It turns out that “Lust, Caution” director cast Liu Yifei for the leading role before changing to Tang Wei

It is revealed that director Li Ang of the 2007 movie “Lust, Caution” proposed the female lead role to Liu Yifei first.

According to Hong Kong Now News on May 8th, the female lead role Wong Chia Chi of the movie “Lust, Caution” (2007) was offered to Liu Yifei before Tang Wei received it. In other words, Liu Yifei was Li Ang’s No.1 casting attempt.

Accordingly, director Li Ang was looking for a female actress who was under 23 years old and looked like 19 with an elegant charm, a good figure and a height between 164-168cm when casting actors for the movie “Lust Caution”, and the actress that suited all those criteria was Liu Yifei. It is known that the production team of “Lust, Caution” sent the script to Liu Yifei three times to discuss her appearance.

However, Liu Yifei, who was 19 years old at that time, eventually refused “Lust, Caution” casting offer because she felt burdened by the bed scene in the movie. She thought she was too young for the role. After Liu Yifei refused the proposal, director Li Ang offered the role to Chinese actress Han Xue but she also turned it down due to the high-level bed scene. In the end, Tang Wei, who was a rookie actress at that time, won the female lead role through an audition.

Directed by Li Ang, “Lust, Caution” became one of the representative works in Tang Wei’s filmography. It tells about the main character Wong Chia Chi (Tang Wei), who approaches and assassinates a key figure of the pro-Japanese group in Hong Kong during the 1930s~1940s. With “Lust, Caution”, director Li Ang won Best Director at the Golden Lion International Film Festival for the second time after “Brokeback Mountain”.

Source: Nate