Q:In
your opinion, what mistakes did Tang Wei make?

A: The biggest mistake
she made was she trusted her director way too much.  
She should have never ever put too much trust in a person who she
really didn't know what he really is.   If she didn't know
what he really is, then she just couldn't put all her trust in him.  
All she knew about him was that he is a well-known director and an
Oscar award winner.   That's it.  What about his character?  The
director's character should be very important because of the nature of this
movie.

The director appears
to be a nice and soft-spoken man, but that's just what he "appears".   She seemed to forget that we should never judge a
book by its cover.  Yes, he is a famous filmmaker.   But he is a man too.  Who knows whether he has a dirty mind or not.  Remember? he once said women's unshaved underarms look very sexy, so it's highly, highly likely that he might be even more motivated and thrilled
to see a  woman's another unshaved body part.  In the world of
pornography, it's a kind of “sexual fetishism” to prefer looking
or peeping at women who don't shave off their hair in both underarms and pubic
area.   Accordingly, it's very, very possible that watching or peeping a woman's unshaved body
parts could be his sexual obsession. 

With that being said, it shouldn't be difficult to imagine what would
he act and react when faced with
extremely erotic temptations of a completely nude woman and a naked
man.  When starring a movie like "Lust, Caution", any leading actress, if facing a director like that, needs to be very careful.  She absolutely needs to know what she has to perform before making the movie.  She cannot put all her trust in him.  It doesn't matter who the director is.  It does matter what he will do.  Besides, she failed to
recognize that putting all her trust in him is equivalent to opening
the floodgate.  Once the floodgate is open, things might be getting
out of control.   The director would absolutely demand
more until he looted everything she had.  

When the
director requested her to perform something not required by the
script, she should have noticed that he was very dishonest, because
an honest director wouldn't do that.   If he was an honest director, why didn't he make his game plan
transparent.  Why did he request them to perform a lot of actions not on the
script?   Moreover, a decent director wouldn't push and brainwash a rookie
actress to get naked in her debut to perform unbelievably salacious
sexual intercourse actions which absolutely were not what she was
supposed to do.   These extremely pornographic actions had severely damaged her image, reputation, and career.

In addition, with countless uncut DVDs and tapes that have been sold to countless people, she has to face another problem that may arise later on, that is, she might get maliciously ridiculed and humiliated by many,many people including her son or her daughter in the future for having been a "porn star".   The trauma she may suffer in the future could be bigger than that of a rape victim.   Keep in mind that she is in China, not in Italy.   In Italy, a prostitute can get elected as congresswoman.    Would that happen in any Asian countries?

Accordingly,
she should have firmly said no to her dishonest director when
requested to perform something not required by the script,
particularly something extremely obscene and salacious, or something
not in accordance with what she previously concurred to do before
making the movie.  
Now she paid the price for being nice, “cooperative” and foolish.  The combination of the director's greed, selfishness and self-serving mentality as well as the actors' ignorance made what she is today.

Q:
Would he kick her out if she refused to follow his order to perform
these salacious actions?

A:
No.   Again, that's why I said she paid the price for her foolishness.   Because it's virtually impossible for him to start all over again
after he had finished making a certain percentage of that movie. 
Besides, if she was knowledgeable enough, she could hire a lawyer to
sue her director for “breaching the contract”, because what the
director requested her to perform was not what the script required. 
She certainly has the right to refuse to perform anything not
required by the script.

Q:
Sue her director for breaching the contract?

A:
absolutely.  Because, a script or screenplay is similar to a business
contract.   Both parties need to abide by the “contract”.   If
actors agree with the deal, then they have to perform according to
what the script says, so does the director.   In other words,every
screenplay clearly tells every actor or actress what he or she needs
to do.    If there are nude scenes or sex scenes, they must be put in
writing.    Actors required to perform salacious actions absolutely
have the right to know what they need to do in advance.    That's why
a lot of actors and actresses decline to star many movies simply
because they don't want to perform explicit sex scenes required by
the script.  The
director certainly has the right to change the script, but the
changes should be limited to minor, not major part of the script.  
Otherwise, it would be a conduct of breach of contract.  The
actors certainly have the rights to refuse to perform or even sue the
director for breaching the contract.

Q:
but they did perform these actions?

A:
they did that, because they both were ignorant and didn't know what
to do to protect their rights from being infringed when requested to perform something not
required by the script.   That's why I believe there might be legal
issues involved in making this movie.   The leading actor and the leading actress may be very ignorant but that does not necessarily mean the director could use deceptive tricks or languages to dupe them in order to get what he wants.   He must let them know what their rights are.  Their rights are they have the rights to say no to him if requested to perform something not on the script.   If
the director was afraid that no actors would want to
perform these extremely obscene actions if he revealed his game plan in
advance, then he should give up his plan.  Things like that will not
happen to American actors, because they all know what their rights
are.   That's why I firmly believe that if making a similar movie in the United States, the director
would absolutely follow the rules and the laws to treat his actors with respect.    Unfortunately that's not the case when he made this movie in his motherland.

The
actors did follow the director's order to perform, because they might
had been duped by the director's scheme which obviously deceived them
to accept.   Tang Wei, as a rookie actress, certainly was not able
to recognize a deceptive scheme at the time it is being perpetrated. 
Facing a dominant director, the ignorant, powerless, helpless and
defenseless rookie could do very, very little to avoid this unfair
treatment.

Q:why
do you think that there might be legal issues involved in making this
film?

A:
a lot of people may not know that even in adult film industry, the
porn stars still have their rights to know what actions they have to
do before accepting the deal to perform in an adult film. 
The director cannot violate their rights by selling his ideas with
intent to dupe, push, brainwash, or even
overpower them to perform any action against their will.   
Although they are porn stars, the director still needs to treat
them with respect, because they are actors, not prostitutes or
animals.   This is the rules.   This is the rules that all parties
involved in making even an adult movie must follow.   Whether there
are hand job, blow job, anal sex, gang-bang or even
“double-penetration” must be written clearly on the screenplay.

Actors
or actresses, if feeling very uncomfortable to perform some actions
after reading the script, certainly have the right to express their
different opinion to the filmmaker or to simply decline to accept the
deal.  This must be fairly done and this must be a done deal before
making the film. Again, the
director cannot use any deceptive statements, surprises,
suggestions,or languages to trick his actors to perform
any other actions against their will.

Why
is this important?  Because without following the rules, the
director would absolutely have the upper hand over his actors.  He
would be having a strong position of power and control over his
actors and actresses.   He would be able to misuse and abuse his
power to have his actors perform some actions against their will. 
This would be extremely unfair for the actors.   This would give the
director a very good opportunity to abuse his actors and his
actresses in particular.

Now,
whether or not the above-mentioned violations were exactly what
happened in making “Lust, Caution”. The investigations should
focus on the followings:-

(1)what
was Tang Wei required to perform, according to the script? and what
was Tang Wei's understanding of what she needed to perform when
accepting the deal to star that movie?  Having the leading actress
perform pornographic actions absolutely was a big deal and a major
action in that movie.   Did the director honestly let her know before
making the movie?  Did Tang Wei know she had to take off all her
clothes to show her full frontal nude body?   When did the director
notify her to do so?  Did she know she had to perform extremely
salacious actions after removing her clothes totally?

2)why
did the director change the major part of the script without letting
the actors know before making the movie? 
Was he afraid that if she knew she had to perform adult film actions,
she might decline to star that movie?  Did the director intentionally
do this to hide his game plan in order to keep her from quitting?

(3)if
that's the case, then did he think that once starting making the
film, he, with his big name and tremendous reputation, would have
little resistance to get what he wanted and everything would be under
his control, so he would have no trouble having her perform any
salacious actions he wanted to see?   Did the director take
advantage of her ignorance, using deceptive languages, tricks,
promises or suggestions with intent to dupe her into buying his ideas
to perform the extremely salacious actions which obviously had
resulted in a huge damage to her image, reputation, and career?

(4)did
she say no or express different opinion to the director when
requested to perform explicit sex actions not required by the script
but requested by the director?   If she did, then did the director
stop immediately?  Did he tell her that she had the right to refuse
to perform if she felt uncomfortable?   Did he ignore her complaints
and continue to sell his ideas to push her to continue to perform
these actions? 

Instead of being a
prostitute, a porn star or an exhibitionist, the leading actress
appeared to be a normal woman without promiscuous history.   Any
normal woman or a rookie actress like her, if requested to perform these
unbelievably salacious actions with another men standing by to
closely watch, would feel extremely intimidating, humiliating,
embarrassing, and uncomfortable.   As
an actress, Tang Wei certainly had her right to freedom from being
improperly persuaded to do something, or not to do something , by
someone's trickery.  Did she voluntarily perform
these actions free of any pressure or any deceptive gimmicks, languages, promises or any other tricks?

Under no circumstance, these graphic sexual
intercourse actions the director requested them to perform, would
be allowed to appear even on a NC-17 movie, did the director intentionally take advantage of this opportunity to misuse and
abuse his power to push and brainwash her/them to do it in order for him
to see these actions as a "personal pleasure"?

If
a lot of wrongdoings were found during the investigations,then this
would be a typical fraudulent practice.  Her/their rights obviously had
been severely infringed.   The director should be held liable for
deceit when he deliberately cheated his actress by deceptive
languages, suggestions or gimmicks.  If the director were found guilty for the
trauma and mental anguish from which she suffered significantly, Tang
Wei should be entitled to financial compensation for being duped by
her director.    If Tang Wei didn't do it, then the Chinese government should take necessary actions to investigate what really happened, because there is no way a movie director should be allowed to do this.   There is no way he should make a movie that way.           

To be continued...