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LAS VEGAS — Ang Lee opened up a new world of tolerance and compassion for gay cowboys with “Brokeback Mountain.” For his next act, the filmmaker helped take the pornography sting out of Hollywood’s NC-17 rating, which is reserved for explicit adult-themed material.
Lee and frequent producing and screenwriting partner James Schamus were honoured with a freedom of expression award Tuesday at ShoWest, an annual convention of theatre owners, for their collaborations, which include last year’s sexually charged thriller “Lust, Caution.”
Though the $4.6-million domestic haul for “Lust, Caution” was small compared to the $83-million box-office return for “Brokeback Mountain,” Lee and Schamus’s latest production went a long way to legitimizing the NC-17 rating.
Set during the Second World War era, “Lust, Caution” centres on a young Chinese woman (Tang Wei) who seduces a collaborator (Tony Leung) with the Japanese so she and her accomplices can plot his execution. The film features several love scenes between the two.
“That’s the best part of acting. I’ve been directing actors for a long time. How many times do you see actors like that, even just a second or something?” Lee, 53, said in an interview alongside Schamus.
“You see the most private performances. The most brave and private,” said Lee, who won the best-director Academy Award for “Brokeback Mountain.”
“I think those scenes are pivotal. They anchor the movie, so it would be a shame if we don’t see it.”
Only a handful of movies have gone out with the NC-17 rating, which replaced the old X rating in the early 1990s to offer a category that did not carry the connotation of smut for explicit movies.
The most notable NC-17 release before “Lust, Caution” was 1995’s “Showgirls,” a huge critical and commercial flop. Other NC-17 releases such as “A Dirty Shame” or “The Dreamers” played to small cult crowds or art-house audiences.

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