In March 2006, Taiwanese film-maker Ang Lee fell victim to one of Hollywood's most shocking robberies.

Riding to the Academy Awards with his love story Brokeback Mountain, Lee deservedly collected the statuette as Best Director, only to see his picture sensationally denied the top prize in favour of homegrown drama Crash. Jaws dropped.

Lee escaped the furore by returning to Asia for this slow-burning adaptation of Eileen Chang's short story Se, Jei, set against the Japanese occupation of Shanghai during the Second World War. Lust, Caution is the director's first Mandarin language film since Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and the two features couldn't be more different. This new work is achingly slow-paced and packed with graphic sex scenes that leave nothing to the imagination.

The film's flawed heroine is demure Wong Chia Chi (Wei), who bolsters her self-confidence by joining the university drama society run by radical Kuang Yu Min (Leehom).

Kuang denounces the Japanese and he recruits Wong and the other actors to his cause, which includes a daring plot to assassinate high-profile Japanese collaborator Mr Yee (Leung), using Wong as bait.

She will pose as businessman's wife Mrs Mak and infiltrate the social circle of Mrs Yee (Chen), then seduce the treacherous husband. Wong's transformation is stunning and Mr Yee is poised to succumb to her charms, only for tragedy to strike.

Lust, Caution will be too slow for some tastes. Screenwriters Wang Hui Ling and James Schamus are in no hurry to bring the assassination plot to a speedy resolution.

If anything, there is too much lust in the meandering middle section - a couple of the full frontal couplings could be excised to quicken the film's pulse without sacrificing any of the intensity or emotion.

Newcomer Wei and the iconic Leung are dazzling. Both actors place their trust entirely in Lee as the characters are laid bare, in every sense, consumed by a desire that will eventually destroy them.

Chen oozes style as the dutiful yet bored wife who would heartily agree with Wong's assertion that "men have constant distractions, so we ladies have shopping and Mahjong".

Director of photography Rodrigo Prieto, who worked on Brokeback Mountain, captures the beauty and devastation of the period, impeccably recreated by production designer Lai Pan. If you invest time in Lee's magnificent study of betrayal, you'll be handsomely rewarded.