- Eileen Chang first began writing the story in the 1950s. After being heavily revised by the author, it was eventually published in 1979.
- The rather explicit sex scenes were shot over 11 days on a closed set, with only the main camera and sound personnel present.
- The Taiwanese Government Information Office (GIO) awarded the Taiwan-born director Ang Lee and his Haishang Films company each with NT$10 million (US$303,000) on 25 September 2007. This is for Lee's winning of the Golden Lion top prize at the 2007 Venice Festival. Lee, however, donated the money to help junior directors and artists to make more outstanding films.
- 'Lust, Caution' was submitted as Taiwan's entry to the Best Foreign Language Film Category of the 80th Annual Academy Awards (2008), but it was rejected on 17 October 2007 by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences because many of the film's personnel were not Taiwanese. Taiwan then substituted Huai-en Chen's Lian xi qu (2006).
- The song that Wang Jiazhi sings to Mr Yee is entitled "A Singing Girl At The Edge of the World" and was the theme song of a popular film, "Malu Tianshi" (Street Angel) released four years before the events of the film took place. It is still considered an evergreen standard in Chinese pop music and has been covered by many other artists since.
- Reportedly, Ang Lee saw 10,000 actresses before casting Wei Tang.
- Mr. Yee's gait is based upon the Director's father.
- Ang Lee made Tony Leung Chiu Wai study the performances of Marlon Brando in Ultimo tango a Parigi (1972), Humphrey Bogart in In a Lonely Place (1950), and Richard Burton in Equus (1977) to give him a sense of wounded masculinity, which Lee felt was right for the character of Mr. Yee.
>>> WARNING: Here Be Spoilers <<<
Trivia items below here contain information that may give away important plot points. You may not want to read any further if you've not already seen this title.
- SPOILER: The title is actually an untranslatable pun in Chinese, in which the words for "Caution" and "Ring" (as in jewelry) are written using the same ideogram in Chinese.
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