Not Notorious Enough: The Transnational Feminism of Ang Lee's Lust, Caution and Its American Reception

In Ang Lee's most recent film, Lust, Caution (2007), Lee's studentturned- spy heroine could best be described as a moviegoer (Fig. 1). Early in the film, her target wonders, "What do you like?" She responds, "Going to the movies." Lee provides us with evidence of his heroine's movie-going; Chiah Chih weeps through Intermezzo (1939) (Fig. 2), seeks solace in a showing of Penny Serenade (1941), and examines a poster advertising Suspicion (1941) (Fig. 3). Notably, Lee depicts his heroine absorbed and even moved to tears by American films, with differences of culture, nation, and language irrelevant to Chiah Chih's appreciation for Hollywood cinema. In contrast with Chiah Chih's passionate response to these extra-national films, the release of Lee's Chinese-language Lust, Caution left the majority of American critics cold.