Ping Guo

Lost in Beijing
a film by Li Yu

Every year, China's turbulent economic expansion tempts thousands of impoverished peasants to the prosperous region surrounding the capital. The promise of higher wages and an attractive modern lifestyle prompts many migrants to burn their bridges. Set against the frenzied backdrop of Beijing, where a fast growing economy has created a new class of urban socialites and nouveau riche, the film follows a struggling young couple whose indiscretions and greed ultimately threaten the future of their relationship.

One of the two million people who have recently moved to the area is the pretty Liu Ping Guo and her husband An Kun. Having both found a job, they now earn enough to lead a modest life, even managing to save a little. Ping Guo works as a masseuse at Gold Basin Foot Massage Palace owned by Lin Dong and his wife, Wang Mei, a childless couple who are desperate to have a baby. Ping Guo's boss, Lin Dong, shows her all the right moves to please her upwardly mobile clients and get better tips. During a party with her colleagues, Ping Guo drinks too much, and taking advantage of her drunken state, Lin Dong rapes her.

An Kun, who works as a window cleaner, observes the assault. His jealousy and rage soon dissipates however when he hits on the idea of blackmailing the rapist. As long as Lin Dong pays him and lets him sleep with Lin Dong's wife, he promises to remain silent. When Ping Guo falls pregnant, her husband suspects Lin Dong to be the father. His attempt to squeeze more money out of his wife's employer ends in a fateful deal by which An Kun will get the money he demands and Lin Dong will get the child. Their wives are not consulted.

Shortly after the birth, Ping Guo starts working in Lin Dong's household as a nanny for the child she has had to give up. Seeing how happy Lin Dong is with the baby, An Kun grows increasingly jealous and before long the situation involving the ménage-à-quatre escalates dramatically. In a brokered deal, the fate of the child will join the two couples in an emotional game of tug-of-war, where the sides will split over money and revenge, but where love and redemption will eventually rise above them all. Quietly, Ping Guo gathers the money and taking her child, walks out the door.

Li Yu's third feature, her most high profile film yet, premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival 2007. The result was over a year of controversy with the Chinese Film Bureau concerning both the appropriateness of that screening and of the content of the film. Though briefly screened in a heavily edited state, the film was eventually banned outright.