CHINA:Movie buffs are being warned that Ang Lee's latest screen offering is a hazard both to people and their computers, writes Clifford Coonanin Beijing
Taiwanese director Ang Lee's wartime spy thriller, Lust, Caution, is prompting a rash of cautions against lust - as well as fears of the spread of viruses by illegal downloads.
Don't try this at home, Chinese doctors are warning audiences, referring to some of the inventive sexual positions featured in the uncut version of the film which is widely available online.
That same uncensored version is causing havoc for many reasons. An anti-virus company has warned against free downloads, saying several hundred sites offering the service were embedded with viruses.
Even doctored of seven minutes featuring two graphic and violent sex scenes, Lust, Caution has been a big hit in China, reaping 90 million yuan (€9 million) in its first two weeks, and is on track to be the biggest Chinese-language movie of the year in mainland China.
Set in second World War Shanghai, the movie stars mainland actress Tang Wei and Hong Kong actor Tony Leung Chiu-wai, and examines a sexually charged relationship between an undercover female student activist and a Japanese-allied intelligence chief.
The director - whose Oscar-winning gay cowboy drama Brokeback Mountain was banned in 2005 despite an outpouring of pride at the achievements of a Chinese director - has hinted that the sex scenes were done for real, shocking and titillating prudish Chinese society.
Lee trimmed the picture to appease the censors, but the cut scenes have been widely circulated online, and many cinema-goers have gone to Hong Kong to get the full version.
Doctors, fearful of the influence the movie could have in China's bedrooms, have told the Xinhua news agency that the more gymnastic positions in the movie were "abnormal".
"Most of the sexual manoeuvres in Lust, Caution are in abnormal body positions," said Yu Zao, a deputy director at a women's hospital in southern Guangdong province.
"Only women with comparatively flexible bodies that have gymnastics or yoga experience are able to perform them. For average people to blindly copy them could lead to unnecessary physical harm," Yu said.
People's desire to see the uncut version has also led to more illegal downloads than ever. The Beijing Daily said the virus had infected several hundred websites, online forums and blogs about the film. It was quoting Rising, a company specialising in anti-virus software.
China has comparatively few cinemas and a thriving market in pirate downloads, and Lust, Caution has been a popular choice for downloading. The virus damages computers when users download the film online or explore websites about the film, and some 15 per cent of sites are affected.
Once hit by the virus, computer monitors will show abnormal blue screens. It also hits hardware, such as flash disks and mobile hard disks, when they are connected to computers that carry the virus.
Lust, Caution has certainly prompted more controversy than any other film this year. A law student called Dong Yanbin said he planned to sue China's censors, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, because he thought the cuts they made to the movie violated his rights as a consumer.
He said the uncensored Lust, Caution had been popular abroad, so should have been shown in its entirety in China.