Lost in Beijing
ロスト・イン・北京
Storyline
The whole story, ending included.
A masseuse, her boss, a pregnancy and a price; banned in China, the producers barred for two years.
Liu Pingguo and her husband, An Kun, have come to Beijing from the northeast and live in a cramped room. He washes the windows of office towers; she is a foot masseuse at the Golden Basin, a parlour owned by Lin Dong, a rich, womanising businessman from Guangdong whose wife, Wang Mei, cannot have children. One night, after drinking with a friend who has just been fired, Pingguo falls asleep in an empty office at the parlour. Lin Dong rapes her. An Kun, washing the windows outside, sees it through the glass.
An Kun vandalises Lin Dong's Mercedes and demands 20,000 yuan. When Lin Dong refuses, An Kun goes to Wang Mei, who, instead of paying, seduces him, and they keep meeting. Then Pingguo finds she is pregnant, and no one can say whose child it is. She thinks of an abortion; the men make a deal instead. An Kun takes 20,000 yuan for his suffering. If the baby's blood type shows that Lin Dong is the father, Lin Dong will take the child and pay 100,000 more; if not, the couple keep it. Wang Mei makes her husband sign that if he sleeps with Pingguo again, half of his property is hers. Through all the bargaining Pingguo says almost nothing.
The baby is a boy, and his blood type shows that he is An Kun's. An Kun bribes the doctor to change the record and sells his son. Lin Dong, overjoyed, takes the baby home and moves Pingguo in to nurse him, and Wang Mei's jealousy grows. An Kun, unable to bear Lin Dong's happiness, snatches the child and is arrested. A DNA test shows that Lin Dong is not the father; he will not give the boy up. Wang Mei leaves him. An Kun comes back with the money to buy his son back.
In the end Pingguo walks out with the baby and the money. The two men set off after her, until their car breaks down on a crowded Beijing road.
Starring
Fan Bingbingas Liu Pingguo
A young migrant from the northeast working as a foot masseuse, raped by her employer and then bargained over by two men.
Liu Pingguo’s story
Pingguo keeps her marriage secret at the Golden Basin, because the owner would dismiss a masseuse he knew was married. After a night drinking with a friend who has just been fired, she falls asleep in an empty office, and Lin Dong rapes her. Her husband sees it through the glass, and from then on the two men bargain over her: compensation, the pregnancy, the blood type of a child neither can be sure is his. She thinks of an abortion, and says almost nothing at the table. She gives birth to a boy and moves into Lin Dong's house to nurse the son her husband has sold him. When the men are fighting over the child again, she walks out with the baby and the money, and their car breaks down as they chase her.
Tony Leung Ka-faias Lin Dong
The rich owner of the massage parlour, childless and desperate for a son, who rapes Pingguo and then buys her baby.
Lin Dong’s story
Lin Dong came to Beijing from Guangdong and made his money in foot massage; he pays for women as easily as for anything else, and his marriage to Wang Mei is childless. He rapes Pingguo when he finds her asleep in an empty office. When she turns out to be pregnant, he sees his chance of a son and writes the terms of the deal himself, and while she carries the child he fusses over her. He pays An Kun, takes the baby home in delight and moves Pingguo in to nurse him. Then An Kun snatches the child, and a DNA test shows that the boy is not his; he will not give him up. His wife leaves him, and in the last scene his car breaks down as he chases after Pingguo and the baby.
Tong Daweias An Kun
Pingguo's husband, a window cleaner, who turns what he witnessed into a deal and then cannot live with it.
An Kun’s story
An Kun washes the windows of office towers, and from outside the glass he sees Lin Dong rape his wife. He vandalises Lin Dong's Mercedes and demands 20,000 yuan; turned away, he goes to Lin Dong's wife instead, and Wang Mei takes him as her lover. When Pingguo is pregnant, he takes the compensation and signs the deal, and when the baby's blood type shows that the boy is his, he bribes the doctor to change the record and sells his son to Lin Dong. He cannot bear Lin Dong's happiness. He snatches the child and is arrested, and on his release he brings the money back to buy his son. Lin Dong refuses. In the last scene the two men are chasing Pingguo together when their car breaks down.
Elaine Jinas Wang Mei
Lin Dong's wife, unable to have children, who takes An Kun as her lover and makes her husband sign away half his property.
Why it matters
Lost in Beijing is about a city in which everything, a child included, has a price. Its Chinese title is simply Pingguo, the heroine's name, which means apple. She is raped by her employer, and what follows is not a reckoning but a negotiation between two men over compensation, blood types and a baby, with Pingguo silent at the table. Li Yu, whose first feature, Fish and Elephant, was a lesbian love story, set this one among migrant workers in present-day Beijing. Chinese censors demanded cuts before its premiere at the Berlin festival in 2007; after a brief, heavily edited release at home, the authorities banned it in January 2008 and barred Li Yu and her production company, Laurel Films, from making films for two years. The film ends with its heroine walking out on everyone, which may be the only free act it allows.