Lost in Beijing (2007)

What makes it different from others?

This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

one of my absolute favorites!

Fantastic!

Weak at both ends. No honor, no integrity, no dignity and stands for nothing. And I mean at both ends. I recommend people watch this to see what Chinese men are really like. It could be based on a true story (if it is not already)

Being an international student studying in U.S. I would probably have a very different point of view of this movie, that being said, I hope that I can give some insight of this movie with my past life of living 24 years in Beijing and additional 3 years of life living in U.S. First, let me make one thing clear, if anyone thinks this is a cheap movie with stupid plot such as a girl being raped and she actually enjoyed the process, please go back to watch the movie again, or just switch to some Hollywood movie which will give you a fantasy that ends up with happy after forever. This is a movie about the real life of people in Beijing, it is well founded, carefully thought about, and shot in a very skillful camera angles. Now I am going to give evidence and explanations why I think so.The background scene: if you watched it closely, you probably have found that most of the scenes are so gray, suppressing, with typical cold colors, the movie is also shot in winter. That is the realistic view of winter Beijing, having the cold wind cutting into your bones. It is not an easy weather to live in, as someone raised in this kind of weather, you learn to endure it, suffer from it, and adapt to it. This kind of weather of course makes the life even harder for poor immigrant workers. This detail is just so true and so carefully expressed over the whole film. This rendering effect sets the baseline of the whole film, which is a sad, unfortunate, but realistic movie. Characters and culture. I think one of the main things that the director/script writer wants to express here is, the mispositioned female status in the Chinese culture. I saw no one here actually commenting on this. This idea is hidden deep, but it is pretty obvious if you understands the life of Chinese people and have been in touch with some western culture. An kung and Lin Dong, one poor one rich, both regard the women as some kind of possessions in their lives. An kung asked for money when he found out that his wife has been raped. If you are a traditional Chinese, you may even find this reasonable, but if you look at this from a different view, he is regarding his wife as his belongings, he's asking for money as a compensation because, his belonging is damaged, and he believes that money can compensate all his sufferings (well, if you regard women as a commercial product, you can buy a different one with more money, right?). Lin Dong, regards his wife and ping guo as the tool for having offspring. This is revealed so nicely if you think about all the details, he wants a boy not a girl, prayed to God for it(probably to carry on his business since he's rich.) His own wife can not give birth, so he goes out all the time to hookers and he acts as if he has the right to do so. When ping guo was pregnant he just directly came to his wife and acted like: look, you can't do it, so it is reasonable for me to find someone else to do it. Ping guo and Wang mei, being the women in such a culture, regarded their inferior position as natural, accepted them and almost never disobeyed or tried to fight. Some details: Wang Mei said she could never object her husband's decision for 16 years. (But being a well educated rich woman, she eventually revenged by having sex with An kun. It is funny and interesting if you paid attention to what she said during the sex.) Ping guo, as a weak, uneducated woman, having no power in the society, no freedom, being so desperate to have someone to rely on and someone to love her, became the center of the whole tragedy. Raped, deserted by her husband, and raped by her husband, then slapped by the woman richer. She actually found a little love from Lin Dong, although she knows that it is purely on the sex basis, but even that is better than having nothing. And she even tried to accept such a disgusting relationship. The ending seems random, but actually giving all the information you need to understand what the movie wants to reveal, two women sitting together, both realizing that they are the victims of the culture, holding hands in tears. While both men, deserted by their women, pushing cars together on the high way.(Implying that the materialistic things, namely cars and money that they pursued after will eventually fail them. They are so stupid to lose love over trivial things as money, or power.) Xiao Mei is the character not so important, but also a crucial part of the whole story, being a hooker, she's a live description of how woman are forced by life itself to drop into the traps of death. It also gives a powerful impression on how limited the options are from which the poor Chinese people have to choose from, and how hard life is there. There are a lot more details, but I don't have space and time to explore them, it is a movie worth of watching, I have already gone through it for the 3rd time, and still find new things. I hope everyone reading this can understand a little more about the Chinese society and culture.

Ping Guo is a gem of a movie! I've been watching a lot of Chinese movies recently, but Ping Guo is one of the best of the bunch.The story is about two couples intertwined due to unlucky circumstances, but most of them in their hands. During the movie, a very harsh and very real light is shed on the difference between poor and rich in modern Beijing and it will leave your mind thinking about it long after the movie is over. This is a very good thing - in my opinion movies are supposed to make you think, supposed to move you. Ping Guo did just that and is worthy of watching for everyone who isn't afraid of foreign movies and who is willing to look at something else than popcorn Hollywood.This movie will keep you entertained for nearly two hours and will make you want for more movies of this director. And that's a very good thing!

I just saw Ping Guo at the Berlin International Film Festival, Germany. It was really the best movie i saw there. In 2002 Li Yu was at the Berlin International Film Festival with her first feature Elephant And Fish and now I'm more than happy to see that she came back with her third movie. Ping Guo has such an amazing attitude towards its figures. The acting is amazing and thanks to the great script you follow all the twists trustfully because they just come along authentically. The cinematography is amazing. It's never just aesthetic but follows the action organically. I really hope we will see Ping Guo in the cinemas soon! China is lucky to have such a talented female director - I hope I will see a lot more by her!!!!