History, Fiction, and Film Lust, Caution Revisited

Love (qing) and rationality (li), love (lian'ai) and revolution (geming), and lust (se) and caution (jie) are perennial themes in Chinese literature and cinema. Generally speaking, they address two conflicting aspects of human emotions and awareness - a person's romantic feelings or lust for his/her lover and his/her moral or social responsibilities and obligations to the established rules of the communities or country in which he/she lives.