Lost In Beijing is most noted for several thumb-nosing gratuitous sex scenes that got the movie reprimanded by the censors back home.
Comment
05/07/08
Lost in Beijing (2008)
47 %
Reviews Counted: 19 Fresh: 9 Rotten:10 Average Rating: 5.4/10
Runtime: 1 hr 53 mins
Synopsis: Set against the frenzied backdrop of Beijing, where a fast growing economy has created a new class of urban socialites and nouveau riche, Lost in Beijing features four of Asian cinema’s biggest stars - Tony Leung Ka-Fai, Elaine Jin, Fan Bingbing and Tong Da Wei - who together fumble... [More]
Genre: Dramas
Starring: Tony Leung Ka Fai, Fan Bingbing, Elaine Jin, Tong Da Wei
Reviews
1 - 19 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
Begins with a wild coincidence and goes rapidly downhill from there, becoming one of the most unintentionally hilarious tragedies in quite some time.
04/18/08
The film benefits from solid performances by its four stars, but it is overly didactic and drawn-out as its comic tone grows darker and darker.
04/18/08
Top Critic
Though the film’s emotional tone is blurry -- toward the end it swerves away from farce and back toward anguish — its social criticism could hardly be more clear.
04/14/08
Top Critic
You don't wind up thinking much of any of these characters. Sympathy is lost somewhere around the time the frantic camera style makes you dizzy.
04/12/08
Too serious for comedy and too improbable to achieve much impact as social melodrama, it works best as a showcase for its actors, all of whom bring more depth to the material than it achieves on its own.
03/28/08
Lost in Beijing tells the story of a man who, when his wife becomes pregnant after being raped by her employer, enters into a series of financial negotiations with him.
03/27/08
Fang Li should be applauded for his courageous efforts to address taboo subjects of sex and politics, even while one may question certain aspects of his films.
01/28/08
As messy a dysfunctional relationship drama as you could hope to witness on screen. How do you say 'Jerry Springer' in Mandarin?
01/27/08
The sex is sufficient (if you care), the acting is good, and the shots of Beijing's streets and highways are interesting. But the story is contrived.
01/25/08
When a rapist (Tony Leung) is the second-most sympathetic character in a story about greed, duplicity and adultery among four people, it needs a more forgiving audience than me.
01/25/08
whatever meaning the film might have had about China's disaffected, new striving capitalists is lost in the chaos and clutter
01/24/08
An engaging parable about the dire effects of giving in to the Western obsession with money.
01/24/08
It's a funny film, a parable of sorts, and a character-driven take on what's ticking in China.
01/24/08
The situations may be forced, but the struggles with basic vices -- greed, jealousy, lust, deception -- are convincingly elemental.
01/24/08
An involving, highly accessible portrait of an emotional menage a quatre in the modern-day Chinese capital.
01/22/08
Top Critic
Lost in Beijing might have the Chinese censors trying to wield their scissors, but Li Yu's muddled sex drama is unlikely to cause an uproar, or make much of a stir, anywhere else.
01/22/08
Top Critic
The prevalent shooting style is monotonous naturalism, as the camera buzzes between contentious actors and trolls after anything on the move.
01/22/08
Last year's unwanted-pregnancy sweepstake continues with Lost in Beijing, Li Yu's soap-operatic drama set in China's bustling capital.
01/20/08
1 - 19 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
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