"Lust" to be shown in China after cuts

BEIJING (Reuters) - "Lust, Caution", a sexually explicit spy thriller which won the best picture award at the Venice Film Festival, has been cut by 30 minutes to allow Chinese children to watch it, the official Xinhua news agency said.

The 156-minute film -- set in World War Two Shanghai featuring long and sometimes violent sex scenes -- was directed by Taiwan director Ang Lee, who also won the top award at the Venice Film Festival in 2005 with the gay cowboy drama "Brokeback Mountain".

Lee cut the film himself to protect its integrity and a large number of sex scenes was excised to make it "relatively clean", the Xinhua news agency said.

Chinese children will be able to watch it, Xinhua quoted Lee as saying. Some violent scenes were also cut.

"The spirit of the film remains despite the cutting and the fluency will not be affected," Lee was quoted as saying.

"The film still looks nice after the surgery," he was quoted as saying, adding the shorter version remained reasonable but would not make Chinese audiences feel uneasy or shocked.

The film is due to open across China on October 26, one month later than originally scheduled.