cold, calculating head of a Japanese secret service department set up to find and kill Chinese espionage unit members. Little did I know that this was probably his first time playing this type character, as I found out later.

I also cannot hardly wait, when I watch this movie, for the first-time 'love' scene between the two main characters, which he initiates!

He played the character well; however, he did show some emotion in the last scene in which he had already sealed the fate of the group.

Personally, had I been him, I would have sent "Mrs. Mak" and her fellow female colleague to the war front as "comfort women" instead of wasting them as they were!

The support cast as well played their roles well, playing their individual well, and adding to the ability of the main cast in telling the main story throughout the movie. I usually give a kudo or two to an outstanding support cast member here and to how they especially contributed to the film, but everything was so 'concentrated' on the two main male/female characters that no one really stood out.

Interestingly, Yu Min and Chia Chi gaze at each other, in what seems to be a loving glance, just before their end. I personally think that Yu Min could have contributed more to the Chinese war effort by volunteering as a soldier, rather than attempting to trick and kill a more experienced adversary such as Mr. Wu; he was outclassed at every turn by the senior spy master!

Had Yu Min been man enough to join the Chinese army rather than to convince his college friends take on someone who is superior to them in the game they played, he would not have caused so many deaths!

As with The Classic (2003), The Bow (2005) and Seven Samurai (1954), I notice something new in this movie every time I see it, which means it is a movie which you shouldn't see just once!

This is a half to three-quarters box of Kleenex movie, but only in the last third of the movie.

RE-WATCH VALUE: YES!