Lost in Beijing

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!

A lower class, working, married woman gets pregnant with lots of plot twists, money, moral dilemmas and human intrigue. If a travelogue/vocabulary brush up is your motive for watching there are some shots of Beijing looking bleak in winter, Tienamen Square, and the Forbidden City in the background during a conversation. My food-traveler mother wanted to know if there was food. With the key character being a pregnant female, she's eating all the time. If low-grade, sordid, masseuse/hooker scenes are what you seek, quit watching after the early drunken rape by boss scene. Otherwise that cutoff point is where you will quit watching, disgusted, wondering why the film wasn't cataloged as porn, but it is also exactly when the film gets interesting and stays interesting to the end. I started cleaning the kitchen at that point but checked in on the film running in the background just in case it redeemed itself. It did redeem itself, and turned out to be captivating.

I see this movie as a commentary on the new morality in Beijing brought on by modernization. This modernization could not have happened unless there was a mobile work force so the government made a conscious effort to diminish the familial bonds. How else could a worker travel thousands of miles to Beijing or Shenzen to find work? Money had to become of greater importance. The other modernization was that men could only legally marry one woman. In previous times, men would take another wife. In previous times, families would buy children.

With these two changes to Chinese society, this movie could ensue. An Kun and Liu can now be in Beijing. Lin Dong and Wang Mei would be childless. The lust, heartbreak, the anguish, the loathing, all results. The viewer is left with the question whether the new morality is better than the old. I think the writers preferred the old.

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!!!!

This is the first movie I've seen come out of Mainland China of respectable quality. I'll admit I haven't seen many, but from what I have seen, this is certainly above and beyond.

The story is about a poor migrant couple and a wealthy couple living in Beijing. Their lives become intertwined through a set of unfortunate and somewhat disturbing circumstances.

I'm not perfectly fluent in Mandarin, but the acting was good from all four main characters. The less experienced Bingbing Fang was especially good as Ping Guo, the lead character. The scenery is set amid the toxic haze of a sprawling Beijing with lots of greys and muted colours.

The best thing about the movie for me was the amazing contrast between the lives of the rich and the poor. Even though I'm surrounded by it daily, this movie gives a little bit more intimacy than what I'm normally exposed to. Other common themes were greed and face.

Ultimately, the production values of the movie were very good, from the cinematography to the acting, but the conclusion doesn't really leave you with a good taste in your mouth. I think this is good though, because it sticks closer to what reality might be like, instead of having clearly defined heroes and antagonists with a full circle ending.