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.
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04/14/08
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Lost in Beijing (2008)
48
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:21
Fresh:10
Rotten:11
Average Rating:5.4/10
Theatrical Release:Jan 25, 2008 Limited
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... [More]
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Reviews for Lost in Beijing
Top CriticLi cements her status as a Chinese director to watch.
06/13/08
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
An involving, highly accessible portrait of an emotional menage a quatre in the modern-day Chinese capital.
01/22/08
An engaging parable about the dire effects of giving in to the Western obsession with money.
01/24/08
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
It's a funny film, a parable of sorts, and a character-driven take on what's ticking in China.
01/24/08
Top CriticAs 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 situations may be forced, but the struggles with basic vices -- greed, jealousy, lust, deception -- are convincingly elemental.
01/24/08
whatever meaning the film might have had about China's disaffected, new striving capitalists is lost in the chaos and clutter
01/24/08
A monotonous sordid melodrama.
07/06/09
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
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
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
Top CriticYou 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
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 CriticThe prevalent shooting style is monotonous naturalism, as the camera buzzes between contentious actors and trolls after anything on the move.
01/22/08
Lost In Beijing is most noted for several thumb-nosing gratuitous sex scenes that got the movie reprimanded by the censors back home.
05/07/08
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
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