A Tasteful Tea with Ang Lee

What better time to discuss sex and politics with Ang Lee than over afternoon tea? Speaking to On the Town Tuesday at an intimate Focus Features tea party at Tea’s Tea Garden & Herbal Emporium, the helmer bared his inspirations for the pungent scenes in “Lust, Caution.”

“People mix sex and politics together metaphorically.  Eileen Chang, who wrote the short story of ‘Lust, Caution’  said that the ultimate relationship between man and woman is that of the occupier and the occupied,” explained Lee, “In her own life story, Chang’s one true love dumped her while working as a high official in the occupied Chinese government.  In some ways, she felt that the collaborated government was like a prostitute to the Japanese." (A. D’Alessandro)