BEIJING – It was a long time coming, but Taiwanese helmer's erotic spy thriller "Lust, Caution" is inflaming passions and B.O. alike in mainland China, taking in $5.3 million in its first week on Chinese screens and prompting lively debate about on-screen sexuality.

Chinese auds are unused to the kind of sexy content seen in "Lust, Caution" even though Ang cut seven minutes of the film himself. Two scenes have been excised – a scene of violent sex and one particularly graphic coupling. Blurry and comically sped up versions of the two scenes were proving hugely popular on websites around China, having miraculously rounded the Great Firewall of China somehow.

The website Sina.com said forecasts were for the movie to garner 100 million yuan ($13.4 million) in ticket sales on the mainland in the next while, after a strong opening. Shanghai Media Group, which is one of the co-producers of the movie, declined to comment on B.O. figures when contacted.

The strong sales triggered forecasts from theater managers who anticipated the sales to surpass 100 million yuan, well above the original forecast of 60 million, the report said.

Pic is based on a novel by Eileen Chang, a popular figure in China, and its tale of a group of revolutionary students plotting the downfall of a powerful collaborator with the Japanese has struck a chord in China.

"Lust, Caution," which has done very well at Hong Kong's theaters, is shaping up to be a big performer this year, and widespread media coverage for the fact that pic won a Golden Lion at Venice also boosted auds.

Two other big titles, "The Warlords" and "The Assembly," are lined up for the end of the year. Pic is shown in Chinese with both English and Chinese subtitles.

China does not have a classification system and predictably enough, "Lust, Caution" has prompted a major row over what is suitable viewing and how to control access to movies with adult content. Some webizens said "Lust" was an artistic triumph, and blamed media hype for blowing its sexy content out of proportion, while others said it was just Ang Lee's name which stopped the movie being branded as pron.

"Shameless! Actors would do anything for money!" wrote one outraged bulletin-board poster.

Piracy had been another concern for Lee, given the earlier release of ``Lust, Caution'' in other parts of Asia, but there were no signs of pirated copies in Beijing's DVD shops on Tuesday.

© Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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