Ang Lee’s World War II-era Shanghai drama “Lust, Caution” and the Tsui Hark, Johnnie To, and Ringo Lam collaboration “Triangle” leads this week’s new Asian DVD releases. The street date for the erotically charged “Lust, Caution” is December 21, 2007, but you can pre-order your copy now. “Triangle”, meanwhile, is due out now.

Lust, Caution: (click here to buy the DVD)

Shanghai, 1942. The World War II Japanese occupation of this Chinese city continues in force. Mrs. Mak, a woman of sophistication and means, walks into a cafe, places a call, and then sits and waits. She remembers how her story began several years earlier, in 1938 China. She is not in fact Mrs. Mak, but shy Wong Chia Chi. With WWII underway, Wong has been left behind by her father, who has escaped to England. As a freshman at university, she meets fellow student Kuang Yu Min. Kuang has started a drama society to shore up patriotism. As the theater troupe’s new leading lady, Wong realizes that she has found her calling, able to move and inspire audiences–and Kuang. He convenes a core group of students to carry out a radical and ambitious plan to assassinate a top Japanese collaborator, Mr. Yee. Each student has a part to play; Wong will be Mrs. Mak, who will gain Yee’s trust by befriending his wife and then draw the man into an affair. Wong transforms herself utterly inside and out, and the scenario proceeds as scripted–until an unexpectedly fatal twist spurs her to flee. Shanghai, 1941. With no end in sight for the occupation, Wong–having emigrated from Hong Kong–goes through the motions of her existence. Much to her surprise, Kuang re-enters her life. Now part of the organized resistance, he enlists her to again become Mrs. Mak in a revival of the plot to kill Yee, who as head of the collaborationist secret service has become even more a key part of the puppet government. As Wong reprises her earlier role, and is drawn ever closer to her dangerous prey, she finds her very identity being pushed to the limit…

Triangle: (click here to buy the DVD)

A three part action thriller about three friends who seek out the buried treasure of a mysterious stranger. Directed by Johnnie To, Tsui Hark, and Ringo Lam, whereby each of the three directors will be responsible for 30 minutes of footage without forewarning the others what he’s going to shoot.