Words of Caution

Bill Kong: This movie is a great love story, with so many different aspects in it for audiences to be excited by; it has everything I could hope to have in a movie I make. As a producer, I'm always looking for projects that can travel beyond Asian boundaries.

Rodrigo Prieto: Visually, I knew this would be an interesting project, and very different from when Ang and I did Brokeback Mountain. The story captivated me. It is very touching, though not in an easy romantic way.

Bill Kong: Eileen Chang is one of the iconic writers of our time in China. She wrote of changing times in her country. Hopefully our film will renew attention to her writing.

Wang Hui Ling: Eileen Chang was a born star. In her youth, she could cause a stir with the way she dressed; in her later years, as a self-styled recluse, her sense of dry humor was no less impressive.

The momentous transitions of China from a feudal society to a republic through two world wars permeated her writings, not in epic outbursts but as cool commentaries of a keen observer of her times. Though she once remarked that she wrote essentially for the people of Shanghai, in the end she had to leave Shanghai for a faraway land. Her last years were spent in California.

Ang Lee: I don't know of any other modern-day Chinese writer who is more revered, loved, and argued over. This short story is different writing than her other works. I believe that in many ways it's her own story. She was inspired by movies, and structured the story as a movie; we just had to fill in the spaces she laid out.

Wang Hui Ling: She loved movies, and I think she would have enjoyed our work on Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Ang Lee shares with Eileen Chang the same fascination over creating their own art from an intimate mix of eastern and western cultures.

James Schamus: Ang has been well-acquainted with her works for a long time, and had this story in mind for years. We had always talked about his making a Chinese-language film after finishing Brokeback Mountain, and this material allowed him to take the themes of love and death from his earlier films to a more intense level. Wong Chia Chi's own identity is subject not only to love and betrayal, but to politics and history.

Hearkening back to Sense and Sensibility, Eileen Chang is like Jane Austen in many ways, writing about manners against a backdrop of a transforming country. She explored Chinese culture, language, and history – including the moments when women found their voices.

Bill Kong: I feel that "Lust, Caution" is her most important work; it's hypnotic. But we had to find the right person to play Wong Chia Chi.

James Schamus: She had to be somebody emotionally brave enough to take on the role, like Maria Schneider was for Last Tango in Paris. The character finds the truth of her life, going to places she didn't know existed until she gets there.

Ang Lee: We saw hundreds of actresses. When I saw Tang Wei, I thought, "She has the face of the Southern Chinese lady," which we needed. When I met her, I could tell she had the temperament as well – which we also needed, to match the character of Wong Chia Chi that Chang Ailing [Eileen Chang] had created. By the end of the audition, it was clear to me that she had great potential to play the many sides of the character. I looked at her, and I believed in her.

James Schamus: She had the ability, which is extraordinary. When I first met Tang, I found her to be vivacious, smart, and funny. During the hair and make-up tests, we would see Wong Chia Chi, not Tang Wei. She had already transformed herself into what Eileen Chang had first envisioned. As the shoot progressed, she only further inhabited the character – and in a sustained manner.

Bill Kong: Ang wanted somebody fresh, but also someone who could act. We were blessed to discover Tang, because she is already in her 20s.

Ang Lee: The young actors in the film were learning about their grandparents' China, which was touching to me. China has been through a lot, and things get lost; if this generation doesn't connect with the past, which one will? We wanted to help make that happen. It was part of our mission.

When I'm leading a whole group of people, they need to have the courage to expose themselves, so audiences can see something real; that's the beauty of art.

Wang Leehom: Ang is completely committed in his belief in what he is doing, so you follow his lead and have to let yourself just go with him.

Ang Lee: We did have a little hesitation in casting Tony. Although he is one of the best, if not the best, actors in the Chinese film industry today, he usually plays charming good guys. But he was the one actor I always wanted to work with.

Tony Leung: I was inspired by the screenplay, because it took a short story that was good to begin with and enriched it to such a large extent.

When Ang – a director I have always admired – first contacted me, he told me that he wanted to create a Tony Leung on-screen that you have never seen before. I'd been looking for that myself, but I needed someone to help me do it.