Surprise winner in Venice festival

Sep. 8 - Taiwanese director Ang Lee's sexually explicit spy thriller "Lust, Caution" was the surprise winner of the top award at the Venice film festival.

The film is Lee's return to the theme of forbidden love after "Brokeback Mountain", but this time the setting is the teeming streets of 1940s Shanghai.

The film centres on a group of revolutionary students bent on killing a powerful political figure who collaborates with occupying forces during the Sino-Japanese war.

First-time actress Tang Wei portrays the young woman who agrees to ensnare the sinister figure, played by one of Asia's biggest screen stars, Tony Leung.

Lee took the award just two years ago with gay cowboy hit "Brokeback Mountain".

The verdict means Asian directors have won the Golden Lion on the Lido waterfront for the last three years.

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