'Lust' not Taiwanese enough for foreign Oscar

If Ang Lee's latest hit, the made-in-China spy thriller Lust, Caution, is to win an Oscar, it will have to go up against the best of Hollywood, as did his previous, made-in-America epic Brokeback Mountain, for which Lee won the best director award.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has decided the Taiwanese director's new film is not Taiwanese enough to represent the island in the contest for best foreign-language film. That honour goes to Chen Huai-en's Island Etude.

'The submitting country must certify that creative talent of that country exercised artistic control of the film,' the Academy's rules say. It is too late for Lust, Caution to represent anywhere else in the foreign-language category. The deadline has passed.

The decision to bar Lust, Caution - which won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival last month - came as a surprise to people close to the film. They told Variety Asia Online it was just as qualified as Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, the martial arts epic nominated by Taiwan in 2000, which won Oscars for foreign-language film, cinematography, art direction and music.

The film was also entered for the best picture Oscar but lost to Ridley Scott's Gladiator.

'The criteria are quite inconsistent,' said the honorary president of the Hong Kong Directors Guild, Ng See-yuen.