Exhibitionism: <i>Lust, Caution</i>

Abstract

The term ‘exhibitionism’ collects together a range of concepts and issues, enabling us to go beyond readings of an individual film as an ideological text. The term highlights contextual conditions that shape films. It also shows how films as artefacts invite contestations not just among different readings but among different kinds of social practices altogether. The exhibitionism of the film Lust, Caution/Se, jie (Ang Lee, 2007) reveals one of the most significant processes of contemporary Chinese cinema: the differential remapping of practices like production, exhibition and consumption.