Lost in Beijing

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There have been a surprising number of sexually explicit films from China in the past several days, made all the more surprising by the tendency of such films to draw the ire of censors, though not always expressly for their sexual content. Director Lou Ye´s graphic sex scenes, along with his use of footage from the Tiananmen Square massacre, in "Summer Palace" (2006) netted him and his producer a five year ban from mainland filmmaking.

Director Li Yu courted a similar fate with her sexually frank and politically charged black comedy "Lost in Beijing" (2007). The film juxtaposes two couples: the young working class An Kun (Tong Da Wei) and Liu Ping-guo (Bingbing Fan), and the older wealthier Lin Dong (Tony Leung Ka Fai, not to be confused with Tony Leung Chiu Wai of Wong Kar Wai´s films) and Wang Mei (Elaine Jin.) Each couple is struggling with their marriage: Kun, who works as a window-washer, and Ping-guo have lost the passion of their early days of marriage, while Wang Mei is infertile, a frustration both to her and her decidedly fertile husband.

Dong runs a foot massage parlor where Ping-guo works. She´s just another employee to him until one day he finds her half-soused at work, and takes that as an invitation to romance which comes as quite a shock to Ping-guo when she regains consciousness. Dong convinces himself that she is willing and she feels some shame from the fact that she responds physically. By the way, did I mention that Kun is a window washer? He just happens to be washing the window of the very room in which the rape takes place, setting the stage for one of many goofball coincidences and plot twists that pile up in a film that becomes increasingly absurd.

Having witnessed his wife raped by her boss, Kun decides to do what any good husband would do: he blackmails Dong. Unfortunately, the boss doesn´t give a damn, so Kun approaches Dong´s wife to make his demands clear. She is equally unimpressed by his threats but poses a unique solution to Kun´s conundrum: he should sleep with her to even the scale.

The story would sputter out here if not for the newest complication: Ping-guo is pregnant, a development which forces Dong to listen to his would-be blackmailer. In this case, however, Dong is eager to offer money: he and his wife want the baby, and they´ll not only pay for it but also for Ping-guo´s care until the child is born and its paternity can be resolved. Whacky hijinx ensue from there.

Initially, Li Yu´s film was approved by censors for a screening at the Berlin Film Festival, but the permit was soon withdrawn. Several reasons were given, but perhaps the greatest offense was the depiction of an older woman having sex with a younger man, strictly taboo in Chinese cinema, though the opposite for some reason is seldom frowned upon as long as it´s, y´know, artistically justified. Li Yu escaped reprimand but producer Li Fang landed on a two year blacklist.

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