Lost In Beijing (2007/New Yorker Films DVD)

 

Picture: C+     Sound: C+     Extras: C     Film: B-

 

 

Li Yu’s Lost In Beijing (2007) is a bold Chinese-produced/located film about married young lady worker Ping-guo, making a living in a massage emporium when she is raped by her boss, who is blackmailed by an outside opportunist when the victim turns out to be pregnant.  This will not make her window-washer husband very happy either.  An initial hit in China before the government had it pulled, this well made and even exceptional at times film set in modern China with its growing business world may be a minor classic of their cinema.

 

The acting is top rate, the honesty of the situations palpable, the eroticism does not hold back and the story is consistent in a way where no moment is wasted.  The husband’s motives can be taken in several ways and definitely challenges his ethics, yet the situation can be so stark in the growing business side of the once communist society, that we have to ask ourselves what we would do and if these characters are actually thinking things through.  Though I wanted more story and more consideration of all the issues, Lost In Beijing is solid filmmaking and definitely recommended.

 

The anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 image is a little soft, but also colorful and has its moments of clarity and depth, doing more justice than not to Director of Photography Wang Yu’s work.  The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo has no surrounds, but is nicely recorded enough.  Extras include a text interview with Li Yu in a paper pullout inside the DVD case, plus trailers for this and four other New Yorker DVD releases.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo