Asian Beauty Appreciation

Lost in Beijing (Ping guo) is a 2007 film directed by Yu Li about two financially opposite couples entwined in a greedy and selfish dispute over a yet-to-be-born child.

The film has been steeped in controversy due to the realistic tone and with its roots in a censor-heavy China.

Trouble started even before its premiere with Chinese censors demanding multiple cuts of the sex and gambling portrayed as well as scenes in slum-like settings. And despite the film acquiring international distribution, it still had problems being released in its own country.

Director Li Yu

On January 4, 2008, not only was the film officially banned in China by SARFT but the director Li Yu along with the Laurel Films production company were prohibited from filmmaking for two years.

LIB stars Fan Bingbing as Liu Pingguo, a struggling foot masseuse living in a rundown section with her window-washer husband An Kun (Tong Dawei).

The film’s output is instantly jarring with a passionate love scene between Liu and her husband in the shower. The scene, while it feels gratuitous, is actually an important plot point and sets the mood for later debauchery.

The last shot of the scene has the couple continuing their affair in the shower fading out as the Beijing  skyline comes into view.

After work, she shares some drinks with a recently fired co-worker Xiao Mei (Zeng Meihuizi) and in a literal blur of drunkenness she unknowingly comes on to her boss Lin Dong (Tony Leung Ka Fai). The cinematography is very effective and innovative in this sequence with the use of an unfocused camera and quick cutting.

Tony Leung Ka Fai

Her boss, a known womanizer welcomes the attention and begins to force himself on her. I’ll admit, I found the beginning of this scene comedic but it quickly turns unsavory. Liu midway realizes her mistake and tries to fend off Lin who eventually ends up raping her.

And in an absurd coincidence, An Kun witnesses the crime while dangling outside washing the window. The exceptional cinematography and editing continues with some nice POV and frantic cuts of an engraged An Kun out for blood.

Now this is where the main dispute of the film is set. Liu becomes pregnant and is unaware of who fathered the child. Lin along with his wife Wang Mei (Elaine Jin) who is unable to bear offspring, offer a deal to An Kun.

Elaine Jin

If Lin is the father, he will keep the child and pay off An Kun. While this premise is an intriguing one, the subsequent events of the story kept me from enjoying the film.

My prime objection is the complete lack of moral substance within any of the characters. While the young couple have hopes for a better life in agreeing to it, the contract just feels unethical and wrong, which degrades my opinion of everyone involved.

Another aspect of the film that turned me off were the random shots of the local humanity and setting. I understand what the director was going for, but these would be more appropriate for a documentary than a drama as they didn’t involve any of the cast.

And overall the performances were the high point of the film, but there were some scenes near the end with characters just staring off in the distance, contemplating. They added nothing and slowed down the pace to a standstill.

While I enjoyed the look and feel of film as well as the performances, the characters’ actions were what inevitably left me with a bad taste. It’s very hard to watch a film from start to finish when midway through you lose all hope for the characters and the faith in their future outcomes.