Focus Features accepted an NC-17 rating for Oscar-winner Ang Lee's period drama Lust, Caution, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

"Lust" follows a young Chinese woman in Japanese-occupied Shanghai during World War II who becomes the center of a plot to seduce and kill a married enemy collaborator. The trailer for the subtitled Chinese-language film shows lead actors Tony Leung and Tang Wei in various states of writhing passion.

The story goes on to speculate as to just what content merited the rating. It also goes on to repeat some long-standing myths about the NC-17: that certain content "violated the ratings board's unwritten rules (like the number of allowable pelvic thrusts, for example) to make an appeal possible" and "(s)ome newspapers and TV outlets won't carry ads for NC-17 films".

It is important to point out that the content described (or any content for that matter) does not "violate" anything. Movie ratings are not punishment meted out to offenders of some mysterious standard of morality. Rather, they are descriptions attached to films to give information to parents so that they can make judgements themselves as to what is appropriate for their children. The NC-17 goes a bit further and restricts the film to adults.

As far as newspapers and television outlets refusing to carry ads for NC-17 films, "some" is accurate as far as it goes. It would be more accurate to say "almost no" newspapers and TV outlets refuse to carry ads for NC-17 films - and they are in markets where such films would be unlikely to have much appeal.

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Tags: Ratings