Chinese American actress Joan Chen of The Last Emperor has joined the cast of the new Ang Lee movie Lust, Caution, Lee's assistant has confirmed.

 

　　

 

Lust, Caution, based on a 26-page short story by famed Chinese writer Eileen Chang, is about a group of patriotic students who plot to assassinate the intelligence chief in the Japanese-backed Chinese government during the World War II era. 　

 

Cannes best actor winner, Hong Kong's Tony Leung Chiu-wai, plays the intelligence official Mr. Yi, and Chen has been cast as his wife, Ang Lee's assistant, David Lee, said in an e-mail to The Associated Press Saturday. 　

 

In other cast members, Chinese newcomer Tang Wei plays the student Wang Jiazhi, who seduces Yi to pave the way for the assassination. Chinese-American pop star Leehom Wang portrays Kuang Yumin, a student collaborator of Wang Jiazhi's.

 

Chen is best known in the West for her roles in the Oscar-winning The Last Emperor and the TV series Twin Peaks.

 

Lust, Caution marks Ang Lee's return to Chinese-language film after making The Hulk and the gay romance Brokeback Mountain, which earned Lee Oscar a best director Oscar earlier this year.

 

(China Daily September 12, 2006)